By Phil Hecken
Today we’ll be taking a look at the sixth set of uniform submissions for the Lewis & Clark Design-a-Uniform Contest, for the team known as the “Lookouts.” If you’re not familiar with the contest, please give that a read. The contest’s creator, W. Ross Clites will be asking readers to design uniforms for all of the teams in the Lewis & Clark League, and thus far we’ve asked for submissions for a total of eight teams. We’ve looked at the “Captains,” “Diplomats,” “Explorers,” “Governors,” “Lookouts,” and today, we’ll see the concepts for the “Navigators.”
Two other teams have been put to readers for concepts, the Pathfinders and the Pioneers. If you’d like to submit your concept for either team, the deadline for submissions for the Pathfinders is Wednesday, April 9 and the deadline for submissions for the Pioneers is Wednesday, April 16. Tomorrow, Ross will have a short write-up for the ninth team, so make sure you check back then!
At this point I’ll turn it over to Ross, who will go over the guidelines for voting, and then I’ll be back with some final words before we take a look at the entries from our contestants. Here’s Ross (these guidelines will likely accompany each set of voting):
Alright boys and girls, here is how the voting is going to go for each Lewis & Clark Baseball League team:
1. The hierarchy of importance goes primary logo, then uniform design, and then all rest (i.e. hat design, secondary logos, etc.) Cast a vote for the design with your favorite primary logo, first and foremost. Do not fault someone for going outside the design guidelines. Changing a wordmark or adding a third color is not a disqualifier for good thought process.
2. Your votes will take the field of applicants down to a final two per team.
3. We, the LCBL Executive Board will make the final decision on the winning proposal. However — and this is big — design is never complete and collaboration is paramount to success. We will likely settle on a combination of the final two submissions. We might love the logo of one, but prefer the jersey scheme of the other. In this, you will both be winners with full prizes to ensue. The possibility does exist for a total victory, of sorts. One designer could present the best looking jersey, logo, hat, and all the rest. Do not get offended when your submission gets handed back to you with redlined edits. We hate to hand out homework to the winning look, but tweaks may be requested. It is a studio project and not a math equation; the “right” answer takes some massaging of details.
4. With permission from both finalists, our graphics department will meld the two submissions together (if necessary) and place it in our common platform. This is done as a common denominator showcase for all twelve to look uniform when the contest has reached its end.
5. Someone, not even in the top two, could see an element (such as an awesome secondary logo) appear in the final iteration. We would never select the winner based solely on a minor design element, but we will also not let it go to waste. In this, all submissions could be part of a bigger design team. This contest — and frankly this site — was created to identify the best possible combinations of logos and materials in the sports world. This rarely comes from one person’s mind; we will reward any of those that play a part in making our on-field product the best it can be.
Thanks, Ross. A few words about the submissions below:
Some of the contestants sent one single image, others sent multiple images. Some contestants sent descriptions (in some cases, very lengthy ones), others had little or no description. In an effort to make the voting as fair as possible, I have put those who sent multiple images into one single image, and no descriptions of the uniforms will follow. If you’d like to see all the entries for the Navigators and their write-ups/descriptions, I have hosted the entire set on Flickr. Keeping in mind Ross’ rules for voting, you may use these as an additional guide in determining which submission(s) you think are the best.
The submissions will be in alphabetical order and voting will follow. You may vote for any three of the concepts below. You may click on any image to enlarge. OK? OK. Here we go:
Bert Ayers:
Matthew Blinco:
Paul Bryce:
Scott de Fasselle:
Timothy Fesmire:
Ryan Foose:
Brady Ivie:
Denver King:
Kevin McLaughlin:
Curtis Peddle:
Bryan Phillips:
Peter Scharl:
Will Sinnott:
Bill Smith:
OK, readers. That’s quite an impressive set of contributions! Now it’s time for you to vote. You’ll be allowed to vote for up to THREE (3) submissions. You may wish to scroll up for one more viewing, and write down your favorites.
And now it’s your turn! Make sure to vote for your favorites and let all of the concepters know what you think of their designs. They all put a great deal of effort into this, so tell them how they did (and lobby for your favorites, if you wish).
Thanks to all the submitters ”” we’ll be back next weekend at which time Ross will reveal the winner(s) and how they will adapt the design for the Lewis & Clark league!
U.W.F.F.L. Spring League
By Rob Holecko
Well I’ve been asked to keep everyone at Uni Watch up-to-date with what’s going on in the Uni Watch Fantasy Football League (UWFFL) these days, so here we are. While the teams at the highest level of competition will be returning in the fall for our second season, a whole bunch of prospective expansion teams are currently competing in the UWFFL Spring Developmental League. Fifty-four teams are battling in six nine-team groups from now through June. Each team will play eight games, the other teams in their group each once, over a seventeen week period, and the best teams will be promoted to our fall leagues. The top two teams in each group will be promoted into Division II, and the teams that finish in 3rd through 5th will be promoted into Division III.
This week is already our fourth week of competition and some really strong teams have started to emerge. For instance, a team designed by Andrew Seagraves, the Greenville Pointers, has a really neat design and has started their season strong with a mark of 2-0, while a few other teams that also look to be among the favorites to advance are the St. John’s Stingers, the Little Rock Diamondbacks, the Philadelphia Puma and the British Columbia Lumberjacks:
A couple of old school NFL designs are also competing, the Dayton Triangles and the Providence Steamroller, as well as an Orlando Breakers team…
…that fans of a 1990s sitcom starring Craig T. Nelson might recognize.
These are just a sampling of some of the fifty-four teams competing in the developmental league for the right to get into the UWFFL this fall. Remember that these contests will all be decided by your votes! So be sure to head on over to our website at uwfantasyfootballleague.com and vote on our games this and every weekend during our spring season. Thanks again for your continued interest!
And for a final announcement, today we are launching a new Google+ page for people to submit future prospective expansion teams. So if you too would like to compete in the UWFFL, head on over and design a uniform and team identity to compete in the next round of expansion.
Uni Watch News Ticker:
Baseball News: The Red Sox got their 2013 WS rings yesterday, with their special gold-outlined unis & cap. … Here’s a very cool photo of an artist who painted on the upper deck seat in honor of Doug Rader’s very long home run in the Astrodome, which took place almost exactly 44 years ago (thanks to Garrett McGrath). … Not surprisingly, MLB and the Red Sox are selling the special jerseys/caps the Sox wore for yesterday’s ring ceremony (thanks to Harrison Tishler). … With the Red Sox wearing gold trimmed unis and caps yesterday, Gregory Shock wonders why “just one day a season? Why not every game this season?” He adds, “The reigning MLB champ would have the option to gold-trim their jerseys and hats for the entire season. My inspiration for this line of thinking comes from what the Barclays Premiereship does with their shoulder patches. The defending champions are primarily gold v white for the rest of the teams.” … The Cubs have added a new 100th Anniversary logo behind home plate (thanks to Matthew Robins). … Earliest known photo of a batting glove in use? Mike Williams writes, “This photo was a tag in David Schoenfield’s story (yester)day on Rabbit Maranville. Check out the Dodger player second from left. He is clearly wearing a batting glove on his right hand. Have you ever seen this in photo form as early as the 1930’s??” … Seen at Friday’s Nats game was this “GLUTEN-FREE” NOB jersey. You can read more here. Apparently this is not the first such sighting of such a thing, as several on Twitter mentioned this occurred last year (not sure if it was the same fan). … Matthew Robins was at the Cubs game yesterday, and took some photos of the exterior walls of Wrigley Field (celebrating its 100th Anniversary this year). If you want to view those individually (and read some descriptions), visit Matthew’s twitter feed. … It wasn’t quite as bad as this, but last night, the Astros (in orange softball tops) and Angels (in red) played a brutal-looking game. More photos here, if you dare (h/t Jim Vilk). … Check out this awesome old Sporting News ad featuring the Babe and Lou (via Dugout Legends). … Tonight is the Durham Bulls Championship Ring Ceremony, and, taking their cue from the Red Sox, will wear these gold-trimmed championship jerseys (h/t @The_Real_Cub). … If you’ve read Uni Watch for any length of time, you’d have known the answer to this Pawn Stars trivia question (thanks to Chris Flinn). … After an entire year hiatus, the Marlins’ orange caps are free at last. … The Giants have a handy “A by-the-shirt assist on what to wear Opening Day in S.F.” in case you’re wondering just what to wear to the park (thanks, Brinke).
NFL News: Check out what is described as an authentic “NFL NY FOOTBALL GIANTS 1970 Training Camp HAT” on eBay (submitted by Mark Gonillo). I like how the Item Condition is simply listed as “worn.” … There has been another sighting of the vintage Rams logo (h/t Josh Petty). … There will be seven players with the last name “Williams” playing for the Buffalo Bills in 2014, notes Andrew Cosentino: S Aaron, G Chris, S Duke, DE Kyle, DE Mario, LB Nathan, and now WR Mike. Andrew asks, “I wonder if Mario and Mike will go FNOB or if they’ll go with ‘MA. WILLIAMS’ and ‘MI. WILLIAMS.’ Whenever I see two first letters of a first name being used, I can’t help but think of ‘JA. LEWIS’ and ‘JE. LEWIS’.” … The long, national wait is over, as the L.A. Kiss will make their home debut this weekend, giving fans their first glimpse of this helmet on the field for the first time.
College Football News: The Arkansas Razorbacks appear to be teasing something in this video (sent in by Clay Mitchell) who writes, “I’m sure you’ve seen the grey uniforms sported by the football team and basketball team over the past two seasons — and then a buddy of mine stumbled across this gem. It’s from Razorvision, the official youtube channel of the Razorbacks.” Guess we’ll find out more on April 21. … Northwestern is the latest school to add the Riddell SpeedFlex helmet to its equipment (from Clint Richardson). … Also joining the SpeedFlex camp is MTSU (Clint, again). … Besides getting a new logo, FSU will be getting new uniforms and helmets, which will NOT be “Oregon-ish” (however, the spears on the helmets “now cross in the back of the helmet and are more Nike-ized”). … There is now a new name for the Red River Rivalry (h/t Tom Gronek). … Jordan Mastrogiovanni plays for Texas A&M, and (obviously) has a reaaaaaaaalllly long last name. To fit that name, the A&M equipment manager will make the letters 1/2 width, according to the aforementioned article (nice find by Colin [no last name given]).
Hockey News: “I found this link to photos of the Grand Rapids Griffins Calder Cup champions ring designing process,” says Bryan Kimball. They’re giving out the rings today, and Bryan “thought it was really interesting and I’d like to share it with the rest of the Uni Watchers.” … Tim Thomas, who was traded from the Panthers to the Stars last month (and wasn’t thrilled about it either), has gotten new pads (good spot by Casey Wieder). His old pads didn’t quite fit the Stars’ uni scheme.
Soccer News: There is a new home kit for Chelsea for 2014-15 (via Marcus Dilley, and also Ben Mann). You can see more in this video clip. … Omar Jalife checks in with this: “Mexico’s team uses Adidas jersey but Nike has proposed to their four LigaMx teams to wear a green jersey (imagine St Paddy’s) in order to promote support for the national team. The ones in the article I link are, from left to right, Atlas (normally black and red) and America (normally blue and yellow). Tijuana will play with a green version too (normally red and black) while Monterrey decided to stick to their usual uniform.”
Grab Bag: Not uni-related, but Brinke sends along this article on the woman behind Apple’s first icons — very cool read, especially for those of us old enough to remember those when they came out. … Auto racer Jeff Gordon has a helmet with a paint scheme based off of Texas A&M‘s design and logo (from Clint Richardson).
And that’s going to do it for this fine first Saturday in April. Hope everyone had a good Opening Day! Thanks to all the concepters for their efforts in today’s Lewis & Clark uni design contest — if you haven’t already, make sure you cast your votes for your three favorites. Ross will be back tomorrow when he reveals the winners of last weekend’s polling and reveal the logo for the winner(s), plus introduce the next team to be concepted. I will catch you guys then.
Follow me on Twitter @PhilHecken.
Peace.
“It seems to me that MLB clubs are hoping and praying that someone, anyone, tangentially related to the club will die so that they can wear a memorial patch. It’s become a boring, pointless ‘look at me’ gesture and it needs to stop.”
–Joe Owen
“gluten-free” is a Jayson Werth joke. last year on a FOX telecast Gio Gonzalez read the line-up and said something like “‘gluten-free’ Jayson Werth”
arrScott was right.
I was wrong, it wasn’t Gio or a FOX telecast, it was link.
We were writing the comment at the same time – if I’d seen yours first, I’d have assumed that you were right about Gio and my memory was playing tricks on me! But I’m pretty sure I’ve read jokes about Werth’s gluten-free thing from other players too.
The “Gluten Free” NOB almost certainly refers to Jayson Werth, who has introduced a number of dietary and workout innovations to the Nats clubhouse since arriving from Philadelphia. Last season, Ryan Zimmerman was doing an interview and was asked to play word association with some of his teammates’ names, and for Werth Zimm replied, “Gluten free.”
“Check out this awesome old Sporting News ad featuring the Babe and Lou (via Dugout Legends)”
I liked it better as my combo/animated version that I posted a few weeks ago: link
Great logo Scott de Fasselle really dig the “N” with the stars.
Hey, so has this been covered before? Looks like at least some of the people behind the Cooperstown Cap Company (RIP) are back at it with the Ideal Cap Company, steering clear of MLB trademarks. Though hopefully the somewhat copyright-dubious fictional caps section (such as this Westish Harpooners number link) won’t get them in hot water again.
“Not surprisingly, the MLB and the Red Sox are selling the special jerseys/caps the Sox wore for yesterday’s ring ceremony (thanks to Harrison Tishler).”
“the MLB” Really?
Yes, it’s just like “the NBA” or “the NFL”. Once you abbreviate the league name, it doesn’t matter if the full name actually works with “the” or not.
Besides, Major League Baseball doesn’t actually consist of separate leagues any longer. The traditionalists are just too stubborn to accept the National Baseball League and it’s American and National Baseball Conferences.
There is that little thing called the DH (pauses to spit on ground) that keeps the leagues separate.
I can accept one league…as long as one conference doesn’t play the other until the World Series. ;)
Indeed, Vilk, indeed. Two words: Interleague Play. The illusion of league separation died the moment those games counted in the standings. The Major League Baseball is a single league with an outdated and horribly awkward name.
Grouping all the umps together was another turning point.
“The Major Baseball League.” New era, new name.
Thanks for the defense, THE, but that’s a bad mistake for me to make. Easy one, if one concedes that the other leagues are all “The NFL, The NBA, The NHL” etc, but still. MLB is “Major League Baseball” and the definitive article is wrong.
Will fix.
And actually, in thinking back as to why I would even do that — I’m pretty sure I just had “The Red Sox are selling…” and didn’t want to pin all the blame on the team, so I added “MLB” where “Red Sox” appeared and then typed out “the Red Sox,” forgetting to remove the definitive article in front of MLB. Must not have picked it up in my proofing.
Not an excuse, mind you. Just how it came about. Because I’d never deliberately write “the MLB” on its own.
Thanks for making that change.
A separate but related issue is the creeping kiddie-speak of reading out “MLB” as “em el bee”. For a very long time, the abbreviation “MLB” was read out not as letters but as “Major League Baseball” Some abbreviations work like that: “HR” is read out as “home run”; “PF” and “PA” as “points for” and “points against”; and so forth. The abbrevation “MLB” was one of themn; the form “em el bee” was just something that was said by kiddies who didn’t know any better.
But ever since the MLB Network came on and started saying “em el bee” constantly, this scourge of kiddie-speak has been spreading. (In order to keep the tone consistent in “Em El Bee Network” promos, they should say that a show is beginning “when the big hand is on the twelve and the little hand is on the three”.)
An interesting situation occurred on a Net game last season when an on-screen graphic had a sentence that contained the abbreviation “MLB”. Mike Fratello read the sentence with “Major League Baseball” in there; while Ian Eagle read it with “em el bee” in there. So even some of the great pros of broadcasting are falling into kiddie-speak, which means that the battle will soon be lost.
On another note: MLS takes a hard line on the article, insisting that it never be used with the initials “MLS”, while the MLL always uses the article with its initals. (Nevertheles, “Major League Soccer” and “Major League Lacrosse” are very stupid names for leagues. The name “Major League Baseball” has a historic justification that these other two do not.)
Kiddie-speak? Really? Every acronym that isn’t easily pronounceable as a word (like NASA) typically ends up with “the” stuck in front of it. The FBI, the NRA, the NSA, the NFL, etc, etc.
Grow up.
(Sorry to respond to my own comment. This is meant as a response to Jeff; for some reason the “reply” link is not there.)
Note that I am not calling the use of the article “kiddie-speak”. That’s just plain wrong. (As is using the term “acronym” for an abbreviations that is not read as a word. “NASA” and “FIFA” are an acronym; “NFL” and “NSA” are not.)
What is “kiddie-speak” is the act of reading the abbreviation “MLB” as “em el bee” rather than as “Major League Baseball”. Therefore, the retort “grow up” applies to people who say this.
Alas, as I have already noted, this battle is probably already lost; this aspect of kiddie-speak is almost certainly here to stay. Nevertheless, it grates just as much as if an announcer stated that a player had a “boo-boo”, and for the same reason.
I was going to comment, but I have to go potty.
Guess you know what side I’m on now.
Why should it matter, considering we don’t grammatically use RBIs correctly either?
But we do! When spoken as words, of course it’s runs batted in, not run batted ins. But both acronyms (initials that you pronounce as a word, like NATO) and initialism (initials where you pronounce the letters as letters, like NFL) function as words, and so they become plural with a terminal S, as in “He finished the game two RBIs short of the franchise record.” RBIs, plural, is gramatically correct.
Yes, whether we like it or not, “em ell bee” is here to stay. It’s not going anywhere. I’m almost 56 and more often than not anymore, I say em ell bee. But you’ll NEVER get me to call it a “walk-off” whatever.
But aside from this, why is it always “The BBC” and sometimes “The CBC”, but NEVER “the CBS,” “the NBC,” “the ABC,” or ha ha, “the fox??”
Very happy to hear it was just an honest mistake and not an attempt to normalize nonsense grammar.
Wrong. “The” is a definite article in those instances, referring to a specific league or association. In the case of Major League Baseball (or Major League Soccer), using “the” as an article is just as incorrect in the full form as it is in the abbreviated form.
Love the Updated Friday uni for the Giants. Also,hope they update the home uni by switching the sleeve patch to SF baseball club design. They have already switched patches on the primary road uni, a definite improvement.
King, Phillips and Smith for the win today. Denver King’s design in particular blew me away.
Is it wrong for me to hope that whoever ends up with 2nd place is contacted by the Seattle Mariners?
Was thinking the same thing.
But I’d be happy if the M’s just switched to a teal cap and helmet full-time. Preferably blue-brimmed, but I’ll take full teal as well.
Re: the various Williamses
My guess is that Mike and Mario both wear “M. WILLIAMS” – duplicate NOBs have been allowed since 2007.
I may not vote on the Navigators until later tonight. Every one is so good that there are none that jump out at me as being superior. Probably the best set of submissions I’ve seen for any contest. Great work, guys!
-Jet
Agreed! Really hard to choose a favorite or call one the best. All are good, several are excellent. I wound up voting for Bryan Phillips’ design, but it was essentially a matter of flipping a mental coin between three entries.
but it was essentially a matter of flipping a mental coin between three entries.
The rules said you could vote for 3. I feel bad for the other 2 entries you cheated out of a vote.
What? I’ve been doing it wrong all along. I may have to go vote for the other two on a computer with a different IP address to fix the karma. Thanks for pointing out my error!
I almost wish the Pirates still had their red alts and wore them the whole series against the Cardinals to force them to wear their blue hats on the road as they should be wearing full time. Unfortunately after looking so much better in Cincinnati they were back to the red again last night. Such a tragedy. Bring back the blue on the road full time!
I wonder how Angelinos feel about a team playing all the way over in Anaheim bearing the “Los Angeles” moniker. It’s nice to see the arena team won’t be forced (yet) to change the name to be the LA KISS of Anaheim, or Anaheim KISS, or California KISS.
For the sake of the league and the designers who spent the time putting together original concepts…
Brady Ivie’s design should be looked into further…
link
Thank you so much for linking to the Griffins’ ring design slideshow. That was so interesting! I’d love to see more like that!
The “new” St Louis Rams logo is the design that they use for the twice a season throwback game. #keeptheramsinSTL