Not a whole lot going on today in the world of hockey design, so I figured I'd post a little teaser for Team Soviet Union, which will be unveiled on Monday. Also, as promised, I'm opening up Team Canada's design for discussion.
Go nuts!
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Team Canada
As I said yesterday, I'm having a bitch of a time coming up with something I like for Team Canada. There is a lot of reference material out there and there is not a damn thing that would bring it all together.
Here is a link to a page that had me the most confused as to what I think my Team Canada WWII jersey should look like.
Team Canada's jerseys and logos are all over the map: Maple leaf by itself, maple leaf with "CANADA" under it, maple leaf with "CANADA" in it, maple leaf in a blue ring, giant right half of a maple leaf, giant top half of a maple leaf, maple leaf with a hockey player in it, multiple maple leafs, leaf in a leaf ... the list goes on and on.
So, Canadians, what would you like your WWII jersey to look like? I've saved red for you, but you may also fancy some baby blue.
Here are some preliminary designs I have in my Illustrator file.
The one image I thought was unique—or at least interesting to me—was the maple leaf inside the blue ring. I thought I'd use something like that as my crest. But I don't know about that baby blue, darker blue and red jersey. Nothing wrong with blue - just can't be bothered with the baby part.
I'm partial to the plain red maple leaf inside of the blue ring, as opposed to the version to the right that has the black ring and gold trim. Unless there's an overwhelming opposition to the blue circle design, I'm sticking with it.
Thoughts?
UPDATE: Based off of some early comments here on this post, I decided to remove the black elements and incorporate more blue into the jersey design. Here are two more preliminary designs.
And we're down to the final preliminary design (most likely) for this style of jersey. I think there's a keeper in here somewhere after I do some final tweaks. I'm not sure about the black outline on the maple leaf featured to the left. What are your thoughts on the gold? I think once I get a feel for which color sheme you all like, then I'll figure out the striping pattern I wanna go with.
Keep in mind that I still have some shading yet to do before it's a finished product. You get the idea.
Well I'm not Canadian, but here's the research I can find (which I'm sure you've seen too).
According to this page
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Flag_Debate
At the time of WWII the Canadian flag was a Union Jack (flag of the UK) in the top left corner of the flag with the rest of the flag being red (known as the Red Ensign) and sometimes contained a shield (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Canadian_Red_Ensign.svg). Based on that, I would say a national jersey should be primarily red, with some blue, and possibly some gold (and of course white). Black in the uniform doesn't seem to figure in at all, and was only a recent invention of the Canadian Hockey program. Obviously for the logo, you can't go wrong with the red maple leaf in the blue circle on a white background like you have it. Considering that you do not yet have a red primary jersey (and from the looks of it that goes for the USSR too) I would stick with that. Putting the word Canada on the jersey somewhere seems to be pretty consistent as well.
I would say take the jersey on the far right of the three you showed, turn the black to blue and swap with the logo in the middle, and that'd be an awesome start.
Posted by: Dave | July 10, 2009 at 09:30 AM
That logo with the leaf and the blue circle is actually the air force logo. But I love it! I think you should defiantly use it.
I'd like to see a jersey with some light blue and red, I don't like black being a color related to the Canadian hockey team as we have no black in our flag.
Posted by: Jeremy | July 10, 2009 at 10:00 AM
Canada has an air force? Who knew?? Just kidding.
Ok, I can tell that black is going to be the one thing that people will all agree that needs to go. I'll play around with that.
Posted by: johnny griswold | July 10, 2009 at 10:14 AM
I like the logo with the gold better, the one with white looks almost exactly the same as the one they actually used in the WWII era, so I'd like to see a little bit different of a logo for the project compared to the real thing. I don't see the need for black either, go for baby blue instead. I'd say use the middle jersey with the gold logo and switch the black with gold.
Posted by: Koho | July 10, 2009 at 10:27 AM
Ok, I've created another preliminary jersey design with more blue and no black. If you refresh the post, you'll see the new image at the bottom. I'm gonna try another version of the gold design. I'll post that after lunch.
Posted by: johnny griswold | July 10, 2009 at 11:02 AM
The one on the right with the blue collar is your winner. The one on the left, save the logo, looks like something the USSR would've worn in the 70's/80's (not that its not a nice jersey).
Posted by: Dave | July 10, 2009 at 11:06 AM
I like the one on the right as well, but I'm wondering if there's too much resemblance to the Montreal Canadians jersey.
Posted by: johnny griswold | July 10, 2009 at 11:19 AM
http://www.hockeycanada.ca/index.php/ci_id/11456/la_id/1.htm#t/5/pp/0/pv/0/pa/0/p/4/m/57484/d/26215/a/53581
This link should bring you right to a gallery of Canada's jersey history ranging all the way back to the 1920's. If you go into the 1950's, the number 4 of 7 is something I think they should look like. Just like you took almost directly from the US's history for their jersey I think that you should do the same for Canada. I am not fond of the blue. I know Canada has used it in the past but I don't think it was done right in the above post.
Posted by: paploo | July 10, 2009 at 11:46 AM
Well the white yoke, and the fact that its a different shade of blue help. The only resemblance I see is the striping pattern on the sleeves. Maybe make the stripes equal size, or do what you did with the jersey on the left but with the middle stripe being blue. Honestly though, had you not mentioned it, I wouldn't even have thought to compare them to Habs jerseys, so I wouldn't lose any sleep over it. Plus those stripes are father down the arm (Habs are at the elbow, those look like forearm) so that helps differentiate too.
Also, at the time of WWII, the only two Canadian NHL teams were the Habs and the Leafs, which are both represented on this jersey.
Posted by: Dave | July 10, 2009 at 11:55 AM
STOP the presses. Major problems with your Soviet idea.
I'm pretty sure no Soviet team ever had a hammer and sickle on its uniform. There's a reason for that. The Communists tried to replace traditional religion with Marxism as a neo-religion. Therefore, wearing a hammer and sickle on your sweaty shorts (or jersey) would be sacrilege.
Secondly, the Soviets didn't play "Canadian hockey" until 1951-52. Czechoslovakia had a team much earlier... but, alas, they didn't wear a hammer and sickle either.
Sorry for being a fly in the ointment.
Posted by: untvar | July 10, 2009 at 12:38 PM
untvar, I don't believe there is a fly in the ointment here.
The Soviets wore many hammer and sickle on their uniforms during WWII.
This link has images of uniforms with patches, metals on their uniform and cap.
http://www.themarshalsbaton.com/Soviet%20Generals.htm
I'm not sure what "Canadian hockey" has to do with anything.
This project is a vision of warring countries fighting on ice. WWII on ice if you will.
So, if you can suspend disbelief for WWII on ice, then you'll have to do the same for the images and color schemes of the jerseys. This is MY vision, not historical, pin-point accuracy. There's no fun in that. And I'm willing to bet that if there was such a thing as WWII on Ice, that the Soviets would have a hammer and sickle on their jersey.
Posted by: johnny griswold | July 10, 2009 at 01:26 PM
paploo, that's a great link. A lot of blue in those early years.
Posted by: johnny griswold | July 10, 2009 at 01:50 PM
the middle one is the best. get rid of the gradient black and stick with that blue all the way and you have a winner.
Posted by: sledgehammerr | July 10, 2009 at 01:53 PM
I really hope those Soviet jerseys won't be blue and green like I see. Those would look horrible
Posted by: pantherfan23 | July 10, 2009 at 04:57 PM
I really hope that those soviet jerseys won't be green and blue like you show them it looks kinda horrible. But that's just my opinion.
Posted by: pantherfan23 | July 10, 2009 at 05:01 PM
Use the logo with the larger leaf, change the black and gold to white and use that logo on the original middle jersey with blue, red, and black except change the black to white. I think that wouldn't look like the habs or the actual WWII time jerseys canada used and it would fit perfect in that era.
Posted by: Koho | July 10, 2009 at 05:40 PM
pantherfan23, I will be posting photo references that explain the reasoning and color choices. If I were to use every country's standard primary color of their flag, i'd have noting but red jerseys. I needed some color variety. And you could at least reserve a "horrible" opinion until you actually see the entire jersey. sheesh.
Posted by: johnny griswold | July 10, 2009 at 07:02 PM
I think the green was definitely a neat choice, obvious allusion to their military uniforms. I'm curious about why the blue, I'll be excited to hear the history behind that.
Posted by: Dave | July 11, 2009 at 02:31 PM