Mike Ivall is Back!
Monday · Jan 24 · 2011 | 10:00 AM PSTLong time concept contributor and friend of Icethetics, Mike Ivall has caught the creativity bug, eager to express himself with jersey artwork. And I think that's something we're all happy to hear. Over the last few days he's immersed himself in the following designs.
After the St. Pete Times shared some new details on what the Lightning may be planning for their upcoming uniform redesign, Mike took a stab with some familiar elements. The lack of any black or silver does squarely put the look in Maple Leafs territory, which I'm not wild about. But you never know what Stevie Y has up his sleeve (i.e.: Dwayne Roloson).
I don't know what it is about this color combination but I absolutely love it. I saw Mike's concept and it's made me want to completely redesign Icethetics again — in these colors. The two-tone blue is all right if not overused these days, but add the red and suddenly it's completely unique. Anybody else with me on this?
How can Ottawa improve upon this? It's simple. They can't. Do this and the Senators will never need another jersey for the next century.
As usual, Mr. Ivall's work is outstanding and worthy of a post all to himself. And I can assure you there is more coming not only from Mike but many other talented artists as well.
Reader Comments (32)
Working down the list...
I must admit I was worried about the Lightning when reading the post but if it's done like this, I can definitely say its a beautiful jersey. Love the clean look to the logo on the home jerseys. I do agree though, they need at least need a little silver just as a light accent stripe here and there and on the logo.
With Florida, not my favorite logo choice since I always thought it was too busy but looove the color scheme. Way to stand out in a sea of similar jerseys. Maybe do just the head for the jersey and keep the full logo as a primary on the side as most baseball teams do?
Ottawa looks great as well. I always felt like they were a black home team, never liked the change to red at home. Either that one or the other version of this jersey thats been posted in the past are perfect for me. Loving Dallas as well, would just close off the A of the "Stars" in the logo since its been cleaned out of wordwarks anyway. As for Toronto, they always look good I think so that works for me.
Whoa whoa...wait a minute...I looked back and just realized that Chris totally didn't jump on the fact that Mike cut out Tampa Bays underarm striping...slacking a little Chris? Or did you just come to terms with it? I feel like only working with two colors does limit you a little but it can still be done and definitely should.
RE: Panthers: Anything's better than the clip-art fest known as their secondary sun and palm tree logo (or this thing: http://www.sportslogos.net/logo.php?id=74gdgg4fgcdhix3oe19heez4l)
Overall, good job on them all.
WOW. As a Sens fan I can't say anything more about that jersey. WOW!
Out of the bunch from Mike, the Ottawa and the Maple Leafs one work the best IMO.
Tampa needs some silver, other than that they are all great!
The Tampa jerseys are great and, i think, an improvement over what they have now.
Floridas set is interesting, I'm not sure if I'm wild about it yet. The white jersey is fantastic. As for the red one...the two tone blue on the bottom seems to be bothering me and im not sure why. The logo (even if its the one that Florida is going with) still annoys me. with out the word mark on the bottom it looks like someone took a cleaver to the cat.
For Ottawa, the designs are spot on. The only thing, for me, is the "O" itself. I would have liked to see more of a Times New Roman-ish "O" or the "O" thats been used as their secondary logo.
Dallas is Dallas. its a nice throw back to the Northstars but thats about it for me.
Toronto is much the same as Dallas. Neat concepts but nothing that wows me.
Lightning:
It's a nice clean look, but if Nashville also goes that route full-time as well it's going to be three teams (including the Leafs) that look essentially the same. Lightning are one of those teams that started out with black jerseys and should keep them (white lightning on a black sky just makes sense). If they do go blue/white - the Lightning need a pretty interesting stripe pattern to not look like the Preds or the Leafs.
Florida:
Awesome. They need to return to the red. My only concern is using the circle logo on the shoulder instead of the classic Hockey Stick/Palm Tree. Of course that would require yellow, so if you substituted yellow in for the sky blue I wouldn't be heartbroken.
Ottawa:
I agree with above posters who say Ottawa should be black at home. At first I thought the jersey needed a bit of gold, but since this is supposed to be a retro-inspired jersey, devoid of gold makes sense. The White "O" that looks like its carved out of marble is also a nice touch to the whole Greco-Roman theme. I would have went with the more 2d logo for the shoulder that I don't think has been used yet (http://sportslogos.net/logo.php?id=x8dxgo0eh0zensmq7icp).
Dallas:
That's awesome! Get rid of the black and bring back the green/gold stars. Would be a unique look to the NHL.
Toronto:
Meh, I seem to recall this design not being too popular with TML fans. The TML jersey I would like to see make a return is the one where the leaf is actually shaped like the one on the Canadian flag (the jersey has the same striping as the above TBL design - http://nhluniforms.com/MapleLeafs/MapleLeafs18.html).
Love these. PARTICULARLY love that Stars redesign. Beautiful color suite and just a simple, gorgeous look with that star in front. I'd have thrown a Texas flag instead of the radially arched Dallas on the shoulders, but to each their own.
All the Designs in here are based off any information i could get from the Jersey Watch post and any other information i could find. Only thing is i went overboard and made it a set for each. Really some are just meant to be a 3rd concept. Like the leafs, Stars & Sens(Dark jerseys only). Panthers may look to go back to the original look with a bit of a twist i put because one of the owners loves the light blue. and the bolts well Chris's post tells you all about that.
I think the Lightning need a 3rd color to make the jersey more interesting. 2 colors just doesn't work for me here and I have a hard time differentiating it from say the modern day Leaf's sweater. Bring the silver back and maybe you have something. The Ottawa sweater is super strong! Let's hope to actually see something like this from them in the future. Great work as always.
That's basically how I've pictured how Ottawa's should look only I would've opted for the gold O. It's not done often but I usually find that the main colour of the logo is found nowhere else on the uniform that it looks pretty sharp. Kinda like the Chicago Blackhawks I guess or the Florida Panthers one that was just posted.
Really like that Dallas Stars one as well.
Was never a fan of those Leafs jerseys from back in the day, hope they go deeper into the vault when they come out with a new 3rd.
Like the Tampa ones except for the washed out logo. Losing their shiny silver filled logo would be a huge mistake for the Lightning. The striping however looks sharp.
Not feeling the Florida ones cause I dont like that chopped and skewed logo. Using a two tone Blue with red IS an interesting idea though.
Ottawa's are nice enough, just think they look better in Red even though they started out as a black team
The Stars ones are absolutely spectacular! I would be ecstatic if they went with this. Just get rid of script on the shoulders and bring back the state of Texas logo and you have perfection.
pretty good overall. just it would probably be better if the panthers steered clear of the blue though
Tampa looks great, and FLA, the Sens, and Dallas are even better. Great work!
I must say I agree with most everyone on the silver with Tampa, at least as a small trim color. Dallas looks great focusing again on just the green and gold. Ottawa and Florida couldn't look any better. Ive always been a fan of the Sens red and black combo... This design takes the cake.
Again, greag looks all around.
Florida is the best submission of this post.
Like most other comments, I'd suggest using the full body Panther, or at the very least the logo that includes the wordmark to balance the image.
Otherwise, I'd really hope to see this in the future.
tampa - like that design a lot, but would like it a lot more if they added a subtle amount of silver & maybe grey.
florida - great colours, just needs the round logo from the current 3rd (but in these colors) to make it even better.
ottawa - WOW!! really like the black jersey, wouldnt want to lose the senator logo from the white / red jerseys tho.
dallas - simple, clean design, brighter colours and no more "dallas" on the front, this is great, tho anythings better than what they have now.
toronto - pass.
I hate Ottawa but I like that jersey.
I really want the leafs third jersey to be the 67 jerseys. They are much nicer.
I like the Senator look, but make sure the "O" does not look like 0 (zero). Zero is bad in hockey except if you are a goaltender.
Don't do the Leafs design, it harkens back to the Harold Ballard '80s which were disastor. They need to keep the multi stripe concept going back to their origin.
The Ottawa , Dallas , Leafs jerseys are bang on man so nice , Theres nothing could say about them that you didn't do , But , The Tampa and Florida are off just a little bit im not sure what it is but i dont like Tampa without black maybe they should consider a little bit of black and Florida's i like how you took the yellow an used powder blue instead ,Keep at it man your really good , Ottawa should hire you lol.
I really like Dallas. It goes back to the North Star days. If only that would actually become their jerseys
I would really like to see someone from the long list of great concept creator to make another rebrand for EVERY team just like Elliot Strauss, I believe it was, did. I would like to see what Mike would offer with every team. I really like the rebrand concepts for each team! GREATEST JERSEY SITE HERE ^^
PS: Let these first few concepts be the beginning of it all!!
WOW! all concepts were great IMO. I love the leafs jerseys, although i think they should keep their current ones and use on of those as a third. The ottawa ones are spot on, perfect. the Florida is nice, but for some reason the red and the two tone blue throw me off. i'd need to see an actual jersey to fully critique. Lighting looks great, especially without the "tampa bay". i don't know why, i just love the simplicity of not having letters.
Please do a Ducks Jersey concept Mr. Ivall, I know there's not much to work with, but i know you would make a concept that would give me some hope that my favorite team will have a nice jersey in the future.
All are awesome. Only thing I can think of is on the Stars green jersey trying a big D with a star at the top left hand corner? I dont know how that would look but since its retro inspired that might work similar to the N with the Star as part of the logo. Or maybe move it down to the lower left corner. Then that would allow the D to have the top part of the D to stick out farther like the N did and it would also have a symbolism that they are in the south part of the country now?
Oh and I forgot to say I would love to see what vision you could come up with for the Sharks
I really wonder what a small touch of gold would do to that sens design. I love it.
I noticed Mike used a different numbering style than what the sens are using now, but i think the numbers they have now look pretty good.
I like all the designs, just wish that Tampa steers away from just blue and white... a little bit of silver and black would be great.
I love the classic look the Stars jersey has. The Tampa set looks way too much like the 1967 jerseys the Leafs wore when they won the Cup last. The Panthers jerseys look OK, I personally always liked the original logo so the leggless one just looks a little off, along with the powder blue striping. The Sens and Leafs jerseys look sharp.
Damn that TBL looks hella sharp. I've long been an advocate of getting rid of the text in the logo and MI's mockup is a great example of why - the lightning bolt is WAY MORE DYNAMIC that way. I'll even give the away jersey a pass if it really does retain the text since at least it creates some minor variance with the home set.
The FLA concept is also a nice integration of the old and the new. The logo is a little too horizontal for a jersey without the tiny legs, but otherwise it's a sharp, classic look. As a background color, the light blue is actually less obtrusive here than on the real 3rd jersey. Like it a lot. I gotta say they do kind of resemble Vancouver's late 90's identity though...
Great stuff, love the Lightning and Leafs jerseys.
That Stars jersey is absolutely incredible.
The Stars one looks funny. The top point that makes the A in Stars is broken and distracting. Maybe if that is joined to the star