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!

Classic Away Jersey Update

Based on a suggestion be Stéphane, to use the same crest from the home version of this sweater, I have made a few alterations. It seems that this sweater is proving more challenging than I initially thought it would. All of these are definitely works in progress.

Take a look at these options, if you have any thoughts, comment below.

Check back tomorrow for some concepts, which aren't mine! Also, some more fun stuff coming up on the Canada day long weekend!

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!

Continuing to Conceive a Canucks Classic

Yesterday I mentioned that there were options when it came to the away version of the Millionaires inspired Canucks Winter Classic jerseys.

Back in 1915 it was very rare for a team to have home and road sweaters. And the Vancouver Millionaires were no different. So, for me there is no light sweater off of which to base a Millionaires inspired Canucks road concept.

The best option seems to be to let the dark jersey dictate what the light jersey will look like. Basically all the choices will be made in terms of vintage white or not, and the striping pattern when we work out which route to take with the home version of the sweater. The away version will match. However, I am a big fan of the shoulder yoke when used on a lighter coloured jersey, and I think it could really work in this case. Let me know what you think!

white:

vintage white:

white with yoke:

vintage white with yoke:

Thanks for reading!

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!