Wednesday, August 1: What Might Have Been

Today I have a re-imagining of some uniforms which could have been from Canucks history. I remember reading (on Icethetics, I think) that the logo which is now use for the WHL's Vancouver Giants was originally intended to be a Canucks logo. This makes a lot of sense, as it plays on the Johnny Canuck/Lumberjack motif, which is not the first image that pops into my mind when the word "Giant" is mentioned. Ultimately this logo was rejected by the Canucks, but has found a happy home on the front of the Giant's sweaters ever since they joined the WHL in 2001.

The fact that this logo was first rejected by the Canucks, and then introduced by the Giants in 2001, leads one to think that this logo may have been considered when planning the new alternate sweater which the Canucks introduced in 2001. This would have been a major departure from the Orca Bay logos, and a huge step back in line with the original Canucks identity. Perhaps the Third jersey would have ended up looking something like this:

As you can see, I have maintained the layout of the third jersey worn from 2001-2006, but have used an updated version of the Giants crest instead of the Orca. I have simplified the Giants crest to instead be a V shape (for Vancouver), instead of a G shape (for Giants). I have also altered the colour scheme to fit the colour scheme worn by the Canucks from 1997-2007 (the fact that this recolouring does not appear forced, also adds soem legitimacy to the thought that the Giants logo was originally intended as a Canucks logo). I maintained maple leaf detail on the Lumberjack's sleeve, however, did try to make it more subtle. I do think that it is kind of tacky for a Canadian team to feel obliged to put a maple leaf somewhere in their logo, but Canuck is a slang term for Canadian, so I don't feel that the inclusion of a maple leaf is unwarranted.

Just for fun I have also included home and road sweaters which go along with this concept. I based them off of where I felt that the third jersey design, and other similarly progressive jersey designs from 2001 in the NHL, were leading.  Hope you enjoy!

So that's that. Fun to relive one of my favourite eras from Canucks history, and do a bit of historical re-imagination, and a bit of logo alteration. All around good times. Hope you enjoyed it as much as I have.

Come back on friday to see some more concepts from contributor Steven Grant.

I will be back on the weekend, but can't promise a post, however I will be able to publish any comments which you have submitted in the past week. 

Thanks for reading!

Friday, July 27: Contributor Concepts

Hey everyone, we've made it to yet another friday, which means we have some more work from people other than me.

Before we get to that, a bit of housekeeping. As I mentioned, next week I will be on vacation, and have set up some auto-posts to go up while I am away. I laid out a schedule of these posts on Wednesday, but have had to scrap one of the posts (the one on monday, simply because I did not have enough time to write it, and do everything else which I needed to do before I left). There will be posts on wednesday and friday, and I hope to finish the scrapped monday post when I return home on thursday, and post it on the weekend.

Anyways, lets get on with the concepts:

This week marks the debut of Steven Grant on the blog. Steven runs his own concept site (sg-94.blogspot.ca) but has kindly sent along some Canucks concept work to me.

Steven sent along his ideal Canucks sweater set. The home and road sweaters are very similar to the sweaters worn from 1972-1978, except the logos have been slightly altered, making the overall shape and outline pattern really similar to the current updated Stick in the Rink logo, but maintaining the simple "stick" part of the logo, and staying true to the original colouring of the jerseys. I really like these subtle changes. Good work, they really do make a difference. As you probably know, I am not a fan of the striping pattern introduced in 1972 (I have always thought that the 1970-72 striping was much more creative), but I really can't complain about my personal preference. This look is classic, and well put together.

THE THIRD JERSEY IS AWESOME!!! It's green. It's retro. It uses the VC logo. It reminds us of the millionaires jersey. If I were me making this sweater, I might make the hem stripes straight, and I might make the shoulder numbers a bit bigger. Other than that, no complaints. Really well done Steven, I look forward to seeing and posting more of your Canucks concepts.

Thanks for stopping by, and thanks for reading! I look forward to seeing your comments, and emails when I get back!

Saturday July 21: Evolution of the V

For the weekend's post I thought I would give you a glimpse into my creative process, and show you how these Flying Vs came to be.

I started making hockey jersey in early 2011 (have I only been doing it that long!?!) the first ever design I made was an Ottawa Senators jersey which I posted to my facebook. Soon afterwards I posted a few Canucks concepts, and a my friend David said "Wanna make up a demo for the flying V in blue, green, and white? I still want to see the Canucks try that. With Johnny Canuck as the Shoulder patch."

I did and just that, and here is what I came up with. This is one of my very early designs, so please, go easy on me!

I was very happy with these at the time, but as my skills improved, I knew I would have to revisit these at some point. This was one of the reasons I started SOAC, so that I could revisit some of my old Canucks designs, and apply my improved skills and ideas to them. These were pretty good for having only been designing jerseys for a week or so, but still, there is a lot to be improved upon.

The next step in this process came a few weeks ago when I posted a trifecta of Flying V concepts on this blog from Stéphane, Justin, and myself. Truth be told, I really hated the designs I came up with. They were too busy. Here they are again, anyways.

These looked more like Ms than Vs, but there were elements there which I did like. They just needed some refining and simplifying. That was the next step to come. I finally felt like I was getting somewhere. here are the results of the refining and simplifying.

I was really starting to become comfortable with what I had created, but that is where some more help came along from regular reader and contributor Stéphane, who suggested I cut off the V at the sleeve stripe, and switch some of the colours around. I likes his suggestions, they made the jersey more balanced and logical, while still reminding me of the original Canucks flying V uniforms. Just for fun, I also made up a green version of this sweater. Here are the final versions, which are now posted in the final concepts page.

So there you have it. Those are the finalized flying Vs, and that is how they came to be.

Next weekend I will also have an "evolution" post where I look back at some of my VERY early Canucks jersey designs. This will be a very unique, and interesting post. I won't say more than that. check back for next Saturday for that.

More Flying V updates

Hello Everyone, hope you enjoyed the weekend (and monday...), I had a great weekend! Thanks for dropping by SOAC even though I haven't updated the blog in a few days. I feel like I had a really good excuse though, I had a weekend pass to the Vancouver Folk Music Festival and spent the entire weekend outside in the sun (and the rain... this is Vancouver). It was a really great weekend, listening to really good music, in a really beautiful setting.

The festival took place in Jericho Beach park in Vancouver, on the shore or the Burrard Inlet. The park itself has many nice forest groves, and is steps away from the beach (and Pacific Ocean, perfect for a quick dip on a hot afternoon!) and has a wonderful view of the Coast mountains on the North Shore of the inlet.

photo from: 604pulse.com

Even though I took a break from doing any concepts or work on the blog this weekend, it doesn't mean I wasn't thinking about it. Sitting and looking at the ocean and mountains and trees (and their vivid shades of green and blue), I was reminded how perfect the Canucks' colour scheme is for this city. I also want to make a concept inspired by Vancouver's landscape, but I have other things to do and finish up before I take that on, good thing because I still need some time to formulate that idea in my mind.

For today's concepts I have a few updates on the flying V sweaters I posted last week. I had a few suggestions which I implemented, and a few additional options for this concept which I have made up. I have also added a green version.

The big change with all of these concepts is stopping the arm stripes at the piping. This is definitely more in the spirit of the original flying Vs, but steps away from the modern trend to have arm stripes all the way around the arm, over the vertical arm stripes or piping (like the Jets and Kings currently have on their sweaters). I like the way it looks, but am obviously open to suggestions.

Blue Option 1:

Blue Option 2:

White Option 1:

White Option 2:

Green Option 1:

Green Option 2:

So there you have it, plenty of options for modernized flying Vs. Let me know which ones you like best, or if you have any suggestions to make these better! I will be finalizing these concepts by the weekend (I fell like they are VERY close to being complete).

Also, if you have a Canucks concept you would like to send in, feel free to! I hope to feature other people's Canucks concepts regularly on fridays. The email you can send your concepts to is: shirtofacanuck@gmail.com

Thanks for reading!

Flying V Updates

Ok, so when I posted my flying V concepts last saturday, I didn't love them. The more I looked at them, the more I hated them. They were too busy, and the V was entirely lost. With the vertical arm striping the overall shape of the sweater was an M. I liked the idea I had, but couldn't come up with any design which I really liked.

So I took a step back and worked on another non-Canucks concept for a while, and came back with fresh eyes. I simplified my concept, using Stéphane's suggestion to do away with the coloured arms in favour of simply using the outline to suggest the arm stripes from the 1978-85 flying V jerseys.

Here is what I have come up with:


Home Uniform:

Away Uniform:

Let me know what you think.

With a Little Help from my Friend.

Hey everyone, I don't know if you recall me mentioning I was working with Justin on a concept. for those of you who have not heard, Justin (from The Art of Hockey) and I have been working on a concept together. It is now complete. Justin approached me with a proposition to use my home and away sweaters, and his third sweater (which was posted in the post I linked to previously in this post) to create a collaborated Canucks uniform set. I agreed, and have had a lot of fun doing this over the past couple weeks.

Working with someone else is great, they can catch your mistakes, make alterations to make the concept better, or you can bounce ideas off of them. But it is not without its challenges. Working on the V in the arm striping took us five back and forths before we came up with something that was as I wanted it (thanks again Justin for putting up with this!), but all the back and forth was worth it because in the end it looks great.

The only real alteration made to my home and road jerseys (other than the template) is in the collar striping. Instead of modelling that after the current Canucks' collars, they are based off the 1970 original jerseys.

A lot has changed in Justin's jersey since its original incarnation. It was giving me a vintage vibe, so that is the direction we took it. We added collar laces, and simplified the striping making white more prevalent and eliminating silver. We also used the Canucks' 40th anniversary numbers, which are big and blocky, and ooze tradition.

All in all we are both really pleased with the alterations made to our work, and I for one think they are better for having input from someone else.

Who wants to be a Millionaire?

Voting finished up yesterday evening for the Vancouver Millionaires uniforms. Thanks to everyone who voted on these, and stopped by throughout the process to give feedback. A decent amount od votes were cast and they were helpful in determining which jersey sets to choose.

For the Home uniform, it was a no brainer. 11 of 12 votes were cast for option 1, here is the final concept for that, I will also be posting these on the Final Concepts page. I have also included a full body view of the uniform for this concept. I don't know if I will do this for all my concepts from here on out, but for these ones I already made them up during the creative process, so I am going to include them this time.

Home Winter/Heritage Classic uniform:

The second uniform was not so clear cut in terms of voting. 6 of 12 votes went to option 3, while 5 of 12 votes went to option 1. Both of these have real strengths. I like the fact that the equipment from option 1 matches the equipment from the home uniform, but I think with the "faux-canvas" pants there is just too much vintage white going on. The brown "faux-leather" pants provide the easy fix to this problem.


Away Winter/Heritage Classic uniform:

Well, there you have it, these Millionaires inspired Winter/Heritage Classic uniforms are complete.

Check out what's coming up next:

Check back tomorrow to see the completed collaboration between myself and Justin which I mentioned a while ago.

Some edits on the flying V concept which I posted last saturday will be coming this week as well.

This friday I will be featuring a new concept artist on the blog. Drop by then to check it out!

Let's wrap this up.

Okay everyone. I am getting tired of working on these Winter Classic uniforms. I have been working on these for a few weeks on the blog, plus a week or so before I posted them, and these concepts have been floating in my mind for a few months. Needless to say, I just want to finish these up.

I am going to treat them as straight-up throwbacks, and not include any Canucks branding on them, not even a hidden blue-on-blue shoulder patch. When the Canucks participate in an outdoor game, I predict that they will blend the Canucks and Millionaires brands, and include the Stick in the Rink logo somewhere on the uniform. However, what I am creating are not intended as predictions, they are concepts, and I think that they are indeed better without that logo on them.

Also, with the inclusion of a Winter Classic patch on the jersey, if there were shoulder patches, the jersey could be very cluttered. Most of the "Classic" jerseys have not had shoulder patches for this reason (Detroit's in 2009 being the only exception, although shoulder patches were also added to Chicago's 2009 Winter Classic jersey following the 2009 season, when this uniform began to be worn as a full time alternate).

For these reasons, in addition to many suggestions by respected contributers to leave them off the sweaters, I will leave them off. Instead I have added a generic Winter Classic shoulder patch on all concepts, which was designed by Ryan Haslett, who runs HJC.

Also with the elimination of the shoulder patches I took the opportunity to make the numbers on the sleeves larger, as well as the numbers on the back. I think this adds to the vintage feel.

So with those most recent alterations made, the jerseys, as I see them, are complete (obviously if you have any brilliant ideas, still pass them along). The uniforms are not, though.

The home/dark uniform is perhaps simpler in putting together than the away uniform, because there is an existing Millionaires uniform from which to model them. This home uniform will be as close to a direct throwback as possible. Vintage white (faux-canvas) pants, brown (faux-leather) gloves. However, we do hit a snag when we come to the decision of what the helmet should look like. The Millionaires did not wear helmets, so we have some freedom as to what colour we make them.

For the away/light version of the sweater, I experimented with a number of different options. one thing was very clear from that: having socks which are mainly vintage white does not work, if the socks are not mostly blue, there is simply too much vintage white. As well, I was having some hang ups with using vintage white pants with the mainly vintage white jersey, I thought that huge vintage white area would be a bit awkward, in reaction to this, I created a couple concepts using brown pants instead. I thought they looked pretty decent so I applied the same treatment to some home uniform concepts as well.

I think a plain blue helmet looks best, but a brown one, to create the illusion of a leather helmet could work. I have arranged all the equipment in the way it would look on a player, so we can get a good feel of how the uniform looks as a whole.


Enough talking, on to the concepts:

HOME OPTION 1:

HOME OPTION 2:

HOME OPTION 3:

HOME OPTION 4:

AWAY OPTION 1:

AWAY OPTION 2:

AWAY OPTION 3:

AWAY OPTION 4:

There are two separate polls for you to cast your vote for your favourite version of the home and away uniforms. And, as always, feel free to leave suggestions, or voice your opinions in the comments.

Thanks for stopping by!

UPDATE: Oh Canada!

Stéphane just sent me an email, with a Canucks concept from him for Canada day.

When I was little, I asked my parents what a Canuck was, and they told me it meant a Canadian. This really confused me, because there was already a team in the NHL called the Canadiens (which I knew was the French version of Canadians). So for a while I thought that the Canucks and Canadiens were the same team.

Stéphane's concept reminded me of this story as soon as I looked at it. His purpose was simply to make a bit of a joke. I really do find it funny that two of the seven Canadian NHL teams have variants of the term "Canadian" as their nicknames. I also find it funny that three of the seven Canadian teams have a "C" shaped logo. Stéphane really play this up in this concept, a blending of the Canucks and Canadiens. Hockey is something that unites Canadians from coast to coast, but I think Stéphane may have taken that idea to the extreme with this brand blending concept.

As you will recognize this is a Canadiens home sweater done up in Canucks colours. The C shaped logo switches from the famous CH crest, to the Canucks Orca. This concept has alerted me to another similarity the Canucks and Canadiens share: the arm striping on the home jersey, it is uncanny how similar they are!


Stéphane is a big Lapierre fan, and was very sad to see him traded to Vancouver at the 2011 trade deadline. This concept is an attempt to ease Lapierre out of Vancouver and lure him back to Montréal. 

Tying Up (or Lacing Up) Loose Ends

Thanks for dropping by! Double thanks if you stopped by last week to voice your opinion (via vote) on what a Canucks classic uniform should look like.

I have been working with the Vancouver Millionaires sweater as my jumping off point, and had come up with many options (check out older posts to see all the options) . The basic questions which we voted on last week determined the role of the Canucks colour scheme would be on these sweaters. 63% of voters said the Canucks should use vintage white on a classic sweater, and 53% of voters voted for a blue and white jersey (omitting green entirely for the purpose of simplicity). What these votes tell me is this: "Keep it simple. Keep it classic."


So with our results form last week, we have our classic home sweater determined:

As I mentioned last week, I want to make a matching version of this home sweater for the road sweater, however that does not necessarily mean taking the simple route of inverting the colours.

As presented in the middle of last week, I see two possible options that could work really well for creating a matching road sweater to go with this home sweater.

OPTION 1:

This one is a direct inversion of the home sweater.

OPTION 2:

This option is largely an inversion, except for the shoulder yoke and collar area, which basically matches the same area on the home sweater.

There is a new poll up on the site. Vote on which jersey you prefer. Also, if you have any suggestions on either of them, let me know in the comments below.

On to the fun stuff!

A Winter Classic or Heritage Classic uniform would not be complete without equipment. There are many different ways which we could go with the equipment. I could make them brown to mimic leather. I could make them navy blue to match the sweaters. I could make them vintage white to mimic the canvas look. I am not so concerned with having matching equipment, because these are specialty uniforms. I am more concerned with composing two uniforms (complete with equipment) which look really good. If they match, great. If not, no big deal.

I am going to post options for helmets, gloves, and pants and then discuss what my optimal combination for both home and away uniforms. I also have done up socks which logically follow the striping pattern, if you have any suggestions on those, obviously comment below.

Helmet options:
brown, blue, vintage white

Glove options:
blue and "canvas", brown and "canvas", brown

Pants options:
"canvas", brown, blue

Socks:
blue, vintage white

For the home uniform I would choose the brown helmet, with the brown and "canvas" gloves, and the "canvas" pants, with the blue socks.

For the away uniform I would choose the brown helmet, with the brown and "canvas" gloves, and the brown pants, with the vintage white socks.

Let me know which combination you like in the comments below. Also, don't forget to vote on the poll.

Thanks for reading, check back later in the week for more fun stuff!

Making the Canucks Look Like a Million Bucks

Once the 2013 winter classic is complete, Vancouver, Ottawa, and Winnipeg will be the only Canadian teams which have not participated in an outdoor game. The Vancouver Millionaires defeated the Ottawa Senators for the Stanley Cup in 1915. A 2015 Heritage Classic between the Canucks and Senators to commemorate the 1ooth anniversary of that match seems a very likely possibility. I, however, would be very disappointed to have to wait that long to see the Canucks in an outdoor game. The Canucks are one of the best teams in the NHL right now, and they are as popular and widely supported as they have ever been. In my opinion, if the NHL waited until 2015 to put the Canucks in a "classic" game, it would be a huge mistake.

One thing that this outdoor game possibility has right is the Vancouver Millionaires. Any defensive Vancouverite, when mocked by a Calgarian about the number of Stanley Cups won by their team will pull out the Millionaires, saying something like "Well, Vancouver has won a Stanley Cup..."

Recently, the Canucks bought the rights to the Millionaires brand, and it seems like a sure thing that the Canucks will wear Millionaires inspired sweaters when they get their shot at playing in a classic.

Millionaires throwback uniforms have been done in Vancouver. The WHL Vancouver Giants have worn them in the past. But the problem with a direct Millionaires throwback is that it does not embody any of the Canucks brand. The Giants wear burgundy, so to switch to a burgundy uniform with the "Vancouver V" crest on the front did not really threaten their brand. For the Canucks, at this point to introduce any new colours would hurt their brand.

These jerseys were pretty cool, and had all the elements of a classic jersey. Sweet old-school striping, a simple logo, and the most important thing for any classic uniform: a lace-up collar. All in all, these uniforms do scream retro, and represent Vancouver really well, but they do not represent the Canucks very well, mainly because of the colour scheme.

So, the solution seems pretty obvious to me. Millionaires jerseys in the Canucks' blue, white, green colour scheme. However, one question still remains: to vintage white, or not to vintage white?

Today's post will include options for a dark sweater. I will show each one with white, and vintage white. All concepts use the classic 4 bars on the arm striping, a lace-up collar, and the Millionaires "Vancouver V" logo. I have used a darker blue than the Canucks usually wear, but it is still technically part of the Canucks colour scheme, because it is used in their logos. Also, to add some more Canucks flavour to the uniforms, I have included a subtle stick in the rink logo on the shoulders in a slightly lighter blue. here they are:

Classic Concept 1

white:

vintage white:

For this first set of jerseys I have only used the dark blue, and have basically subbed it for the maroon. For the Numbers I have used a stitched on style like Buffalo did with their anniversary jerseys. Again notice the subtle stick in the rink shoulder patches.

Although I feel that these jerseys stay true to both the heritage of the millionaires and the identity of the Canucks, some might criticize these sweaters for looking like they belong to Toronto, because of the simple blue and white colour scheme. These next options consider how best to include green on the sweaters.

Classic Concept 2:

white:

vintage white:

I have added green between the white arm stripes to bring in some more of the Canucks' identity by including their three main colours. However, the green arm stripes seem like they are trying too hard, and having three of them is too bold in my opinion, and doesn't fit the understated and simple nature of the rest of the sweater. But to have some green on the jersey is important, it just needs to be a bit more subtle.

Classic Concept 3:

white:

vintage white:

By eliminating two of the green arm stripes, I think a simplicity is reached within both the millionaires, and Canucks identities.

I am going to put up a poll where you can vote on your favourite jersey, and whether you think the Canucks should go for the vintage white.

If you have any feedback or suggestions, fell free to share them with me in the comments section. With your help these concepts get better.

check back in the next few days to see me take on some road versions of the millionaires sweater. Ultimately I would like to create a matching set, but there is some flexibility within that. Also, notice I have not included equipment with these sweaters like I normally do, that is because there are decisions on that which I would like your help with as well.

Thanks for reading!