PuckDrawn

Sunday Quick Hits - 1.31.10

I figure I'd take a break from all of the Maple Leafs Re-branding Competition submissions and get some other stuff in this spot.

Here's a pic of Semyon Varlamov's new goalie mask. I don't usually get into the goalie mask art around here because my love of masks is not what it once was after the "Jason" style masks faded away. But still, there are some really fancy designs on masks these days.

  

You can check out a large gallery of goalie mask artwork by David Gunnarsson here.

UPDATE: I originally found the above photo on the SportsLogos.net forum (posted by rockngoalie1), which I forgot to mention when I posted this earlier. Credit to JapersRink for reminding me! I always try to give a "HT" (Hat Tip) or credit to where I found a photo or news source. Sometimes I just forget, so don't be afraid to call me out or remind me via email or twitter!

And while we're on the subject of goalie masks, check out Ryan Miller's Olympic goalie mask. Pretty sweet. On the right is the mask for Evgeni Nabokov of the San Jose Sharks. Check out the full article here on PuckDaddy.

 

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Found a cool little blog dedicated to hockey jersey concepts. Check it out.

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Normally I don't pull random concept designs from the SportsLogos.net forums, but since I'm a huge Flyers fan, this one was worth the conversation. It's a concept logo, designed in a way to better show the "P" that seems to be hard for people to spot until it's pointed out. I think the Flyers logo is untouchable, which is why I have not - and probably never will - design a Flyers concept logo.

 

You can view the rest of officeglenn's Flyers concepts here in this thread. After you take a peek, come back here and tell me what you think.

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Good guys wear white, right?

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And don't forget to check back tomorrow (Monday) for more Maple Leaf Re-brands from myself, Mike Ivall, and Hockey Week.

Weekend Leafs Re-brands

The Maple Leafs concepts are coming in fast and furious! I'm heading out to a damn kids birthday party at a bowling alley, so not much commentary on this post. I just wanna make sure you all get to see them before Monday!

Here's David Bautista's submission and some info on the design, in his own words:

  

I had several attempts on redesigning the Maple Leaf and was really pleased with the outcome of this one.  This logo is angled compared to the traditional team logo.  I wanted to keep the lines clean without being too complicated, but at the same time adding enough curves to accent the leaf. I also incorporated an "M" and "L" into the logo for Maple Leafs.

In addition to the traditional Blue and White colors, I feel that the gray is a good third color to help make the primary logo "pop" and not just blend into the jersey.

The Shoulder logo at first was supposed to be the crest for an alternate jersey, but after playing around I feel that it was a better fit having it on both the Home and Away jersey as it compliments the primary logo.

Maple Leafs Re-branding Competition - Friday Edition

Happy Friday, everyone! I have more Original Six: Toronto Maple Leafs Re-branding Competition submissions for ya. They're really starting to roll in now!

Before I get to today's submissions, let me just throw myself under the bus here for a moment.

I was excited to work on my design for this competition. It was going to be all nationalistic, but as I was illustrating, some elements had to come out because of balance issues or just too much going on. Initially I had planned to have some mean hockey dude with a Canadian flag affixed to his hockey stick, waving behind him. Well, this is what I ended up with... Yeah, my concept was ALMOST a Toronto Maple Leaf player on the jersey of a Toronto Maple Leafs player! WTF!!?? I was just about done with the rough design and realized my mistake. So, here's the unpolished graphic. I have to start all over again with perhaps another idea. I may be able to work the nationalistic angle, but in a different way. Man, I'm a complete fucking idiot.

 

Anyway, lets discuss the graphics that came in yesterday...

The first concept was sent in by Roccot. He's one of the few who's really thinking outside the box. No, the Toronto Maple Leafs will not be making any radical changes, but for this competition, let's have some fun with the submissions - which is what Roccot has done here.

Maroon, black, gray and white! What do you think about this color scheme, Leafs fans? And the angry leaf crest? Pretty brave on Roccot's part, eh? I like the dark uni much better than the white uni. In my opinion, the white logo seems to work much better than the maroon logo. On the maroon logo, the eyes are reversed out, which looks odd to me. Then again, the white logo version on the white jersey probably would not look as strong. ... The shoulder patch is an interesting design, though I don't know what it represents. So far, this is my favorite in the competition.

It's Maple Leafs Week!

All kinds of Maple Leafs stuff this week, eh?

Got a couple of Original Six: Maple Leafs Re-branding Competition submissions yesterday -- the first one sent in by marchawg.

 

I love the simplicity. I don't like the generic font choice, but overall I really like these. They kinda have a soccer feel to me. And the white jersey reminds me of the Toronto Blue Jays for some reason.

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The next submission was sent in by Joel Masson.

 

Nice submission and presentation by Joel. I like the primary - a nice departure from the big leaf as the main crest element. Joel has all his logo bases covered here: primary, wordmark, secondary and tertiary marks. I'm diggin' the CN tower/leaf mark a lot.

Joel writes:

"For me being raised in Toronto, changing the Leafs colours from anything other than blue and white would be like changing the American flag to red white and green. So, in my eyes, and any Torontonian's eyes, it has to be blue and white. My designs are all about the city. The three leafs is from the Ontario flag, the "416" is the area code, CN tower and a revised logo and word mark."

Normally my favorite jerseys are the home darks, but that away white jersey is pretty sweet. Not sold on the gray shorts on the third though.

What do you think of today's two entries?

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I'll be creating a new page where you can view all of the Original Six: Toronto Maple Leafs submissions, so stay tuned for that. Should be up sometime today.

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Before I officially announced the Leafs re-branding competition, I took some time to come up with a concept based on a color scheme I had in mind. The concept ended up looking too much like a shoulder patch, or some commemorative patch, so I opted to scrap the idea altogether, rather than mold it into something I know I wouldn't like in the end as a primary. But I did like the color scheme, so I'm gonna stick with it. Here's the color palette. The sketch of my Leafs re-brand is pretty much done. It's just down to the illustrating in Illustrator. Fun, fun. I hope to have it finished by next week.

 

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In case you missed it here's a small gallery of pics showing the Leafs wearing some vintage jerseys during their warm-ups in their game against the Kings.

Out of curiosity, Leafs fans, which jerseys would you prefer the Leafs wear? The vintage that they wore in warm-ups or their current set? Those vintage jerseys are in my top-5.

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Awwwww. Toronto Maple Leafs icons!

More Maple Leafs Re-brands

I have a crap-ton of work to do today, on top of sneaking in some time to finish my sketch for the Original Six: Toronto Maple Leafs Re-branding Competition! So, I'm just gonna post the most recent submissions without much commentary.

 

 

Out of these three entries, I'd have to say that I like Mike Majeski's the best. But when I look at it, I don't really get the sense of a re-imagining. Greg T's remind me of the Calgary Flames because of the color scheme and I'm not totally sure how I feel about RR's. I like the simplicity, but the green is a bit neon for my tastes. (Image shown now is RR's updated submission.)

Nice concepts, guys. However, nobody has really knocked it out of the park yet as far as thinking outside the box goes. (Although, my concept sketch is purposely and terrificly minor leagues!!)

Oh, a couple things: You are allowed as many do-overs as you want until the submission deadline. Just remember, if you're gonna re-submit, and you "borrow" someone's idea, you will be called out on it.

Lastly, if you have a Photobucket account and want me to link out to a larger picture or gallery of your Maple Leafs Re-Branding Competition submissions, just shoot me the link.

And since we're on the subject of Maple Leafs, I found this on UniWatch this morning:

The Maple Leafs wore 1970s throwbacks for warm-ups last night, complete with period-appropriate NOBs. Click on the sidebar for more photos (with thanks to Rob Ullman)