By Phil Hecken
It’s often been said by many of the readers of Uni Watch that soccer football, particularly European football, doesn’t get much love on these boards, and that’s certainly true — but that’s due far more to the fact that both Paul and I aren’t especially familiar with the beautiful game (full confession: I only watch during the World Cup and the Olympics) than the fact that we don’t like the sport. And while it’s no baseball, for many readers nothing approaches soccer as their sport of choice.
So when Paul ran two guest columns a short time ago (more on that below), looking at the awesome uniform histories of the European Championships, and knowing that the Olympics are just around the corner, I thought we could have a bit more on the subject — with a twist.
What I’ve done is to ask my buddy, Tim E. O’Brien, concepter extraordinaire, to come up with some “what if’s” for the 16 teams of the Euro Championships — not the unis they currently wear, or have in the past, but something that we might expect to see in the future. OK, so he actually came up with that concept on his own, but I knew he had been working on something after all his graphical magic on the Basketball Uniform Database. So, sit back and enjoy, the wonderful world of TimE. For each of the inline graphics, click to enlarge. Individual images of each kit are linked. We’ll start with the first eight today, and conclude with the next batch in Part 2.
Euro Championships…into the future
By Tim E. O’Brien
Earlier during the Euro 2012 tournament, Paul acquiesced the main page to Bernd Wilms for two day (TWO!) of fantastic Euro Cup tournament uni history.
Now that we’ve discovered how teams used to look, I figured it’s time to see how the teams could look in the future:
THE FIRST EIGHT OUT:
For the first host country, I really like what Nike did with Poland this year (I feel dirty now, haha), but they have too much shit going on above the red stripe. I fix that by removing the crest and placing the Polish soccer logo in the center (though, I have since been informed I probably should’ve kept the Polish crest and simply removed the Polish soccer logo…). I really liked this template so I used it for all four unis.
I went with a CCCP feel (plus blue) for the change kit but stuck with a pretty tame yet traditional set for the rest.
The Primary is based on the flag of Denmark. The rest, well… I just thought it looked nice.
I love the Netherlands. Like, LOVE, them. I love that their flag is red, white and blue but they wear black and orange (and yes, I know why this is). I love their logo. I love their tradition. And I love their style of play. Because of all of this, this is one of my favorite sets.
I keep their number font and basic design but I move the weird chest splotch thingy from their current black uni so that it goes over the heart (and therefore combines with the logo), I add it to the shorts and I basically flip the design for the Change kit. The Second Change kit is inspired by their flag.
For my Irish brethren, I decided to go a classical route. Very thin pins and super stripy socks with a very Gaelic font gave me just the look I was going for, but it is a tad too traditional so I added a more modern Second Change kit.
There might be some legibility issues with this set. I could probably fix this by just removing some of the red squares in the pattern but I just love the concepts of the kits so much, I don’t want to change them (And that font is perfect, IMO).
There’s a lot of blue and yellow here but these Swede kits just feel modern even with pretty classic design elements. Must be that numeral font (Same as England. I love it.)
For the second host country, I went a very simple route with a feature of a sublimation of the Ukrainian coat of arms. Plain? Yes. But I think it works.
Thanks, TimE! Well, readers — particularly those of you who are into footy — what say you?
Back next time with Part 2.
Benchies
by Rick Pearson
Timing is everything, isn’t it…
Click to enlarge
Uni Tweaks Concepts
We have another new set of tweaks, er…concepts today. After discussion with a number of readers, it’s probably more apropos to call most of the reader submissions “concepts” rather than tweaks. So that’s that.
So if you’ve concept for any sport, or just a tweak or wholesale revision, send them my way.
Please do try to keep your descriptions to ~50 words (give or take) per image — if you have three uniform concepts in one image, then obviously, you can go a little over, but no novels, OK? OK!. You guys have usually been good with keeping the descriptions pretty short, and I thank you for that.
Like the colorizations, I’m going to run these as inline pics — click on each one to enlarge.
You folks heard the call for concepts, and you’ve responded with vigor — so back to two new today.
And so, lets begin:
We have Domenico Delgado-Caramango, with a new look for Cal football:
Hey Phil,
I attached some Cal Football designs I made. I made them very traditional and included my favorite, the block “C.”
Domenico Delgado from Oakland.
Next up is Michael Wallace, with a 3rd sweater concept for the Stanley Cup runner-ups:
Phil,
Thought you would like to see a quick 3rd Jersey concept for my hometown Devils. Being an avid uni-watch fan I know everyone’s disdain for BFBS uniforms, but I feel the Devils are a rare exception being that their team colors are Red, Black and White. I’ve also found it amazing that they are one of the few NHL teams left to not have a third Jersey (Not counting the Red & Green Throwback) Nothing fancy, just an idea. Anyways let me know what you think! Thanks.
Mike from Jersey
That’s it for today — back with more tomorrow.
Stros Bows…
Last night, we saw what will be, hopefully, our last look at the Houston Astros in their (in)famous Tequila Sunrise” Rainbow uniform.
At least pitcher Lucas Harrell had the decency to wear stirrups (and pretty well too). But sadly, no white shoes, as were worn at the time. Actually, that last photo was from 1986, by which time the Astros had moved to navy caps and helmets — they wore the orange toppers from 1975-1982. Although Jim Vilk will disagree with me, I feel the 1983-86 tequila sunrises looked better with the blue caps, because they picked up the navy stirrups and sleeves better. But if you’re going to be gaudy, you may as well go all the way.
It’s a nice look back at once was, but it’s nothing compared to what Joe Morgan is sporting — which should become their full-time uniform in 2013.
We’ve now seen four of the five throwbacks they Astros will wear this year: the gorgeous Colt .45s, the divine Shooting Stars, the gaudy Tequila Sunrises, and the meh Rainbow sleeves. They’ll break out the ‘Star Trek’ unis 3 times — August 10, 17 and 31, and will wear the Rainbow Sleeves twice more, at home, on July 6 and July 20.
But they’ve already worn what they should wear next year, as they did a couple years back. Because seriously, if they’re auditioning one uniform for next season, the choice is clear.
That’s going to do it for today. Back with more stuff tomorrow.
“With the elimination yesterday of the noble Czechs, the Euro 2012 tournament survivors are all nation-states representing (more or less) distinct provinces or sub-provinces of the Roman Empire. With one important exception. … Alemania / Deutschland / Germany. … Don’t bet against the Germans.”
–Conn Nugent
The Toronto Blue Jays released the Canada Day jersey they’ll be wearing on July 1st.
It’s the 10th time they’ll mark the holiday by wearing a special jersey.
It’s what you would expect, and looks very similar to the first Canada Day jersey they sported back in 1996.
link
The 10th time is the charm.
The New Jersey Devils submission is interesting, I quite like it, there’s just one little issue, it’s too close to their arch rival Rangers look.
There’s also that fact that it is a jersey…that says “Jersey”…
I think that probably makes it 20% cooler.
I was skimming real quickly when I first saw this concept. Before I realized it was the Devils, I thought, what’s this? If I click on the larger image, will I see PANTS on the pants? And then my coffee kicked in.
Anyway, nice looking concept, Michael.
As a native Garden Stater I’ve always thought that the NJ teams were missing a big marketing opportunity by not incorporating JERSEY into their uniforms somehow — at least as an alternate. The again, the Nets were trying to cut ties for several years, and the Devils have never been big on the concept of marketing (they seem to think it runs contrary to the concept of winning). That said, I think this is WAY too similar to the Rangers’ traditional look. Maybe Lou could be convinced to change the helmet lettering to say “JERSEY”…
Any word on whether the NOB’s will feature family names, or read CANADA across the board?
As for the look of it, I will suspend my dislike of softball tops in order to say, “Bravo.”
I can’t say for sure, but they went with CANADA the previous 9 times, so there’s reason to think they’ll keep with tradition. It’s a really nice touch, for sure!
Just a quick question, since I wonder it whenever it is mentioned: Phil, why do you refer to this site as “boards?” I could understand if it had a message board attached that allowed you to post in various threads, but it’s just a blog with a comment section.
Just assume the “comment section” is in fact a “comment board”. We do tend to argue and generally converse as though it was a message board.
For the record, an earlier version of this year’s Polish kits were released without the Polish coat of arms, featuring only the Polish soccer federation logo and, of course, the mark of the beast on the opposite side of the chest. There was a bit of a public outcry from a healthy number of Polish folk (including the President of the freaking country), enough that the Polish soccer federation got together with Nike and convinced them to add the extra badge to the center of the shirt to placate this entirely civil group of persons.
It must be said, the Polish coat of arms in question does look pretty spectacular in it’s own right. A red badge with a white eagle wearing a golden crown. Very striking to look at.
Really like the soccer kits. Especially the Sweden change with the cross stripe continued onto the back with white number. That’s really nice.
I like the Sweden kits too, but, the two-tone number on the back of the change kit is playing tricks on my eyes, doesn’t look like it lines up.
And I doubt that FIFA would even allow that.
Even though the Sweden and Croatia concepts might need some tweaking to comply with the rules, I happen to really like all of Tim E. O’s concepts. Not one misstep in the bunch!
Thanks for the nice soccer unis, but I think some of your third kits are off the mark. They shouldn’t contain any of same principal colors as the Home/Away kits–the rationale being that 3rd kits are only needed if colors on the H/A kits are too similar to the home team’s jerseys. If the 3rd kit has the same colors, it’s useless.
I understand what you’re saying, but I disagree. There’s no reason for the change kits to be *that* drastic. That’s the one thing that soccer seems to really screw up with it’s uniforms. Let’s say you have 2 teams – both of them use royal blue as their primary color, one with yellow trim, one with red trim. Obviously you can’t play blue vs blue, but red vs blue or blue vs yellow are both perfectly fine. All you need for one team to invert it’s colors, not to go all weird and wear green or something. Even if both teams are, for example, red and white, one team in red with the other in white is perfectly playable and no one needs to wear a non-team color like blue or gold.
You’re talking about “change” kits, usually the second, Matt is talking about 3rd kits, and the rationale he states is right, a third kit is supposed to be for those occasional situations where a team’s usual change kit still clashes, for example, the home team wears red and white stripes, the visitor’s first kit is red, the second is white, thus they need to go to a third, which needs to be something completely different, yellow, blue, black, green, etc.
Contrast is the most important factor in uniform colors for soccer, and some teams change kits are nearly as iconic as their home shirt, despite not being based on the same colors (Arsenal’s yellow and blue, Man City’s red and black stripes, even if they don’t use the colors all the time)
Of course, these days, marketing and jersey sales play a big role in choosing colors as well, but whatever color the marketers choose, they still have to make sure a team has a jersey they can wear in any situation.
If a striped uniform vs a solid colored uniform isn’t enough contrast… I just don’t know. Maybe fans watching from the really really cheap seats might have an issue, but if a referee at field level can’t tell a striped uniform from a solid one, we’ve got a problem, and it’s not with the uniforms.
I’ll admit that I don’t really watch soccer on TV (I’ve tried, it’s boring as hell on TV, I’m sure actually attending a game is different), but soccer doesn’t appear to require as much uniform contrast as American Football or basketball… and if I can tell the difference between the referee in black & white stripes and the Ravens/Jaguars/Saints/other white jersey-black pants team on TV, then I really don’t see how solid white or solid red vs red/white stripes is a problem.
Jeff,
It’s not for the fans or viewers, the contrast is for the players, for the same reasons as football and basketball, ease of picking out teammates for passes at high speed.
Occasionally, you will see color/white stripes against an all white kit, and so long as the striped teams shorts and socks are color as well, there is usually adequate contrast, but I think most players, on both teams, would prefer that the change kit be a completely different color, particularly as the game is faster these days.
For referees, the sock contrast is just as important, helps in calling fouls. With players able to get shoes in any and every color now, and as much bitching they do at refs, I would think they would realize that wearing shoes that were the same color as their socks would make the referees job a little easier, but then defenders probably don’t want it to be easier, and, as always, the companies are often pushing certain colors for marketing purposes, another instance of money trumping actual sporting concerns.
Love the soccer features y’all have been putting out. All of Tim’s designs look fresh and are just begging to take my money! Good work uniwatch good work Mr. O’brien.
The American code will always be my favorite sport,but both association and rugby football are slowly creeping into the 2nd and 3rd slots.
I wish the Australian and Gaelic codes got more pub in the New World, too.
Gaelic could do with more world wide exposure, I’ve found the passion infectious since I was a kid in Croker despite never having played.
But the unis would have a long way to go before they’ll have fans round these parts.
I’m a big fan of the Aussie code! I used to stay up till 1 or 2 in the morning, go over to my friend’s house and watch the games from Australia! Since I can’t get ESPN3, I have to miss out on one of my favorite sports.
Actually, in the weekday tickers, I think the Aussie code gets more pub than even the Canadian code. And they all get more than the association indoor code, which is the best one of all!
which rugby code do you mean? :p
Definitely enjoy seeing soccer getting some UW love! And Tim E., those concepts are just wonderful. Pretty much a home run, or in today’s case a hat trick, all around. Well done!
The “C” on Cal’s helmets looks pretty similar to what UConn already has on its helmets, no?
Yes, it does. Don’t understand why Cal doesn’t return to the huge bear claw in the 80s, they could either put in on the helmet, or the uniform, or both.
You’re right, that would be a good look for the helmets.
Seeing Cal’s helmet history, it does appear in the late 60s a large “C” was on the helmets. But returning to the bear claw seems a much better idea.
All in all, Domenico, a nice set of uniforms.
They would be perfect if they had sleeves.
That “Cal” script logo has been around for maybe 20 years. Or longer.
And, yes, football team has used the “square C” in the past.
Baseball team still does…
link
Script Cal originated as a band formation in the 1950’s, inspired by Ohio State when they played in the 1950 Rose Bowl. It’s been on the helmets since around 1980.
At least you acknowledge the legibility issues with your Croatia concept. The two-color numbers on your Swedish concept wouldn’t pass muster, either (every technical manual I’ve seen for a tournament such as the World Cup or Euros requires that player numbers be entirely one color, with a second color permitted only for trim).
Did not know that…
Thanks!
But just to be really accurate (or anal, if you will), note the English primary jerseys. Their numbers are red, with crimson accents to give it a bevel-like appearance. So there is a bit of wiggle room available.
Fix the legibility issue for Croatia and you’ve got a real winner there, Timmo.
Unlike you, I’m not a fan of what Nike did to the land of my ancestors, but at least you improved upon it (but yeah…put the Polish crest on there instead of the soccer logo).
Hate to admit it, but my favorite set is the one you did for Russia.
And I’m gonna go out on a limb and say you’ll never see an orange change kit on an Irish team.
Just realized that’s your keeper-only kit. Still…never.
I’m going to agree with you on this one.
(although Syracuse did once wear St. Patricks day uniforms, so I guess anything is possible)
was last attempted in link :P
Except for Syracuse, orange is merely the school color (and eventual nickname), with no symbolic connection to Irish Protestantism.
Which reminds me…the color that the Northern Irish soccer team wear in international competition? Green, with white shorts.
As Diz says it was attempted in 1997 very sparingly. I actually saw one guy wearing it around Gdansk last week which prompted a conversation with my dad about it, it’s his least favourite Ireland jersey ever and it’s apparently a popular opinion over here although not necessarily because it’s orange, more because it’s hideous
Nice Devils concept, but as long as Lou Lamoriello is the Devils GM, link beyond the once-a-year throwback, which officially doesn’t count to the league offices as a third jersey.
Good read. I never liked it when the Blackhawks introduced their black alternate in 1996-97. It looked like an evil stepchild, never looked as important as the white homes & red roads, a quick buck cash-in fashion jersey & ultimately: a gift shop rag. I despised it a lot. It was that jersey along with the Bulls series of black alternates that pulled me from being a modernist to a traditionalist.
Thanks for all the nice comments so far. I really love it when people dig my concepts. It always makes for fun conversation.
And before anybody might come a callin’ that I stole some ideas from Adidas, Nike and Puma: I did. haha
I took some ideas from current Euro stuff and older Euro and World Cup unis and tried to tweak some of these (Netherlands/Poland) more than try new concepts from the ground up (Russia/Ireland).
Hope everybody likes what they see and if they don’t, comments and critiques are always welcome.
I really love the work you’ve done here on nearly every jersey. My only quibble is with my beloved Irish jersey. I felt we looked very outdated this tournament (in looks and playing style, the two tone green stripes being particularly horrendous)
So I’d love to see us in either a semi-futuristic Nike type like the Netherlands got or a clean cut throw back with a simple v neck and white collar like in Johnny Giles days. This might be more likely as Umbro’s deal with Ireland has been extended until 2020
Once again I really love the work and I appreciate someone with your talents considering the styling of our ailing boys in green.
I really like what you did with the Croatia change keeper kit, in fact that would make a great primary change kit. I always like tonal stuff, and I wish more change and keeper kits would reference the dominant feature of home kits, like you did with the checked pattern, it’s seems like good design and good marketing (reinforcing the main identity), but in a subtle way.
Don’t know about an Irish team wearing an orange kit, even if just for the keeper, but hopefully someday it won’t be an issue.
Was thinking the same thing about the Irish keeper in orange. Too politically charged. Hopefully someday that’ll be a relic of history.
Orange was included on the Irish flag for this reason:
Quote:
It was included in the Irish flag in an attempt to reconcile the Orange Order in Ireland with the Irish independence movement.[citation needed] The white in the centre signifies a lasting truce between the two cultures and a living together in peace.[14] The flag, as a whole, is intended to symbolise the inclusion and hoped-for union of the people of different traditions on the island of Ireland, which is expressed in the Constitution as the entitlement of every person born in Ireland to be part of the independent Irish nation, regardless of ethnic origin, religion or political conviction
With that in mind, my keeper kit takes into mind the protestant minority of the country in hopes of continuing the philosophy of reconciliation engendered by the flag.
see my post above :)
Ireland actually had a few orange kits back in the 90s. See link
Not sure if they were a big seller though!
Great looking soccer jerseys, job well done. BTW, where does one get a blank template to mess around with?
Right here: link
Thanks!
Does anyone have a quick breakdown of what the Blue Jays Canada Day uniforms have looked like over the years?
i haven’t done one, although i probably could —
but if anyone would like to do so, i’ll feature it next weekend — shoot me a line
I’d love to help. I’ve got pics and info!
Martyn,
thanks — i had another reader also get in touch with me and i’ve already seen you sent me a ton of pics — i’m putting him in touch with you and hopefully you two can work on this together
thanks!
So who do people have today in the Euro game?
If I’m correct, Spain should be wearing this: link while face will be wearing this: link (though I suppose they could wear their blue kits…)
For me the team I want to win and the team I think will win lineup: Spain.
Crazy golden ball Joe tossed out. link
My favorite part of Tim’s designs is the huge O’B initials and copyrights and his name all over the place. It’s hard to see past the self gratification in these designs to even focus on the designs. It’s like he’s doing the designs just for his own narcissism. An important design professor handed down that lesson in the second week of college, none of us ever looked back. Tim, take that lesson too. Thanks.
actually, that’s done to prevent people stealing his designs and pawning them off as their own
i’m pretty sure i advised “pretty boy paulie” (who doesn’t post that often anymore) to do so way back in 08 or 09 and i may have told time to add that as well
it’s not narcissism, it’s to protect the integrity of his work
Tim doesn’t need to worry about anyone stealing his valuable work and pawning it off as his or her own…
Original comment Copyright J.R. Clark
Really dude? I mean, if that little bit of extra text is enough to distract you from the actual design, you’ve got far bigger problems than Tim does.
Yeah because I need to see his initials 6 times on each design. Did Domenico and Michael need to inundate us with their names all over their designs? Nope. I rest my case.
And besides he’s calling the logos his own when clearly they are not. I googled Denmark soccer logo and the images returned look suspiciously like Tim’s “original logo” for them. Dare I look up the rest?
it’s not worth arguing this with you but it’s pretty clear that domenico and michael didn’t come up with the “cal” and “NJ” logos that appear on their uniforms — certain things are a given when it comes to uniform design, such as already accepted designs/logos/crests
if you have a problem with tim (perhaps from some other board, like creamer?), please keep it out of the UW comments section
legit criticisms are fine…petty shit like this is not
k? thanks
“Original Logos and Designs” means, “if the logos and designs are original, they are my property.”
Now if I had said, “All Logos and Designs”…
I have that in the corner of all my work so that people don’t steal my work and claim it as their own, even when I just do simple modifications and use current logos. It’s a coverall to protect myself from thievery.
If you don’t understand intellectual property and the threat of theft, than I’m sad you missed the first week of college.
“…than I’m sad you missed the first week of college…”
Actually it’s “then I’m sad…”
And Phil, either you just negated Tim’s argument or he negated yours. And in any case IT IS a design issue, advertising where it doesn’t belong…remember?
Actually I am constantly reminded of this when I see Tim’s work.
link
“My favorite part of Tim’s designs is the huge O’B initials and copyrights and his name all over the place. It’s hard to see past the self gratification in these designs to even focus on the designs.”
All over the place…? His name is in one spot, written in about 6-pt. font, at the bottom right corner, not interfering with the designs in any way. If the fact that Tim is taking credit for his own work bothers you that much, I’d love to know how you get through life on a daily basis. Like, what do you do when you see someone reading a book? Flip out because the author’s name is on the cover? What about every single newspaper or internet article ever written with a by-line at the top? Do you freak out and not read the article because it says “by Joe Smith” before the rest of the text?
Does the authors name appear in every sentence? Didn’t think so. His name once is acceptable. Thanks.
Actually, that would be “Does the author’s name…”
If you’re gonna pick on Timmo’s typos, be prepared for someone to proofread your stuff as well…
Yeah I wasn’t sure about the apostrophe on the “author’s”, but then again that’s what secretaries are for.
Actually, a diagonal “OB” is on every shirt where the collar tag would be & in the middle of the grass.
And if people wanted to steal his work enough, they’d delete his name & initials and Photoshop out the wordmarks.
True enough, but that actually requires a little bit of effort and skill.
It’s like locking your front door to prevent theft. The hardened criminal won’t have a problem with breaking a window to enter your house, but you’ll stop the average riff-raff from getting in.
“An important design professor handed down that lesson in the second week of college, none of us ever looked back.”
When you mean, “us”, do you mean you took a class by yourself? Doubt it, since from my experiences at Youngstown State, class sizes that small either end up getting cancelled at the start of the semester or are consolidated with another class at a nearby time. I wouldn’t refer to “us” if I were you in case you want to get in trouble with libel with one of your former classmates.
On that note, Tim is not being link by putting his name on the designs. And only you would notice them. When I noticed the designs earlier, I didn’t even see his name. I saw the designs. And yes, there are going to be certain design elements that are a given, like the Steelers having their logo on only one side of the helmet. I think you need to reevaluate your opinions and analyze why someone would put their name on an ORIGINAL artwork before you decide to slam them on narcissism.
The devil is in the details. How many times has it been pointed out on this site with the inscriptions on the inside of the collar. It’s wrong for the Titans to do it but ok for others to? Pick one and stick with it.
Hey look, the point is was that I was making a simple criticism to help Tim improve his work. The amazing thing about the stubborn people on this site is the inability to recognize constructive criticism, like everything they do is perfect. Wise up folks.
To me, this is what constructive criticism sounds like… Tim, you might consider listing your copyright notice just once. I found the repetition after every design a little distracting.
Here’s another example… Slammer, you might try wording your constructive criticism a little more like my example next time. To me, your tone sounded a little hostile.
And for the record, I didn’t find the Tim’s notices distracting in the least. I couldn’t even figure out what you were talking about until I went back and studied the artwork for several seconds.
May I ask kindly that the people defending me or simply just refuting this boobs points please stop feeding the troll.
He doesn’t like me for whatever reason (I wouldn’t be surprised if hes the guy who sent me this a while back: link ), perhaps he’s never seen a board like Creamer’s where putting your name on your work isn’t just occasional, it’s the norm:
link
link
link
My full name appears once per country in the bottom right hand of my display image. My logo appears on all the inside of the collars and when I copy and paste my jerseys into the display template, I don’t go through the extra effort of removing my logo.
So really, my full name appears once every 5.5 images and my logo appears once on every individual concept. I don’t think that’s excessive.
But really nothing says you’re a troll like pouncing at one tiny misspelling.
So all I have left to say to The Spammer comes from the immortal Dave Chappelle:
“Haters gunna hate, lovers gunna love.
I don’t even want none of the above.”
Like I said above Tim E., great job. Sorry to see the troll taking the focus away from some great uni-concepts.
Keep it up buddy! I can’t wait to see the next batch.
Grow some thicker skin, TimE. You don’t get to police who & what people get to say.
This constant defensive mechanism & watermarking is teetering on obsessive compulsive disorder & paranoia.
concealed, you can’t argue with a person who has Asperger’s Syndrome.
Original comment Copyright by J.R. Clark
I’m sorry you feel this way, but to me it’s not a defensive mechanism or paranoia.
It’s pretty much standard operating procedure for people in my line of ‘work’ (‘HOW DARE RICKO HAVE HIS NAME APPEAR FIVE TIMES IN TODAY’S BENCHIES SEGMENT!!!!11!!11one!’… See? It just sounds stupid.) and it’s simple common sense.
It’s like the locked door analogy above, it doesn’t prevent the true criminal but it does dissuade the occasional petty thief.
Yeah, I need to work with Phil on a new banner so my name isn’t in there two extra times. Been meaning to talk to him about that, and that’s my bad for getting to it. But for sure that “copyright” line and signature are gonna stay.
In defense of TimE, he isn’t wrong in his thinking. Ever looked for stock photos online to use for ads, etc., on sites such as istock? They have watermarks all over them, to protect those who own the images…to the point where the marks sometimes muck up the image.
Betcha the guy who designed that first Baltimore Ravens logo wished he “design-marked” his idea somehow.
So just look at the designs and don’t sweat the small stuff.
Tim,
Keep up the awesome stuff. I’ve used your templates for my personal designs and you do a terrific job. I hope that I’ve given you enough credit for your work, and if not I will try to rectify that oversight.
I’m enjoying your concepts and I love the thought behind the Croatia design. The checkerboard sash is terrific! Also, kudos on the Swede, and Dutch kits!
I wonder if moving the Croatian crest to the checkerboard sash would look better.
My favorite part of The Slammer’s responses is the huge volume of them. It’s hard to see past the self gratification in this textual diarrhea. It’s like he’s writing the responses just for his own narcissism. Thanks.
Now that this spat is over, I have two questions for each participant.
1. How do you feel about cats?
2. What did you think of Pee Wee’s Big Adventure?
1. Cats are the worst. Who wants a creature that doesn’t want anything to do with me but I have to pick up it’s shit?
2. I’ve seen it. It was a long time ago (when I was very young, I was -2 when it was released) but I liked what I remember. link
1. Wait ’til you have kids…
2. Do you remember…link
I heard the Alamo had a basement.
Tim E.’s first response was the worst.
Question 2’s response makes some sense.
Vilk’s first response leads one to ask another question.
His second response demonstrates knowledge of said film.
Until the others chime in, I cannot pick a side.
Even though I was a Mets fan as a kid, those shooting stars Astros unis were enough of a reason to root for them also.
-Jet
Meh. The shooting star looks clunky. It’s a decent concept, but it needs a bit of revision and streamlining.
The rainbow/tequila/whatever the hell we’re calling them jerseys were the best thing they’ve ever worn, and the modernized star cap from the late 90’s is their best cap.
They should be wearing something resembling this: link
(Yeah, you’ve probably seen that concept before, that’s from when Phil used my “vision” for a feature)
I like what Alex Rocklein did with the shooting star design–a design that I thought looked dated and something a middle school student threw together. His entry in the recent Astros concept contest is the first design shown here: link I thought Alex would have done well to also do a “shooting star” road jersey with the “HOUSTON” wordmark styled the same way on it as he styled the “ASTROS” wordmark on the home jersey.
I know, I’m putting in a shameless plug for my own design (#3 on that web page), but the star on my own design incorporates elements from other designs–it swoops upwards to evoke that “shooting star” (the “ASTROS” and “HOUSTON” wordmarks likewise swoop upwards in tribute to that “shooting star”), is bronze and gold to evoke the “tequila sunrise” jerseys, has two sides missing to keep with the current (2000-present) and “Lockheed Martin” (1995-99) cap logos, and finally, has the all-important “H” in front of it on the cap (as well as on the road and alternate jerseys). (Thanks again, Paul, for naming me as one of the five best!)
Meh. The shooting star looks clunky. It’s a decent concept, but it needs a bit of revision and streamlining.
Oh I can’t WAIT to see what that would look like.
To me it has the right balance of color & restrained quirks to be considered tasteful & executed well – unlike that godawful Tequila Sunrise shit which has shock value solely for the sake of shock value.
Basically the only thing missing for an update on the Shooting Star uni is a clean sleeve patch with a Texas state, possibly a white state in an orange circle like this:
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Bah. I basically ended up re-creating one of the original Colt .45s logos, used the current Astros state Texas logo & ended up flipping the Shooting Star wordmarks to fit in & basically ended up with a 1975-93 uni mock sleeve patch. I was thinking of leaving off the orange streaks but it seemed too off-kilter. The navy state outline was probably overkill.
I like what Alex Rocklein did with that design in the recent Uni-Watch contest. (He did that for the home jersey; I would loved to have seen him do something similar to the “HOUSTON” wordmark on his road jersey.)
Actually, what happened was, the stupid blog didn’t take my comment the first four times I posted it. I don’t get what happened there.
Concealed, you nailed it. Best yet. For the alternate, exact unis but in orange with orange caps and outlined in blue. Good job! From a lifelong Astros fan.
Alex Rocklein did a heck of a job offering a modernized interpretation of what was IMHO a very dated design in the recent Houston Astros design contest. I wish he had done something similar for the “HOUSTON” wordmark on his road jerseys. (Shameless plug for my own design: OK, it doesn’t copy the “shooting star” design, but the stars and the wordmarks in my design both swoop upwards in tribute to that “shooting star”.)
I like what Alex Rocklein did in updating the “shooting star” design. I think he should have done the same for his road jerseys (with a “HOUSTON” wordmark styled like the “ASTROS” wordmark had been on the home jerseys).
Astros need to wear the original shooting stars at home with blue cap, solid grays with HOUSTON inble and outlined in orange, and gor a home alternative wear the orange version of the shooting star with orange caps. Go Yankee style on the road with just grays and no alternative.
I like Alex Rocklein’s interpretation of the shooting star design. (His was one of the “five best” in Uni-Watch’s recent Astros uni design contest.)
Yeah we get it, you have a man-crush on Alex Rockein’s design. 5 frickin’ times already.
The best design has to be the Russia change kit with the red pinstripes… that is simply beautiful. I also like the entire set for Ukraine, the use of the unique coat of arms sublimation is a brilliant idea. Well done!
I also like the two tone change shirt!
god damn soccer…
Anyways, on Michael Wallace’s Devils concept, I’d rather see them go back to green & red. Too many NHL teams have black or red sweaters (25 total sweaters by my count in 2011-12) & that concept looks too much like a black NY Rangers sweater.
The Blue Jays crushed the Marlins 12-5 last night in perhaps the most lopsided uni matchup ever between two teams that rebranded at the same time. The Jays in their glorious new set and the Marlins in their embarrassing nonsense.
“Dress for success”, something the old Jeff Loria apparently has never heard of.
Free the orange caps!
Although Jim Vilk will disagree with me, I feel the 1983-86 tequila sunrises looked better with the blue caps, because they picked up the navy stirrups and sleeves better.
Y’know…when they first came out with the blue lids, I thought it was fantastic. But since so many other teams have some version of blue on their heads, I’ve grown to really miss the orange caps.
Always liked the orange caps better with that design. The lynchpin of it were the rainbow stripes and the orange (that HAD be their previous dominant color, remember). The navy sleeves and socks were just enough to sort of give it a foundation to stand on, to “anchor” the uni, visually. Orange sleeves and socks with the rainbow guts would been just…way over the top.
Conversely, the return to teh navy hat seemed to take away TOO much of the uni’s vibrancy.
Just my take. Different strokes, of course.
I’m a contrast kind of guy…that’s why I liked the blue caps with the rainbows. But I see what you mean about the sleeves and socks being enough.
I’d like to see this
link
with orange caps. *That* would be a nice contrast.
Jim, here’s a bit of trivia I haven’t divulged before… I seriously considered doing bronze-gold-bronze piping and trim on all my concept jerseys (not just the alternate). But then I realized that, on the home and road jerseys, bronze-gold-bronze piping might clash with the navy blue caps, which is why I decided to make the piping on the home and road jerseys navy-gold-bronze instead (I was able to stick to bronze-gold-bronze on the alternates because those are navy, eliminating any possible “clash” there). IMHO orange caps on the 86-94 design might have clashed with the blue wordmarks (which is also why I never considered doing bronze caps on my design).
If it’s not too much trouble, you should do that version as well, so we could see for sure if clashes or contrasts.
I’ll see what I can do. Shouldn’t be too much trouble. :)
OK, Jim, let me know what you think of this: link
And the winner is…contrast!
I like that better, albeit ever so slightly. Thanks.
Speaking of contrast, I finally changed the ’87 caps to orange:
link
Royals in powder jerseys at home vs. Cardinals on MLB Network.
That still sorta bugs me.
Powder wasn’t a Royals’ color back in the Brett era. It was nothing more than the fashionable alternative to road gray.
As I mentioned the other day, of all the teams that wore powder blue roads back than, only the Blue Jays actually had it as a team color. For all others it was merely a substitute for gray.
Was the light blue in the logo even the same shade as the powder blues, or was it a different one?
Almost irrelevant.
An incidental color.
Like they yellow Cardinal beak or the red Timberwolves tongue. Or the yellow-gold crown in the Royals logo, for that matter.
The Royals wore only royal and white (yes, I know, gray roads and for a time BFBS) both before AND after the powder blue roads.
And it’s never been a trim color on the homes. A garment color lately for sales purposes, yes, but no history of it being incorporated into the unis in any decorative fashion. Just…fabric. That’s all.
Even if it wasn’t a team color in the Brett era, why can’t it be a team color now?
OR…why can’t they wear a non-team color now as they did then?
Yes, I think they recently have made powder blue a team color (is that right?), but that doesn’t make the current powder blue at home a throwback. It’s just a change, something new.
That’s what I was getting at.
My folks just got home from Italy after two weeks and got me an Italian (Pirlo) blue Euro 2012 jersey for watching their house/dogs!
It’s a totally cheapo version but its awesome none the less.
Did you throw a rager when they were gone?
I wish, I did last year when I house sat, keg and all, but this year pretty much everyone I know had conflicting plans. Just a few simple small get togethers.
Awesome job today Tim.
I’m a little choked that Slovenia didn’t make it into the tournament, I’d love to have seen what you could have done with their beautiful kit.
How about taking a country that wasn’t around in 1979 (Slovakia or the Czech Republic, por ejemplo), and making some retro fauxback kits…with Comic Sans-fonted numbers? I could dig that.
stop
I think Tim E. O’Brien’s soccer concepts are brilliant, and here’s why: the goalie uniforms are consistent with the rest of the teams. On the national team level, you still find that kind of consistency, but in league play – especially in MLS – the goalie kits are handful of what’s popular that season with the each team’s logo/sponsor/crest simply slapped on. My standard joke is that goalies have to buy their own kits off the rack.
It turns out, except for the ‘buy their own’ part, it’s actually true:
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The point that Tim E. O’Brien understands is that the goalie should look like he’s part of the rest of the team – we know he has to wear different colors – but can he retain some of the distinctive features of the teams kits. Like teams with striped jerseys: we know soccer teams aren’t married to any one set color scheme – why not the same striped pattern in a different set of colors? Same with checkerboards, and so on.
Tim gets it right with his designs, especially the Croatia kit. Great work! I was working on an MLS version of “what if the goalies matched the rest of the team”, but it’ll have to wait until the next lull in my animation work.
One player who seems to get what you advocate is Steve Mandanda, the goalie for Olympique Marseille, and one of the backup goalies for the French national team. When OM are playing at home (in their white kits with light blue trim), Mandanda usually wears OM’s change kit (this season, orange with black and light blue trim). If OM are wearing their change kit, and the other team isn’t wearing white, he’ll wear the OM white kit,
Up to the early ’90s (in England at least), keepers would wear a distinctive jersey but the same shorts and socks as their teammates. The idea of the keeper having a complete outfit of his own is fairly recent.
Great job with the Euro unis, Tim!
Good to see that you apparently have a solid appreciation of the sport and the national teams and their uni histories.
I think the existing Euro kits are all at least decent (Ireland excepted) but your modifications look very sharp as well.
As to Uni Watch, I (as a huge international soccer fan) would love to see more coverage. There are a couple of websites devoted to kits but they don’t really cover things like Uni Watch does. They’re more along the lines of: “new Aston Villa Away Kit by Macron” and less “hey, that Man City-Newcastle game yesterday was a great-looking uni match.
The thing with the international game is that there are SO MANY leagues in SO MANY countries and you’d probably have to limit the scope of coverage. MLS and English Premier would make a lot of sense, as the latter is fairly popular in the US. Even to the extent that I wonder what the comparative TV ratings are for them vs the NHL.
That the Uni Watch site guys don’t know a lot about soccer isn’t really a good excuse – I mean, a uniform is a uniform.
Torn uniform porn alert. France’s Ribery has a huge tear on the right side of his jersey. Doesn’t look like they’ll replace it either.
Of course, the moment I click submit Ribery runs over and changes jerseys. No screen shot, but he’s got the torn jersey on around the 42nd minute.
Tornography?
Ha! Is it possible for one word to be comment of the day?!
Phil’s not a fan of it, though.
Don’t have a stack of torn for you, but I did find one photo:
link
That’ll do pig. That’ll do. Thanks for the photo lookup!
The torn uni stuff really does nothing for me. Just doing my UW civic duty to alert those that enjoy.
Same here…I’m just a distributor, not a partaker.
You’re still nothing but a tornographer.
Looked to me more like the seam let go than a fabric rip.
The colorizers among us should hop on thie link stat. I didn’t know the law school had a separate team from the undergraduates, but I do know GW’s colors are buff and blue for a start.
You know that feel when you’re looking at something so amazing, half of your brain wants to comment on all of the epicness, but the other half is so overwhelmed, that it doesn’t know where to start? That’s what Tim’s concepts have done to my brain.
Fantastic job on every concept, dude. Celestia knows that I HATE Adidas, but you’ve even made the /// squads fun to look at.
I agree that a tweak in number contrast would improve those already sexy Croatia kits, but if they were to go with those in the near future, then they can keep the vibrating numbers (READ: even though my favorite teams are France, Spain, Ireland, and the U.S., I’m obsessed with Croatia’s uniforms).
I really like your Sweden concept with the halved numbers. A fun look with very little legibility issues (to my eye, at least).
Just as I’m super-excited for Periphery’s new album next month, I’m stoked to see what tomorrow brings.
Oh, and those Ireland kits (real deal and today’s concepts) are the shit.
Thanks Moono!
I appreciate the extra time Tim took to put the actual names of the starting keeper and the current #10 on each roster into the designs. Just another touch that shows he really did his homework. Thank you for your work.
Separately, they’re awesome.
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Hmmm…let me think about that matchup…
Hmmmm…
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Anyone know if the Astros plan on wearing the 1994 caps as part of their throwback games? I really like this cap, am I the only one?!
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Damnit, bad link! link
no, thank corn
they’re wearing the solid blue cap…brim is not gold
“no, thank corn”
I didn’t realize you’d converted.
Why weren’t we invited to the
brisshucking?Too bad, I loved that gold brim cap.
They have done well by wearing the caps and batting helmets with all uni throwbacks this season. I am sure they will wear their shooting star caps.
I give the Astros a B-plus on their throwbacks this season. As opposed to the Drayton McLane throwback era when they would wear the shooting-stars or the Rainbows but would go full-out with wearing the matching batting helmets, at least they have done that this season.
They are falling short by not wearing white shoes with the Rainbow and Rainbow sleeve unis. I have e-mailed Astro management, but to no avail.
I could not agree more about the shooting-star unis. They should be the full-time unis beginning next season. What I have heard is that they will bring back the blue/orange color scheme and that the unis will have some sort of mix of Astros past. Unfortunately, I doubt they bring back their original caps.