The Jailbirds of Jabiru

As some of you may be aware, I am a member of the Big Footy dot com forum (an equivalent of Chris Creamer's site). One of the boards there has a league of our own fictional teams and we have to submit "expansion bids" and provide a primary option with two alternatives. I will provide the full team graphics later, but this is what became of it.

I decided to play off of local aspects. Red comes from the wedged tailed eagle, which also gives us the nickname. This eagle's home state is the Northern Territory of Australia, whose colors are orange and black. The city of Jabiru was chosen as the location given that Darwin and Alice Springs were to be likely candidates of other teams. Jabiru happens to be on the banks of the Victoria River, hence the location name. As you will eventually see, the elements of the logo include a play on the state flag of the NT.

-Ricky

An Arsenal Classic

Had enough of the bruised banana yet for the week? Well this will be it for now. This is both one of the most loved and also most hated in all of (at least) English soccer if not the world. Personally, it would be my magnum opus of my soccer jersey collection, whether or not I liked it (which I do, by the way).

This is a little different from the actual jersey as there are only three columns of the tessellating pattern (at least it tessellates on the actual jersey). But the socks and pants match the original though no 100% perfect. Ian Wright's number 8 was chosen to model the jersey because I could not find the exact font used on the jersey. The name is only included as they are not located on the soccer jerseys themselves as is the case with the TV numbers. I'll leave the bruised banana be now.

-Ricky

Dial Square Armory

Hi there, it's your beloved BNG creator hard at work. While things may have seem sluggish for parts of the last month, many new developments have come up and the last week saw my WSCB broadcast partner along with one of our colleagues come for a visit. Now that we're fully back on track, I am getting psyched for the next round of soccer and hockey seasons for various reasons.

Speaking of soccer, my Barclays Premier League team (Arsenal) have won this years FA Community Shield after I had attended the viewing party at Buffalo Arsenal Club's (an Arsenal America subdivision) headquarters Mes Que on Hertel Avenue. This indirectly prompted me to come up with a good name for something Arsenal related. The indirect refers to my continuing to find a cheap "Bruised Banana" jersey. "Dial Square Armory" came to mind {Woolwich Dial Square was the team's original name in 1886 when the club was located in South-east London}. I then decided it would make for a good blog title and then that aforementioned 1991-1993 jersey came up again and created the blog's background.

And voila, not yet a day old and it's been a lot of fun so far. I won't be posting as I have for this blog, but less frequently. I'm guessing two to four times a week, the two being the game preview and game recap plus any additional games within the week. That's that. I'll be back with something that needs attention based on all of this tomorrow. Stay tuned!
-Ricky

The Two-Headed Eagle

We're days away from Arsenal's FA Community Shield match on Sunday, but let's talk about a country that shares a similar color scheme.

Albania is a tough country to work with. I don't know that even Jake could completely pull it off. My big thing is that the clash white is completely white. The small amount of texture on the sleeves and shorts aren't enough. The least that could be done is a matching chest stripe like the home uniform, which follows.
I do like that the home has some character, but it still needs some help. At least there's an A for effort.

-Ricky

When the Blues Go Marching In

You may recall the Adelaide Crows set I did a week or so ago. Yo may be saying to yourself, this looks like the same template. While this is a very similar color scheme, it is the same template I mix 'n' matched. But this is a little more progressive than the Crows concept. That was more traditional

The striping is a tribute to the mid 90s uniforms while keeping a modern look. I know many poelp cannot stand the use of roundels, but St. Lou is one of the few exceptions. And because of my view of home white uniforms, yellow is the lightest I can get (thank you Nashville).

-Ricky

Oakland, Eh?

Competing with the sharks would have been interesting had the Seals franchise remained. However it is very likely the Sharks existence is thanks in part to the lack of a team in the Bay Area market for most of approximately twenty years.I bet the San Jose color scheme was a modified play on the area's first team. gold to orange and green to teal and blue to black (based on hues).

This was a concept that I had prepared for a succeeding round of the HJC Open, which I did not advance. This team in my division has it's ups and downs when it comes to branding, and I wanted to see what would happen if two things had occurred. First is that Chuck O. Finley owned a team. Second  is that the team were named the A's rather than the Seals. Now the black alternate crest and the elephant on a  ball shoulder patch would need to be "hockey-fied" if you will to fit the sport. But this could pass, of course Charlie would want to have the players wearing white skates still.

No matter, he is not an NHL owner anymore (thank goodness for that). Imagine if the NHL had Bill Veeck type character, well . . . let's not. Harold Ballard somewhat fills that role, but in a different capacity. Let's leave all these gentlemen be and call it a day.

-Ricky

Sharks on the Water

That twelve note riff to the Deep Purple classic could work just as well as the Theme from Jaws but either would also be a good way to start a related post about Jake88's San Jose concepts.

Here, I'm a little disappointed about the lack of orange in the concept. White as a base color is not enough to brighten up a jersey. Most of the time, I like when dark colored jerseys have at least vibrant color on them but at the same time I don't want it over done either. Even if it is just an accent color, I wouldn't be afraid to slap it on somewhere. It's not orange for orange sake, but rather as a nice accent that compliments the rest of the jersey.

Another concept from Jake down. Now it's time for me to be the (for now) one day president of the Buffalo division of Arsenal America. This is just while the actual co-presidents and other members are in New Jersey to watch Arsenal play New York Red Bull at our regular meting place, Mes Que on Hertel Avenue next to the famous North Park Theater. I would've wen't except I am planning two trips (next month and Columbus Day weekend). Fear not I'll still have content here seeing as it will be near time to announce logo hall of fame inductions nominees. Until next time!

-Ricky

We Have a Winner

As I have been saddened by the departure of my former boss at the school I'm no longer attending, I have discovered that one of his last acts completed was picking one of my championship shirt designs. The camouflage one as promised would be for football only. The winner, however, is featured below. You may remember seeing it here a while ago.

At least he is going somewhere that is a place where I wouldn't mind going to travel to: Stony Brook University on Long Island. It seems as though while it is probably one of my more simple designs of these shirts, it has one of the strongest messages. This is a rare time where words speak louder than actions.

-Ricky

Love Stings

Today's concept from Jake88 is one from the German leagues of soccer. In his pursuit of FIFA 14 playing, he developed a fascination for this team's crest logo. Now that they've been relegated, he cannot play as them in at least the next edition since the video game only features the first two tiers of Germany's "elite" teams.

The one thing of note is that Dresden are under kit contract with Nike, which Jake felt needed to change in order to make a nationalistic sense of duty - Adidas being German-based.The team finished in the relegation of the 2 Bundesliga, which also has been noted here. I don't know if I agree with the vertical stripe choice, though I've been explained it's origins. I would feel that the tri-stripe should be continued in it's place. While it strangely feels awful, the clash kit I think is a perfect way to contrast the primary by using hoops. My only criticism would be to maybe thicken them slightly.

Carry on, folks. There is more from Jake to come. Enjoy this work for the time being.

-Ricky

A Star is Born

Okay, so I'm an off-season late with the title for the unveiling of the new logo and scheme. But one thing I wanted to see back was the old striping pattern from their Stanley Cup Finals days. Here I figured that we could modernize it a bit and still maybe pull it off.

I had to do extra work to make the template look realistic enough. Then that was followed by using the number font of the MLB's Washington Nationals to help out the metallic part. This is a roundel that I wanted to avoid, but was in desperate need of a shoulder patch and the third jersey crest above is not the same as its predecessor.

I had a lot fun trying to put this together. I loved it so much, I wanted to try it in gold to resurrect the unused set from last decade. Well we can't do everything, can we?

-Ricky

Crickets in Grandma's Yard

I saw plenty while mowing her lawn yesterday, but I'm talking cricket in the footy yard. I know very little about the sport, but just enough to go by. I have a new template for the tab of the same name. This template comes for a well known forum Big Footy - It is the Chris Creamer Sports Logo Community on the Australian Continent.

Well, this would be an easy series to do. There are (to my knowledge) only nine nations that participate in test matches in association with the International Cricket Council (ICC). I think they have some of the best uniforms in sport, in present times anyway. Maybe you'll give them a go too

-Ricky.

Lorem Ipsum Dolor Sit Amet

Hawai'ian is back in my jersey mind at the moment, which is why I think that bringing back the first version of my Ducks jersey is a good place to  demonstrate. Remember the Rubric from yesterday? I'll walk you through it with the aforementioned concept (but for demonstration sake, suppose it isn't mine and that I'm another HJC writer or something).

Let's start with appeal, since it is broken down. While it isn't a traditional roundel, it still is one, docking points for the crest. The font is matching to the team identity, but the outlines could look better. There is some uneven color distribution, but is anticipated as an out of the box idea. We forgo equipment as there isn't any and even though it may appear to hurt the concept, Hawai'ian shirts don't have stripes on them, so why should this jersey thus is also not considered.

Now that we've established an appeal score, let's go to the full rubric. Full points for originality, I have never seen a Hawai'ian jersey attempted in hockey (not that it hasn't been done necessarily). But we've run into some execution errors as there are lose pixels around the collar insert on the jersey, the jersey body design has off-colored pixels, and the shoulder patches should be further down the yoke - thus three deductions. Presentation is simple but somewhat disorganized, wouldn't mind seeing a light background image. As for color, the team colors are used fairly well, I think more orange would help, but it is already potentially there in the outline just not in an appropriate fashion. Distribution says that the concept is light, not at all over powering, but your eyes keep wanting to move around the Hawai'ian theme - I'll give it a perfect.

So given all of this critique, we have a final score of  86%. Keep in mind, originality was the big reason why the jersey got such a high rating as it would be a 72% if originality were not included at all which may seem more realistic. That's a whole 14% difference. By the way, the rubric doesn't lie. Matter of fact, while I thought I was being generous rating concepts when I was writing for HJC,  I was actually one of the more harsh if not the harshest judge (I'd put my money on the former if I had to guess). But I also would have written the above score as 8.5 out of 10 (special rounding) or likewise a 7 out of 10. I hope you've been enlightened the past couple days with my criteria regardless whether or not you agree.

-Ricky

A Venture Into the BNG Uknown

Remember when I was a regular writer for about a half year over at HJC? Well a lot of people were curious as to what made up my grading rubric. I am disclosing some of the information. I will not however, for debate purposes, discuss the point breakdown of the system. I will describe in detail the original rubric. Originality was weighted heavier than the other categories and appeal was graded based on it's own rubric and per jersey. And somehow, all of these components totaled a 100%.

*Max. three alternates
**Color refers to utilization of colors in the rubric or the lack thereof
but flat out appeal in the appeal rubric

Then as I left HJC for HCI, I began the Ricky Points System (RPS) - a separate evalutaion method but also in conjunction with thte rubric. My description of the RPS on HCI was as follows:

Before I go, it's time to do something that I forgot to tell you about with the chaos of exams and whatnot. The Ricky Points System (RPS) has arrived! {applause, please} Glad it didn't show up yet, because I made changes appropriately to make it more suitable. The criteria are as follows:

• 10 - Receives a perfect score from the old rubric. (it's really hard to do, that's why it 's worth so much)
• 4 - Hand-drawn/heavily genetically altered work (of premium quality, not low grade)
• 2 - "Ricky-esque" in design (not that I like concepts that look like mine - I'm pretty tacky with my wardrobe after all); out of the box
• 1 - Personal preference

* * * Negative points will be added as the converse of the above {except 2 point rating which is replaced with unoriginality and 4 point rating which is poor in electronic graphic quality only}. However, you cannot be in the negative or at zero upon receiving negative points. Contest winners are subject to points (6,7,8 - cum laude, magna cum laude, and summa cum laude) if they reach a minimum on the rubric - provided I have not yet surveyed that concept. * * *

That was my criteria for nominating concepts for HJC and HCI concepts of the week at their respective sites. Though, I admit, I haven't been following up as regularly as I'd like since sometime in February. Not completely keeping up means not using the rubric or the RPS. Seem complicated - well, yes and no. But it really doesn't matter. Tomorrow will feature an example.

-Ricky

The Bruckheimer Strikes Back

While he has not made any indications since Gretzky's announcement to get a Seattle team, Jerry Bruckheimer still has interest in bringing a team to Las Vegas. Do you remember the contest HJC had three years ago to create a new NHL franchise? Las Vegas was chosen in phase one as the location, Vipers were chosen as the nickname, and Tom Vopni's logo design was chosen as the winner and the uniform winner was Martin Laumeyer. My nickname was on the ballot in the second phase - The Saguaros (then purposefully spelled wrong as Seguarros). Over the years, I have come to a conclusion to Change the spelling to it's proper name as it "looks classier" in my opinion.Quite honestly, I'm surprised nobody else came up with a cactus logo inspired team. I didn't even get the idea from the Coyotes' infamous desertscape - which is a new feature on a brand new alternate in this concept. The idea actually spawned off of two things, only having access to MS paint in a country that is only 10% computer literate while I was on vacation and the first thing I thought of that was southwestern was a sombrero on a cactus (maybe it was my experiences at the local Ponderosa Steakhouse) and I was having none of the sombrero.

Generally, the non-jersey components follow the guidelines of the matching ones for the other jerseys. As I made mention of, the desertscape was new. I felt the Reebok curved arms went along with it best. Of course, the midday sun logo was included as a shoulder patch. And that sums it up fairly nicely.

-Ricky

The Rene, The Rick, and the Perrault

First off, today is an important day in basketball as LeBron James has his (long awaited) return to Cleveland. I said he would before the end of his prime when nobody believed me, yet here we are. Secondly, today is French Connection Day for Sabres fans. 11 July 14 - the numbers of Rick Martin (7), Gil Perreault (11), and Rene Robert (14). For those not familiar with this famous line in hockey. Perreault was retired first then the others joined in unusual fashion: Perreault's number was lowered then re-raised alongside his line mates and the line itself was "retired" together. Since The French Connection banners and Tim Horton's #2, only two banners (Danny Gare (18) and Pat LaFontaine (16) were both retired during the 2005/06 season. Now this coming season, Doiminik Hasek's 39 will be raised in November.

In other news, John Gibson's new Pac-Man maske has been revealed to the general public throughthe Duck's Facebook page. Favorite site to visit of mine, Daveart has been one of if not the most popular designer who creates goalie masks. Most notably, he has done every single one of Henrik Lundqvist's over these years. and most if not all Ducks goalies (minors and Anaheim). At least half of his work is very fascinating to me, not that some others are bad. There are very few that don't particularly interest me in some fashion. But there's usually something for everyone's taste.
-Ricky

Kesler Motors

This is fantastic! That is all. First exposure on BNG for the new road whites for the Ducks.

"Light that baby up," "just another Halo victory!"

-Ricky

The Spirit of Cazaly

Sorry if I'm island hopping between series here. it's been a crazy start to the week so far and we're somewhat getting off schedule with either one series or the other. Hopefully you'll be able to keep up as we're trying to.

Nothing really special here, just the reverse of the primary kit. Unfortunately, not too much I could think of at the time. I saw one of the Canadian league AFL teams replaced the Sydney Opera House with a maple leaf. It makes the logo even better! Now if that were on here, maybe I'd have more to talk about . . . A man can only dream.

-Ricky

Up There For Sydney

Sydney was both difficult and easy at the same time. How to arrange the red and white was a challenge even with this set-up. This is so bland a concept, I don't have very much to say about it.

The idea may not be the best, but the Ducks/Isles striping closely matched the angles of the logo. And for abstract artists, could resemble the Sydney Opera House somehow. These are the same arms used for Carlton, but it's tought working with a team that only has two colors. Though Freo technically is in that list, I can "bring back" the green and red, but only as accent colors really. You shouldn't be surprised by the clash jersey, but it might look better.

-Ricky

Skaters in the Storm

Welcome to BNG, boys and girls; today, it's Carolina style. The big news between posts was that "The Great One" Wayne Gretzky is heading a bid to land an NHL team in Seattle. Whether that will happen, I don't know. Maybe it will push Jerry Bruckheimer to get his Las Vegas team.

This one was kinda fun, but it seemed like a "dark concept" for some reason. I added the "'Canes" script and oh my gosh, the logo looks a hundred times better! The logo on it's own was terrible and I didn't even know the font was stylized as it was. The flag warning is back and the alternate logo becomes the primary.

-Ricky

Holy Hermes, Batman!

To my fellow American readers, Happy Independence Day! To all else, don't feel left out. Because today, there is a concept for all to see. And it's from regular contributor Jake88. Because it's a holiday for anyone, I'll make it short and sweet.

For jerseys, the bolt and stripe along the sleeves are overpowering for me, maybe something a little more simple would suffice. In this case, the sublimated bolt behind the crest isn't preferred, but at least it doesn't take much away.

-Ricky