Did You Say "Whip-Eye"?

I know the two syllable pronunciation of WPI's initials as indicated in the title, however, I generally call them 'whippy' because it sounds similar to wimpy It's my modest way of making fun of them without getting tossed from athletic events. That being said, that's exactly how their club hockey team played Friday night against a somewhat desperate Springfield College club hockey team coming off that loss to Westfield State on Sunday. Speaking of how the game went, I was in-front of the PA again and I was directed after a 10-0 2nd period scoreline to stop announcing the goals. The final wound up 15-2 for Springfield. The most interesting things happened  - the goalie was never pulled, the coach never used his timeout, and a you woman played 6 or so minutes of ice time on three shifts.

The young lady I managed to get a photo of just before the framed uniforms. You can see the hockey team's (only) logo to the left of that one. their athletics actually use completely different logos. Back to the norm tomorrow and Caden's next concept will show up Tuesday to balance out the amount of concepts that Alan sent in.

-Ricky

HCI: Post III

*** The following is my post from a different site, please visit hockeyconceptideas.blogspot.com for the article. ***

Friday: Earn Your Stripes

With another Friday upon us, it appears as though I may have had my last opportunity to network with a Hockey professional for a while. I'll elaborate on that in a little while. In the meantime, Matt McElroy has a few things in store for us today. But that won't be before the following major announcement:

Indy Fuel voting closes S-a-t-u-r-d-a-y night!

Chicago Blackhawks

Submitted by: Matt McElroy

Generally I always favor where the color is. But in this case, the road white looks the better of the two (the vintage white both helps and is appropriate on both). That's primarily for one reason - numbering. As minor as it is, for me it seems to make a big difference under these circumstances switch the number outline on the home red to the jersey color and add black numbers. It seemingly would be dumb for the TV numbers to match them so make the outline white up there if you bring the black numbers. After that, remove the hem coloring on both in the set and your golden. While I'm not fond of the logo, most people wouldn't notice unless there was a press conference on the updated branding as there isn't much difference.

Columbus Blue Jackets

Submitted by: Matt McElroy

Gray is a color that the Jackets (among select others) could pull off (Though I can never see it happen in hockey ever!). This is somewhat of an example. While I get a sense of New York Strangers, well they are just that when they come to play in Columbus, there are still many Blue Jacket elements. Those are fairly obvious, thus no need to mention it. Adding some striping to the pants could help, at the same time I don't usually like plain paints when their main color is brighter. I do like the addition of red to help the case of making this logo a regular feature on a set and is much welcomed, despite the lack of shoulder patches.

Dave Andrews

Submitted by: Ricky (Me)

This was what I was alluding to earlier. I made a presentation before my final in his class Wednesday as a gesture of returning the favor for him providing me the one of the first freshly produced AHL media guides for the upcoming season (I was the only one to receive a copy) just before the season started. I had to research his jersey number, which wasn't a necessarily traditional goalie number. He never actually played a game with this team, he was pretty much their president. His real title was under legendary then Edmonton GM Glen Sather as Director of Minor League Operations. This is as historically accurate as possible to my ability, which I think is spot on. But I wanted to share this piece not necessarily for critique as I didn't come up with the idea, but rather as a timepiece to look back at a no longer existent  AHL team.

With that, I close out this installment of HCI. Want to see your concepts here? Simply email hockeyconceptideas@gmail.com and your concepts are up fairly quickly. That may change over time, but it won't happen until more concepts come in. So don't delay and send in your content today!

-Ricky

Youppi!

While the team at the Centre Bell have stolen the Expos mascot, they haven't done anything significant since then, they haven't enjoyed the normal level of success they're used to. Let's see if a concept could change that . . .

Alan sent us this semi-traditional, semi-futuristic Habs jersey. The opposite colored side panels aren't much valuable to me nor is the business of having shoulder patches moved to the sleeve striping. Also the Bettman striping instead of straight stripes have always been in dis-accord with me. The idea of having white gloves is very, very strange as well. the piping I would actually be okay with having, if it fits in with the branding as I feel it would with the Canadiens. It doesn't need to be included, but blue yokes for both jerseys might be a nice touch - with the appropriate outline, of course.

The good news is that this most recent grouping of concepts only gets a decent amount better from here, but this will not be continued until Monday for various reasons. You will see why as the weekend progresses.

-Ricky

That's All I Wrote (Literally), Ode to Dave Andrews

That was a long final exam last night but it is all over now. As I mentioned, I was going to make a presentation to AHL President and Commissioner(CEO) Dave Andrews prior to him administering the exam. It was with great pleasure to provide such a memento for his mantle and I am glad that I was able to provide such a unique item for his keepsake. Earlier in the year, he gave me the first copy of this season's digital AHL media guide in class - just me, surprisingly. As much as I wanted to give him something as a token of gratitude, I couldn't figure it out. Then it hit me. But for as much as I did know about him, I had some more research to do. It was a great moment for me to be able to call Dave Andrews as a colleague and friend in the sport management field and it is something that I will cherish for a very long time.

You can barely see it in the photo, and I was this close to having the colored one custom made (in my mind, anyway), but that is Dave's goalie number when he was playing (13). He also was with the then Edmonton AHL affiliate Cape Breton Oilers front office as Edmonton's Director of Minor League Operations (or something like that) under the legendary Glen Sather. You can see the concept below, please note that it is a replica concept and not an original design per say, other than the customization. I made sure that this was as historically accurate as possible.

It's nothing special as far as originality, I know; but it is for sentimental value. On his copy, I signed it again and had it framed as you can at least see the frame in the above photos. I held my own during the evening, but I was silently shedding tears inside my soul. That's how much fun the class was and how influential Dave has been in the short time (in terms of in class hours) that I have known him. I thank him for everything he's done - for hockey, for the love of the sport, for me, and for anything else that he deserves credit for. One of the most modest guys I know, he truly is one of a kind and simply the best.

-Ricky

Final Class with Andrews and Smead Arena

Ray Smead Arena in Springfield is the home of Western New England (WNEU/formerly WNEC) Hockey, who for that sport only is Division II. It also is the recent home of Springfield College who played the Westfield State Univ. Owls on Sunday. I tried to get some picture and most of 'em turned out bad but I did salvage some. They look like the Maple Laughs' Winter Classic jerseys for this season. The only thing I don't like is the uncolored logo (there should be a little yellow and black in the color scheme as an accent) then again, I just plain out have always despised the logo. The final photo is of the old STL Blues copycat WNE jerseys from who knows when.

In other news, tonight is my final exam (before the official star of exam week this coming Monday) in Public Relations and Marketing with the AHL President and CEO (Commissioner) Dave Andrews. I'll miss that class a lot. I will share with you.

In the mean time, the second championship ring came in for SC Men's Volleyball. Have a look see.

Photo Courtesy of: Ryan Lalley

The boys hope to make it three in a row this spring. That's all for now, until later.

-Ricky

Re-Brand Happy?

Well we know that the HCIHL is going to have a lot of changes next year, but we haven't been told exactly what just yet. One of those possibilities is shown below as one of the teams may feature a new look for next season

We have a potential design for next season that the Evansville Rivermen (HCIHL) public relations department came out with. It was released a little over a month ago this appears to be the new look for the team moving forward. Speaking of the HCIHL looking forward, they are looking for potential new ownership for expansion in 2014/15. The link provided can be used to contact Commissioner Patafie expressing your potential interest. In general I like that the yellow is gone and double blue in this case dos work.

Ahh, nothing says "State of Hockey" like Manny Fernandez. he was virtually their franchise for the firs half of their existence to date. We've seen white, forest green, iron range red, and Minnesota wheat colored uniforms for this team, but not harvest gold. So that's what I chose for this one. Speaking of Fernandez, I brought back the bear-cut script from their first few seasons as a shoulder patch.This one has a little more simplicity compared to the other two, thus I have little more to say about it.

That's all I've got for today. If you saw something you liked, tell us! If you have an issue with a concept, give us your utmost constructive criticism. Want to see your work here? Then e-mail us at bngraphics2012@aol.com and we'll have it up here! Have an ice day.

-Ricky

Storm Warnings Everywhere

Well, the last few days in Buffalo have had some sort of winter weather advisory, but Springfield had all of one evening of sleet that had melted by mid-day the following day (Saturday). The fog warnings in Springfield were more significant than the sleet/hail that arrived. Speaking of storms, there is one below.

This is my other favorite of Alan's recent submissions. The most interesting is the hurricane warning pattern being sort of placed in the yoke. I think it's brilliant - especially that he blended in the Reebok branding into the pattern! I also never recall the pattern being on the pants at any point in time, another good decision. "That's a good decision Joe Smith, that's a really good decision Joe Smith." everything else seems to be up to 'Canes standards. Unfortunately, I never could see silver fit into a particular concept. It's alright, but I don't know if it can be helped, not that it has to be.

Caden submitted this for the Gorton's contest at HJC. I honestly am not a fan of the slightly lighter blue, but at least it is properly distributed across the concept. As far as execution, the logo and template appear to be distorted probably because it had to be properly sized to meet HJC requirements in pixelation. Also, there are some loose pixels towards the bottom of the hem that I noticed. Also competition shouldn't be spelled compitition. Granted I don't always do the best at proofreading, I do still take personal pride in my spelling. I was the spelling bee champion at my second grammar school three years running from grades 4-6 before I switched schools between grades 6 and 7. Not to brag, but to prove my point.

I'm going away from my string of concepts because I decided to put something together last minute for the Indy contest at HCI (I changed my mind and decided to do one).  So the other one will be up tomorrow instead (think The Troggs).

-Ricky

Sunday Funday

Well, you'll notice that of the group of concepts Alan sent in, I tried to determine which of them seemed to work best until any new ones should come in. I try to do that with everyone's for the most part - that is, unless it relates something on one of our friend's blogs from the past week or so. In the meantime, this is the fourth of five that Alan sent in last week that will be featured today. Caden also sent four in recently, the second of those will be featured today.

While this does feature traditional elements of the Finnish national team, I cannot say that I'm completely pleased. As some of you may be aware, I have a strong dislike of this template, which we don't need to discuss further. However it isn't entirely what hurts the concept. I'm not going for the white yoke on the colored sweater, I'd say the same about the other yoke, but it helps with the lack of color. While this virtually is different enough from their actual jerseys for the Sochi Games, some sort of design, possibly any design would be better than leaving them mostly blank (other than the cuffs). I do however take at least one positive in Caden having put the name bar only on the white jersey.

"Oh my stars!" As I preluded to earlier, Alan's better work of the recent grouping has arrived (in part). He has a good look for the Stars of the near future with this. I like the current set the team has, but this would be good for them moving forward. My favorite part of this is the yoke striping. It is differentiated enough to be its own part of a template. The one thing that didn't translate well was the logo used for the shoulder patch. I'm not in favor of that as I was the old ones, but it can be easily replaced with the new roundel alternate.

As for what tomorrow brings, you might have an idea. TTFN.

-Ricky

HCI: Post II

*** The following is my post from a different site, please visit hockeyconceptideas.blogspot.com for the article. ***

Friday: Phoenix Revisited (Oh Goodness Me, Not That!)

A hearty high-ho to you this Friday! We've had a lot of outdoor jerseys unveiled within the past week or so and the Vancouver ones in particular are very appealing. I'm practically disappointed that Jake88 was literally spot on with his rendition of the Ducks Stadium Series uniform. It's for one reason: chrome. While I do like the chrome logo itself, it doesn't belong on a jersey.Remove the chrome and I'm 90% happy. But in my line of vision I see bright skies ahead in the use of two alternates for the Ducks.

INDY FUEL COMP ENTRIES DUE SATURDAY

INDY FUEL COMP ENTRIES DUE SATURDAY

And now, I am going to add my own personal touch to the Friday posts here on out. I will be introducing the Ricky Points system probably for next weeks post (they're kind of like brownie points) and have nothing to do with grading a concept. I'd share how it works, but I'm debating if they should have some sort of value or if it should be like Whose Line is It Anyway? "where the points don't matter" at all.

AK Bars Kazan

Submitted by: Jake88

 Typical Kazan name. FC Rubin Kazan of the Russian Premier League sounds way too similar. However, there also aren't too much different from the current uniforms, which uses a red-and-black era Sabres cut with some additional design. I also see that Alexander Burmistrov actually wears number 69 with them, but that means nothing in a concept. This is similar only in terms of color orientation. Speaking of color, it's well distributed. This is almost a complete Atlanta Thrashers template, it appears to be a mix of two different templates, but I could be mistaken. I'm glad that multicolored pants aren't an option here, otherwise we might end up with something for Australian football's Fremantle Dockers before they wen't purple haze looking. I would like to see a red version of this set so I can compare it to the green, but I think the green would be my preference since the red one is only in my imagination right now.

Bili Tygri Liberec

Submitted by: Jake88

Well the good start here is that there is striping across the crest. I'm (generally speaking) a fan of that. I don't mind it splitting at the numbers, but if you do that, I would prefer it to be flat and boxy - conformed to the numbers - as opposed to round and matching the crest logo. With double outlines on numbers the same thing, they generally work for me, this is no exception. This number style (with outline) reminds me of Tampa Bay/modern-day affiliate Syracuse Crunch except without the silver. It's distinctive enough that I don't think anyone might make a connection unless someone pointed it out as I just did.

Phoenix Coyotes

Me-Ricky Mazella

If it was done properly, I wanted to see a purple Coyotes sweater. While the 'Yotes haven't had this rather art deco branding for a decade now, I took the logos that I liked and stuck 'em onto a jersey. I'd imagine that it probably looks horrible to many if not all of you out there. The pattern of a hem stripe probably hurts it but I wanted to incorporate some sort of desert-ish pattern into the uniform. It would look better with the current branding, I reckon. I recolored the above alternates and (in the spirit of the "acid trip" jersey that everyone hate that I don't mind) I faded a random design that I used for the background with all the necessary colors.      Sooo . . . does this look like an alternate, the Coyotes would have produced with this branding? That sort of was the goal anyway. Obviously this template has never existed, but just like the state lottery, "hey, you never know."

That rounds out another edition of HCI Fridays, and remember that Ricky points will be awarded starting next week. Please, please, please, please send in concepts - it's what keeps you and me going! Share the wealth, what comes around goes around, and who doesn't like good recognition now and again? Another great weekend is in store for you!

-Ricky

The Spirit of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway

While it is imperative that we have had the increased concept content, the blog as a result has picked up for a while now. (Hooray!) Now, I am adding to this one other contribution.

So Caden, knowing the ECHL the way he does, submitted this on his blog (yes the one I now write for) for his contest. I like the elements. This is a nice and simple way to celebrate the rich racing heritage in Indianapolis, at least the way Caden portrays it.I might want to see a red yoke with black outline and use a black outline instead of the yellow on the numbers, but other than that, I cannot complain at all.

A Thrashers themed Jets Jersey . . . that's what I came up with. Remember when I made a jersey mocking the move to Winnipeg? Well, this is not far off from that other than that I'm much more of a seasoned veteran and we had no drag and drop templates. The leaf shoulder patch to me was essential but placing the TV numbers was tough, one of the negatives of combining multiple Thrasher templates. Not that the Jets would ever wear this or anything.

Saginaw, Michigan . . . an OHL community I've actually been to. Alan decided to give it a go with this team. Anyway, the color distribution seems to be a little off to me. The gray doesn't help it at all. While I do like the piping, I would un-color the top half of the sleeves on the whites. Thus it would require realigning the color of the sleeve striping. By the way, I don't feel to the striping transfers well to the socks, but again, maybe it's just the gray.Simply put, I like the colored uniform much better.

Well, don't forget that it's time to be festive, so send in your wackiest ideas, if you've got any for us here at BNG! Until then, "I'll see you on the radio."

-Ricky

My Weekend Starts in 120 Minutes

As I prepare this before my 2:30 class, I wanted to share with you another concept from Alan. You can see more his work on our guest concepts tab. You can also visit his site should you chose to do so.

The angled arm stripes on the underbelly of the sleeves throws everything off in this concept. while I understand the reasoning (I think), I just can't see it - even though it's right in front of me. I really couldn't care less for the piping, but it's something I suppose. As for the numbers, both of these need a double outline - white surrounding the red on the colored one and white between the colors on the white one. I'd say to swap the red and white on the navy uniform, but then you gotta switch the entirety of the striping pattern and that would be a lot of unnecessary work. As for the hem cuffs I neither like nor hate 'em.

Another from Alan will be featured tomorrow along with another one of my recent ideas. Until then, I wait for more submissions.

-Ricky

Looks Like Some Really Colored Jerseys You've Got There

Well I created a series of three on a train back to Springfield. It isn't really much of a series - it's just stuff I put together at the same time. I believe that They all aren't particularly attractive but accomplished what I wanted to achieve with them. I'll display those starting today.  But before I show the first, Alan of Hockey Jersey Art (and fellow HCI writer) gave me some concepts that I will spread out over the next week or so. As the title implies, I'm not in favor of today's jersey colors - at least not completely.

Before all else, I want to get it out there that these are terrible colors for this team and it isn't Alan's fault at all (but his signature looks great in it). That's because what he has done is exactly what the team should wear, but with different colors in this branding. I really miss the 1997–2006 branding. I don't know why it wasn't kept other than money. With Jake88's glove template invert the colors to differentiate from the pants (I reckon it would look better). By the way, Alan's portfolio is up and running on the guest concepts tab - go check it out.

Speaking of the AHL, I will be having my second-to-last class with commissioner Andrews tonight. In honor of him for next week, I will be putting together a Cape Breton Oilers concept in honor of Andrews' work with turning them into one of the most successfull AHL franchises in the late 80s/early 90s before he became commissioner. I just came up with that idea as I mentioned the class.

This one is not a favorite of mine, while I am one of few people I know to have gone back to the Coyotes old branding I had to do something. The purple was never predominant and I wanted to use it in a concept somehow. In order to associate it with the old "acid trip" jersey (which I actually didn't mind), I made the background for added effect. The only thing is that I used the logos that I liked and tweaked them a little. Now the jersey might look better without the hem pattern, but I wanted to incorporate something at least similar to it in the design. There you have another "unique" uniform in Pheonix history that never was.

-Ricky

A Gregorian Holiday

I put together a holiday uniform for my HCIHL team as good measure. I wanted to have a contest at HCI, but I shied away from the idea. This was the final result.

That's really all I had for today, tomorrow, things will pick up a bit so keep that in mind as I sign off for the day.

-Ricky

Sharkbitten

No I've never been physically bitten by a shark, but my Ducks just did by San Jose in a shootout last night. Maybe that was because I was working on the following Sharks concept before that game. I forgot we were playing them and not the Kings, who we play at home on Tuesday. Anyway, I modified a layer of so from the HJC drag and drop to give us a completely new cut. There were only a handful of teams that I could think this would best suit. Then I saw the numbers from the old San Fransisco 49ers uniforms and that was to be used as well. Me choosing the Sharks from that small list however was completely random to the Niners thing.

Couture has a lot of reasons why he is featured: he's a top player at his position in the NHL, he's a Sabres fan, and he wears the Dominator's (Hašek) number. But he also happens to be on the Skopje Lisici, my HCIHL team as one of the leading point getters. Anyway, I've always wondered if No Way Jose would ever wear orange uniforms. It hasn't happened yet, I know that much. The only thing that troubled me was how to outline the name. If anything make suggestions as you see them necessary.

Tomorrow, is Monday. I have to miss my 3 PM class because today's train was sold out even a month in advance. I have no idea what will be up for tomorrow. Prepare to be surprised, and don't worry - I will be too.

-Ricky