Fixing the Seabirds – Part I

By Phil Hecken

Back in August, I announced the latest UW contest, this time to redesign the Seattle Seawhaks for 2012, when Nike takes over the NFL contract. It being the middle of summer, I wasn’t sure how many entries to expect, but I was very pleasantly surprised to receive submissions from 35 readers! Some sent in multiple submissions, while others only sent one, and some sent in several submissions in a single graphic. Since I wasn’t specific on how they could be sent, I’ll show all of the entries along with the submitter.

I’ll break up the entries into two groups — 17 today and the second 18 submitters tomorrow. Next weekend we’ll be voting on the designs. Here’s where I need some reader help — should I open up the voting to every design, or should they be narrowed down to the top 5? And if you guys want to vote on every submitter, should I have you vote for your five favorite out of all, and of that, the top vote-getter overall is crowned the *winner*? Or, just a single vote for each of the 35 contestants? Let me know below in the comments.

As far as a prize — so far I have two in mind and I just may add some more — but for the winner, I will buy you a UW membership — if you already have one, then I’ll buy you a second one, and I’ll try to coax Scotty Turner (who is the graphic genius behind the membership cards) to incorporate your winning design into your new card (or any other design you may want). Also, remember those game-used NFL footballs that Joe Skiba gave to Paul to raffle off a year or so ago? I have one, and it’s been sitting on top of my bookcase, gathering dust, all this time — I’ll give that to the winner as well. There may be some more stuff as well. OK? OK!

Now then…no voting today or tomorrow — that’ll be for next weekend. Let’s see what our first 17 contestants came up with. We’ll be doing this alphabetically:

1. Bret Ayres:

Submission 1: HOME / AWAY – Change colors to the classic royal blue, green, and silver. Silver helmet/facemask, and pants (with green-white-blue stripe). Slight tweak to the angry bird, and addition of shoulder logos/striping/wings inspired by the totem poles of the Pacific Northwest. ALTERNATE – Basically the home uniform with the green.

Submission 2: I liked your designs, and mine aren’t all that different. I may not win, but I’m willing to bet I have the most Nike logos! HOME / AWAY – Change colors to the classic royal blue and silver and the lighter blue from the current logo to a sea-blue. Silver helmet/facemask, and pants (with blue-white-blue stripe). Slight tweak to the angry bird, and addition of shoulder logos/striping/wings inspired by the totem poles of the Pacific Northwest. ALTERNATE – Basically the home uniform with the sea-blue, and most importantly it isn’t electric green.

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2. Paul Barrett:

Submission 1; Submission 2: Ditched the blue on blue and only used the darker blue as an accent for the logo and sleeve/sock stripes. Changed the green from neon to more of a kelly. The road unis were slightly influenced by the Oakland throwbacks with Silver on Silver numbers. The green outline seemed to work the best for that.

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3. Tom Bierbaum:

Submission 1: Home. I actually don’t dislike the current uniform as much as a lot of people. In particular, I kind of like the monochrome all-blue look of the home uniform. But the “metallic blue” color is an odd shade and I hate the tossed-in touches of neon green.

Submission 2: I actually don’t dislike the current uniform as much as a lot of people. In particular, I kind of like the monochrome all-blue look of the home uniform. But the “metallic blue” color is an odd shade and I hate the tossed-in touches of neon green.

Submission 3; Submission 4; Submission 5: Alternate I: I have a version with an alternate neon green jersey to accommodate the fondness the Seattle fans seem to have for that color; Alternate-II: I added an alternate-alternate that I know would never get used in a million years but is the kind of combination I really like ”“ neon green jerseys and a lighter, glossy “metallic” version of neon green for the helmets and pants. Blue/Gold Alternate: And finally, all through the exercise, I was thinking the Seahawks have always been a blue team and it seems like they should remain one, but the only blue color scheme that particularly interested me (besides my actual first choice, the team’s original look) was to go with kind of a bright shade of royal blue for the jersey and then a light metallic blue for the helmets and pants, and I didn’t like green as the trim color for that combination, so I tried it with my all-time favorite trim color, yellow-orange, which I happen to think looks good with everything.

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4. Todd Breda:

Submission: Here’s my take. Thanks for your time.

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5. Steve Brookman:

Submission 1: HOME: I used the old Seahawks color scheme, with elements of the new (namely dark blue). I kept the current jersey numbers with the dark blue outline. I also added semi-UCLA stripes to the shoulders and incorporated the alt hawk logo on the sleeves. Finally, I added silver pants.

Submission 2: AWAY: The jersey on the away set uses the same basic design as the home. I used blue numbers with the dark blue outline. This set also uses the silver pants.

Submission 3: AWAY ALT: This set incorporates a blue set of pants into the mix. I’ve added striped socks to this set, as I’ve always believed darker pants call for striped socks.

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6. D.J. Button:

Submission 1: This is my submission to your contest. Thanks!

Submission 2: Here is the proper entry.

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7. Nelson Calimquim:

Submission 1; Submission 2; Submission 3; Submission 4: As you can see from my redesigns, the Seahawks Home and Road uniform redesigns are taken back to their original color schemes. With the added striping, it gives the uniforms a more classic look. These uniforms definitely should withstand the test of time and will be enjoyed for many Seahawk fan generations to come. Unless, of course, the Seahawks management decides to move the team to Oklahoma City”¦

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8. George Ciervo:

Submission: Starting out, there were three things I wanted to work into the design. One, the distinctive shoulder cut of the current unis. Two, I wanted to work off of the thick double stripe from the logo and sleeve design of the 80s/90s unis. And three, I wanted to bring back the old colors. I started with the away uniforms, and the design was working nicely. I used the double stripe (well, triple if you include the narrow white divider) motif on the sleeves and for the pants. Then I decided to try that approach on the numbers, like what U Miami used. Sure it’s a gimmick from that company and no, the NFL would probably never go for it, but darned if I didn’t love that look. Gray/silver pants and helmet, looking good. Then I got to the home uniforms, and things just were not working with the colors. The green half of the numbers didn’t contrast enough with the royal blue uniforms, and I couldn’t get the sleeves right. So I started shifting things around, introduced more colors, and the whole thing became a mess. IMO, one of the problems the Seahawks have currently is that they just use one too many colors. Virtually all of the teams have at most two “real” colors (black, white, gray don’t count). One is fine (Jets, Colts). ZERO is fine (Raiders). Three is not (witness the old Bills). So I had to step back and simplify. What I settled on was navy and the neon green, as that combo gave the most contrast. It wasn’t what I originally wanted, but it fit the design.

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9. Michael Craig:

Submission: Now that the Bills are beautiful again the Seahawks are now the NFL team most in need of an upgrade. Heres what ive come up with. I think ive struck a pretty good balance between the traditional jerseys and the current set. The new blue is somehwere in between the old jerseys and the current set. That hideous neon green is done away with in favour of a green closer to the old green, but with a bit more pop. Kept the dark blue from the current set on the home uniform because i think it offers an attractive frame for the green on the sleeves, pants and collar. hope you enjoy it.

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10. Joe Csikos:

Submission: My shot at a Seahawks Redesign. The overall colors are fairly similar. Used a darker navy blue and got rid of the rest of the blues. I emphasized the neon green (or snot green) in the home sets for the home fans. I decided to use the carbon fiber look as Nike did with Oregon for the helmets and the numbers. The alt set uses a bit more of the neon green without going crazy like before. Hope everyone enjoys.

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11. Andrew DeFrank:

Submission 1 (Team Information)

Submission 2 (Home)

Submission 3 (Road)

Submission 4 (Navy Pants)

Submission 5 (Green Alternate)

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12. Denver Gregg:

Submission 1; Submission 2: Attached are home & away Seahawks concepts. I don’t have the skill to use the anti-cooperation template, so I borrowed a different one. Kept the current neon and clinically depressed blue, restored light silver, resisted the urge to use undersleeves as they’re probably not likely to be used in an NFL jersey and added hooped socks and an element that’s probably unique in this contest.

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13. Matthew Donnelly:

Submission: I built my set around an alternate logo (on the helmet) and found myself liking their shade of green as I worked on it. I went to one shade of blue, a UCLA old-style number font, and an attempt at a carbon shade for the pants. I kept the glove outsides plain, and used gradients for the glove salute and the socks. For the model, I used a popular template floating around the SportsLogos boards. I suspect that, being a northwest team, this is the team that Nike convinces to go bat!@#$ insane next year.

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14. Terry Duroncelet:

Submission: Hello, Uni Watch. Here is my idea for a new Seattle Seahawks uniform. Not much of a change except that I used the nuclear green in a more tasteful manner and added Northwestern-striped socks. Adding Seahawk Blue pants was tempting, but given that they actually go with this idea, they’ll just pair it with the blue jersey, and we can’t have that. Thank you for your time.

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15. David Ebright:

Submission: I made this about 6 months ago and never did anything with it. After reading your article I figured it was the right time to unveil it to the world. I love it, but i’m sure everone else will hate it… cant wait to here the feedback.

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16. Andrew Farley:

Submission 1; Submission 2; Submission 3; Submission 4; Submission 5; Submission 6; Submission 7: As a lifetime Seahawks fan/graphic designer/uni watch enthusiast I figured it would be fun to do some Seahawks uniforms. And what is the point if you don’t take some risks to make them cooler, right?

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17. Michael Hass:

Submission 1: HOME: A return to the Seahawks’ classic blue, sea green, and silver color scheme that is unique to Seattle and beloved by fans. This version gives the green more prominence than the original, and overall is a little more structured and contemporary. On the logo, I kept the dark blue (which I think looks pretty sharp) and substituted the pale blue with the sea green.

Submission 2: ROAD: The blue yoke and sleeves make this road uni a bit more ownable than the old road uni from the 90’s. I always felt these fell a little flat, and were a little too similar to the Raiders’ road colors.

Submission 3: ALT: As a celebration of Seattle culture, I made a Special Edition logo and introduced “Expresso brown” to the palette (I’ll let you speculate what the inspiration was). This started as a gimmick but I was happily surprised with the results. I don’t think I’ve seen this color combo before (at least not in the sports world), and I think it works pretty well.

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Well, there you have the first day of submissions — we’ll finish it up tomorrow. Now, a quick few words and observations from Tim E. O’Brien, who helped me to set up the contest:

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Wow.

Let me start off by saying that while I expected some ‘out-there‘ designs, there were quite a few ‘holy s# ¡” ‘ designs – not that that’s a bad thing…

A few observations from day one:

• As I noted in the original post for this contest, Seabird fans l.o.v.e. themselves some neon green. My theory is that due to the general lack of sunlight in the great Northwest, the neon is the most vibrant color any of these poor people have ever experienced (for instance, this was the nicest day in Seattle history).

• Anyone who got rid of the neon seemed to replace it with a forest/kelly green.

• Someone went above and beyond the call of duty and redesigned other NFL teams in the process.

• Many people love the current set of blue.

• Those who didn’t almost all went back to the royal blue of the early ’90s.

• The logo of choice remained the current modern-Haida seahawk.

• Does anyone know who made this submission or what contest it’s for?

• Another submission made me want a Venti Chai Latte (actually the more I see that color combo, the more I like it).

All in all I’m thrilled with the submissions and am happy to see all of them. A few people came up with the idea to spell out the numbers, which I think is a brilliant idea but fails in practicality. Maybe there’s a place for that type of innovation, but I don’t think it’s on the jersey (…maybe the pants?).

But before we even get to the comments and criticisms, let me just say none of these concepts are bad. Anyone who took the time and effort to come up with these did a great job in executing their ideas, I just don’t agree with all of them. Thanks again to all the people who submitted to this and, who knows, maybe the 2012 ‘Hawks will be wearing something based on an idea or two from these concepts.

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Thanks Tim. OK, readers, now it’s up to you. Let’s hear who your early favorites are in the comments and also how you think the poll should be structured. We’ll be back tomorrow with the second half of the contestants and more deep thoughts from Tim E.

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Benchies

by Rick Pearson

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“Whoa, talk about pressure…”

And of course, the full-size.

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Colorize This!

Occasionally, I will be featuring wonderful, high-quality black and white photographs that are just begging to be colorized.

After receiving submissions from two former contributors last weekend, this week we’re back with the usual suspects, also known as the G&G boys. But that’s OK because, as always, their contributions are tremendous. I’m going to run the Colorize This! a day earlier than usual, because I expect tomorrow will be chock full of college football goodness, and perhaps some other surprises. OK? OK!

Let’s see what we have this week:

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First up is George Chilvers, who has three separate entries this week. His first (Clyde Kluttz of the Boston Braves) is as follows:

Hi Phil

I found this at the excellent Boston Public Library Flickr account.

George

His second submission was this:

Hi Phil again

Another one from the excellent Boston Public Library collection here

It’s Bill Osmanski, later of the Bears, but here in his time at Holy Cross.

His jersey looks a bit “worn” in the black and white print, so although I’ve coloured it in Holy Cross colours (there’s no reason why it would be as it looks like a training top, but I’ll go with the purple) I’ve made the colours a bit faded and well-washed :)

George

PS If any of your readers are from south of the Mason-Dixon line they may like a quick look at my most recent Shorpy piece of work (non-sport) at Shorpy.

And the third time for George is always a charm, as he completed his *work* for the week with this gem, from the Harvard/Army Game in 1933:

Hi Phil

You can use this next week if you like and can’t fit it in this week. Once again, I have one of my tales to go with this.

When I was a lad growing up in 1950s/1960s England I was interested in all sports and American Football seemed like an exotic faraway event! My sole knowledge of it was based on old encyclopaedias which had grainy black and white pictures from the 1930s of an area of play about 30yards by 30 yards with a confusing melee in the middle of teams named Yale, Harvard, and confusingly for me, Army and Navy. It all enthralled me :)

Anyway – looking through the Boston Public Library site I came across a number of these action photos and thought I’d see what one looked like in colour. I didn’t expect much, as I thought it would be mainly green. Occasionally even I get surprised what adding colour does, and this is one such occasion. I think the colour has really brought to life a moment in time 78 years ago. It’s 1933, and Harvard are playing Army. I had to really study the picture to sort out who was from which team, but the effort paid off. I’m well pleased with this, as they say. I’ve left it quite big I’m afraid, but of course it can be chopped down or lower resolution applied.

The original is here.

Hope you like it.

George

Thanks, George. Great work as always!

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And the second half of the G&G tandem, Gary Chanko checks in with two beauties of his own.

Check out this amazing job with Johnny U & Merlin Olsen (and Deacon Jones!):

Hi Phil

Decided to give baseball a rest this week and went searching for football images. Specifically I was looking for a childhood favorite Johnny Unitas. There’s not many quality B&W photos of Johnny U, but I did find one this one.

The photo was captured during a 1967 Colts-Rams game that ended in a 24-24 tie. In addition to Unitas, the image contains two other Rams Hall of Famers, Merlin Olsen and Deacon Jones. The Colts uniforms have hardly changed over the past half century. The Rams, however, have regressed beyond recovery.

Gary

And Gary wasn’t finished, sending one more my way, and it came from yesterday’s There’s No Service Like Wire Service:

So this photo shows up in today’s Wire Service Vol 34. It truly deserves colorizing, particularly since I’m an Eagles fan.

And could this be the next “What color was the Broncos horse” mystery?

Great stuff from Gary, as well.

OK, that’s all for the Colorize This! for this week.

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2011 Duck Tracker

Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water, Jake Hurley has stepped up to the plate and taken over the “Duck Tracker” for 2011. What is the Duck Tracker? Quite simply, it tracks each and every uniform combination the Ducks have worn for the 2011 season. He steps in for former tracker Mike Princip, whose non-Uni Watch activities will preclude him from tracking for 2011

Mike’s 2009 and 2010 Duck Tracking are still alive and well, and Jake will always include links back to those two incredible projects throughout the 2011 season.

I had just about given up on the Duck Tracker for 2011 when earlier this week I received an E-mail from Jake. Here’s how he introduced himself:

My name is Jake Hurley, I’m a long time reader of Uni Watch, Paul’s page 2 articles, and also a long time member of Chris Creamers Forum. I wasn’t initially interested in taking over the Duck Tracker but recently a new opportunity has arisen. I am taking an introductory web design class (mostly html and css) at my college and one of the main projects that just recently got introduced is to create and maintain a website. I was trying to think of some sort of uni related project when yesterday I remembered that you were looking for someone to take over the duck tracker. I talked with my professor and showed him the current site and he said that it would be fine as a substitute for the assigned project.

Jake added that “I am an experienced Photoshop user. … I can assure you that I can easily produce equal or better quality work than what was on the site previously. I’m a uni nerd just like everyone who reads Uni Watch, so you can rest assured that my renderings would be accurate.”

So, after trading a few E-mails back and forth, and after getting Mike’s blessing to have someone else continue his work, I’m pleased to formally introduce you to our Duck Tracker for 2011. As of this writing, Jake has already produced the Duck costume for the first game, and he’ll have the second one done shortly. We’re both hoping he’ll be able to have his own site up and running in time for the combination for today’s Ducks game against the Missouri State Bears, to be posted tomorrow morning, just like we did with the 2009 and 2010 trackers. Jake has promised to make the new tracker full of goodies, or as he says, “For starters I would just do the basics (uni, score, opponent) but down the road I will most definitely be adding plenty of gravy, I have an eye for that kind of thing and would be very interested in making it aesthetically pleasing.”

And there you have it, Uni Watchers. The Duck Tracker is back. And it sounds like it will be every bit as exciting and informative as the past two years have been. Make sure you check back tomorrow, as we hope to have the new tracker up and running!

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Uni Tweaks

We have another new set of tweaks today.

If you have a tweak, change or concept for any sport, send them my way.

Remember, if possible, try to keep your descriptions to ~50 words (give or take) per tweak. You guys have been great at keeping to that, and it’s much appreciated!

And so, lets begin:

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We start with Joe Troyer, who has a new look for the Titans:

Hi,

Really enjoyed this week’s breakdown of the Bills’ new duds. But a good-looking Bills team begs the question: can we now agree that the Tennessee Titans have the worst unis going? Or at least the bottom 5? I can’t stand looking at them. Check out my alternative if you’re inclined

Keep up the good work,
Joe

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Next up is Walter Helfer, with an update of the Dallas Stars:

Dear Phil,

I tried a clean-slate approach for the Stars of Dallas, since they’re still getting by on second-rate identities dreamed up when they called Minnesota home. I went with a more Texas-slanted image, marrying the iconic tin sheriff’s badge to a snowflake. For simplicity, I dropped the gold color; I think there should be at least one green-black-and-white team.

Home

Road

-Walter

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And the last tweak for today comes from Justin Myslinsky, who has a few new helmets concepts for La Tech:

Louisiana Tech needs new helmets/uniforms/ logo etc.

Here are some of my helmet designs, maybe you could have a contest!

That’s all for today. Keep the submissions coming.

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That’s about all for this fine Saturday — remember, in the *amateur* football league, it’s “Road Test” Saturday…big game tonight between FSU and OU. Might also contend for the 5 & 1. Couple of quick uni notes — My man Terry Duroncelet will cover this more fully, along with other new uni college uni news tomorrow, but last night Boise State went with a new look, combining their old blue helmet with their pro combat jersey and new orange pants, a repeat of the look they sported in the greatest game ever played. Also, there were pre-game rumors that the Cyclones of Iowa State might be breaking out their own storm trooper uni against UConn last night, but at the last minute, they went with the the ketchup helmet after all. Nice pants though.

Everyone have a great Saturday.

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“The day after Harry Chapin died, our pitcher, who was a fan, convinced us to wear black armbands in mourning. We had no black armbands, so we used black dress socks.” — Cort McMurray