Totally 80's - Carolina Hurricanes Unveiling

UPDATE (4.13.10): Thanks to Chris at Icethetics for the shout-out about my Totally 80's concepts. The Totally 80's project was my first foray into the world of sports logo design and designing jersey concepts. The Totally 80's Thrashers concept was first on the list and featured a modified version of the current logo as the primary. After I created that concept, I decided to just do original/custom creations moving forward. Thanks for stopping by. -Johnny

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I had no intentions of creating a black jersey—considering how much I hate the black jersey craze—but I feel that I've added enough color for it to squeak by my harsh criticism.

Click here for larger view.

The reason I needed to add black as a primary is because of the red of the logo. I knew placing a red logo on top of a red jersey was going to be an issue early on, but I was holding out hope as I illustrated the jersey.

You can see by the illustration above that the red on red does not stand out as much as the red on black. That's just my opinion.

As for the jersey, I modeled it after a Mark Messier Oilers jersey from the 80's, but I modified the stripes a little bit. Instead of three evenly sized stripes, I went with one large and two small stripes. I didn't want to totally rip off the Oilers look.

Naming a team after a damn weather pattern is such a pain in the ass to design around, and for this Totally 80's project, I've had the joy of doing it twice!

I think that, for the Lightning, you are pretty much stuck with a lightning bolt (which is not a bad thing). But for the Hurricanes you have some wiggle room. My logo may not win any Hurricanes crest redesign contests, but at least it's not a poorly conceived hurricane image that looks more like a toilet bowl (No offense 'Canes fans, I just hate your team's logo).

But I think overall—even with the black primary—it still looks like an 80's jersey. I'm happy with how the crest design turned out, even though some have said that the shading is not particularly an "80's" design element. But without it, it's a bit too flat for my tastes.

And look, it says "HO".

Comments

[Gunny]

I like the red one, the black one not so much.

[seancoxtattoo]

you're right it does look more eighties now.

[nogoodbye]

I like it. Although I think it would have been better if you went with the 2 flags meaning hurricane, instead of the 1 flag meaning tropical storm.

[johnny griswold]

I think two flags would be too much. Just like the Hurricanes did with their alternate jersey, I just went with the one. (Artistic license)

[Mike Majeski]

I like it! It is very creative, and I am glad you did not just take the easy way out and go with the typical hurricane.

Honestly, that crest would make a great secondary logo for the Canes. I could easily see that placed on a hat or as a shoulder patch. It would look quite good.