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!

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.

Finally, Some more Flying Vs

Hello again everyone. It has been a slow week on Shirt of a Canuck this week (mainly because it has been a busy week in real life for me). It is the first beautifully sunny Saturday of the summer here in Vancouver, and I (of course) am at home with a cold (probably because I had a busy week). That just means I can catch up on the blog.

Over a week ago I posted concepts from Stéphane and Justin, and hinted at upcoming posts. Today, one of those upcoming posts is here. Today, for your viewing pleasure, I have some blue and green Flying V concepts from Stéphane, Justin, and myself. What I like most about all of these concepts is that they are all very different.

Without further ado, here are the concepts:

Justin's striping design stays very true to the original, with the Vs in the arm stripes. I was unsure about using the stick in the rink logo as a shoulder patch, but it seems to work here. The one thing I would change on this concept is the partial green cuff stripe, I would just keep it blue.

A while ago Stéphane sent in a Flying V concept in the Canucks' Hallowe'en colours. He has sent in a couple more versions of this concept in blue and green. As you will notice, the players he has selected to use for the names and numbers are not Canucks. Stéphane is a Habs fan, and is still a bit sore about losing Lapierre, and has proposed a few trades to me in an attempt to get even for the Lapierre trade. As the unofficial GM of the Canucks I have acquired Scott Gomez from in exchange for a enough money to pay the Electricity Bill in Roger's Arena for the next few seasons, and a one way ticket to Chicago. This jersey would never happen, because Gomez would never wear a Canucks sweater (a Chicago Wolves sweater, maybe?).

My only complaint for this sweater is the use of the Orca logo, which I do not feel represents the Canucks brand well. Other than that it looks awesome.

Stéphane has also sent in a green version, with the Johnny Canuck V logo. This one also looks really good, except for the name on the back. Number 22 IS NOT AVAILABLE.

This is better...

I just wanted to do a version of the Flying V which was different from any other version I have seen.  I don't really like how the arm stripes on the original Flying Vs only go part way around the arms. This was a big complaint with arm striping when the Reebok Edge uniform system was introduced. Recently a few teams have taken steps to fix this (notably the LA Kings, and Winnipeg Jets) I started to imagine it based off the Jets away jersey with the arm stripes going all the way around the sleeves, and over top of the vertical striping on the sleeves. What do you think? was the experiment a success?

I also made a matching road version. And since it is meant to match, I didn't really have a choice as to which player I chose for the name and number on the back of the sweater.

Thanks for stopping by!

Concepts From Friends Friday!

Hello everyone, we've made it to another friday!
Today I am excited to introduce a new feature on the blog which will hopefully become a regular thing. I have mentioned on previous posts that I have set up an email account for the blog (shirtofacanuck@gmail.com) and am accepting concept submissions (obviously Canucks themed) to be posted on the blog. 

I have had some awesome contribution on the blog from some other fellow bloggers (Stéphane from Le Troisiéme Chandail, and Justin from The Art of Hockey), this has not only been through comments and suggestions on my concepts, they have also sent in some of their own work to me.

Stéphane's work strays a little from the blue and green brand identity that I, as a 21 year old Vancouverite, see fitting best for the Canucks. Nonetheless, Stéphane's work is flawlessly executed, and creatively based in the era of Canucks history which he identifies with most strongly.

As Stéphane wrote:

I don't know why most Canucks fans don't want to talk about the "big Vs" years… For me, those jerseys represent the real Canucks. It reminds me of Tony Tanti, Stan Smyl, Richard Brodeur… The years when the Canucks were in town (Montreal that is) with jerseys that no other teams could match: different, original, new. I sure wish that they could bring back that black jersey with the dominant V as a third (cause I really don't believe they will step away from blue and green now).

Obviously to complete this "wish" Stéphane would like the name on the back of the sweater to be GOMEZ instead of LAPIERRE, but seeing as Mike Gillis has again proved himself a capable GM (with the recent Schneider signing), I don't see that happening anytime soon.

I really like this design. It is way more logical than the original flying V sweaters, but does not lose any of the boldness of the original sweaters.

I have really grown to enjoy the flying V sweaters (I definitely want to add one to my jersey collection!). Stéphane mentioned that he doesn't think that the Canucks will abandon the blue and green colour scheme, but to bring back the Vs, you don't necessarily need to bring back the hallowe'en colours. One of the first ever concepts I did was a Flying V jersey in blue and green. This post acts as a bit of a teaser for the updated version I am working on. Look forward to that in the next week or so.

Justin has also sent in a great concept. A few weeks ago when I was working on green alternate sweaters, Justin sent his take along.

There are a number of things I like about this concept, love the green, love the fact that Justin does not shy away from the striping (I tend to be way more minimalist when it comes to stripes, Justin is brave enough to make all these stripes work!). I also love the logos. That VC logo is a hidden gem, and I have no idea why the Canucks have not used it on a jersey yet.

His presentation of the full body skating Johnny Canuck logo is one of the two ways that I have seen work on the front of a jersey. The second is the way I presented in this post, which I admittedly did not come up with. I think I first saw it some sort of Canucks official merchandise (maybe a T-shirt or flag). By itself, the skating Johnny Canuck logo seems awkward and unbalanced to me (almost as awkward looking back on this photo retrospectively after the 2011 Stanley Cup final...). Even Tanner Glass can't make these jerseys look great, although if having awkward looking sweaters for the rest of time meant having Glass back on the Canucks, I would seriously consider taking that offer, what a gamer!

I like the old-timey vibe I get from Justin's green third jersey, and have encouraged him to push it a little further. Justin came to me with the idea of collaborating on a Canucks jersey set. His third with my home and away sweaters. This is really great because together we can make all of our jerseys better. When we finish our collaboration, I will definitely post it. Consider this another teaser!

Anyways, that is all I have for today. Check back for Canada day stuff this weekend. Next week I am going to continue working on the classic uniforms, hopefully we can make some headway on those and get them wrapped up by the end of next week.

Thanks for dropping by!

Faux-Back Friday

The first real Canucks jersey I ever owned is perhaps the ugliest Canucks jersey I own, and definitely one of the ugliest sweaters from Canucks history: the Canucks third jersey which they wore from 2001-2006. This jersey brings back many memories from my childhood. This jersey really sparked my interest in jersey design. Back then not all of the Canucks games were on TV, so on many nights I would sit at my desk colouring (designing hockey jerseys or copying pictures of Canucks players from magazines) and listening to Tom Larschied and John Shorthouse call the games on the radio.

These were really exciting tomes to be a Canucks fan. For 3 big reasons.

This was the time where I truly became a Canucks fan. They were a really exciting team, had very good players (Naslund is still my favourite Canuck of all time, and if Bertuzzi wanted to come back to Vancouver I would welcome him with open arms), and if they had have gotten a solid goaltender (eg. anyone but this guy) I think they would have had a really solid chance at a cup.

Anyways enough reminiscing. To honour this era from Canucks history I have made up a couple faux-back uniforms in an attempt to make this third jersey which I adore for sentimental reasons, but is overall hideous, fit better within the context of the Canucks brand.

Here they are

The first is fits better with the current Canucks brand, rather than my idealized brand identity for the Canucks. This does add some confusion to the identity as a whole with the use of the whale on the front, but it is the most direct parallel from that era to our current one.

the second one is designed to better fit the Canucks brand as a whole. It employs the full body Johnny Canuck logo as the main crest with the arched Vancouver wordmark (my favourite element of the current home and away sweaters) above. This adds a bit of balance to the logo; the skating Johnny Canuck image, although iconic, is awkward by itself as the main logo.

Both uniforms use an unused interlocking "VC" logo for the shoulder patches. This logo is clean and simple, and for this reason, the Canucks will probably never use it, except on merchandise.

Check back on monday as I start the process of designing Winter Classic uniforms for the Canucks.

Thanks for reading.

A Quick Wednesday Update

Well its official, for the third season in a row Canucks have lost to the eventual Stanley Cup champions. Congratulations to the Los Angeles Kings for a dominant Stanley Cup run. Hopefully next season the Canucks will be the Stanley Cup champs rather than being beaten by them.

Just a reminder that the poll for your favourite green alternate sweater closes friday night at 11:59 pm, PDT so vote now, or forever hold your peace. I am excited to see the which one gets the consensus, as of right now, option 4 seems to be pulling away. Once the poll closes, the winning concept will go up on the final concepts page. I am eager to get these final concepts published because there are a lot of talented concept artists coming up with great Canucks concepts which are very similar to mine. My heart nearly skipped a beat (TWICE) when I looked at HJC today, there are a couple fantastic Canucks concepts on there which are strikingly similar to mine. NB14 and Thomas L. are clearly on the same wavelength as I am, in terms of where we think the Canucks should go with their uniforms.

If YOU are a concept artist, and are working on Canucks concepts, feel free to send them in to me at shirtofacanuck@gmail.com, and I will see about getting them posted.

Also speaking of blogs and concepts, huge thanks to Ryan at HJC, and Stéphane at Le troisième chandail for mentioning my blog. Because of this, traffic has been up over the past few days, and as a result I have gotten some feedback which has helped me to develop one of my concepts into something way better than I started out with.

Thanks to Stéphane and Steven, I have an update to the white skate on a plate faux-back (which I posted last friday). The jersey seemed too "blue and white," and the green was downplayed in the striping, yet overplayed in the lettering. Stéphane suggested I switch the thickness of the green and white stripes. This suggestion turned out to be a brilliant idea. The end product looks like a winner.

here it is:

UPDATE

I have played with the colouring in the logo. Here are some other option which I was considering, not sure either of them are better than the last one I posted. Anyways, here they are:

VERSION 1:
To add more green, I swapped the green and white outlines, made the larger stripes in the skate white instead of green to balance the contrast, and made the lettering green. I don't like this one, because the outer outline gets lost.

VERSION 2:
This one is simply the first logo with green instead of white for the lettering.

VERSION 3:
This one again has the green letters instead of the white. Also I have swapped the green and white stripes in the boot of the skate to add more contrast throughout the logo. This is my favourite from the three options with recoloured logos, but I am undecided if I like this one more than the original crest I used.




Let me know which of these is your favourite in the comments.

Look back here on friday for another entry in the faux-back series.

Next week I will be diving headlong into Canucks Winter Classic jerseys.

Thanks for reading!

Fun Faux-Backs for Friday

Here are the next two concepts in my Canucks faux-back series.

These Concepts borrow from many eras in Canucks' uniform history, but the main inspiration comes from the 1985-89 jerseys. Those uniforms were the first to feature the classic "Skate on a Plate" logo as the main crest. These jerseys also featured a shoulder yoke which formed "V" shapes on the Canucks uniform (a really clever feature if you ask me... you didn't, but you are reading my blog so I do feel like I am allowed to share this opinion).

Re-imagining these sweaters posed a large challenge for me; many updates were necessary to get these jerseys to a place where I felt happy with them. First and foremost was the modification of the "Skate on a Plate" logo. I simplified it, then recoloured it in the classic blue, white, and green.

The shoulder yokes were also a challenge. I wanted to create a more modern look with the "V" yokes; I did not want to simply recolour the 1985-89 jerseys. Fortunately for me another local-ish team had just gone through a uniform update and employed elements across the collar bone and shoulder area which reminded me of the shoulder yokes on the old Canucks uniforms. Thank you Seattle Seahawks for the inspiration.

     

The Seahawks shoulder striping gave me a jumping off point for the modernized "V" yokes.
I continued the stripe which forms the "V" on the shoulders through the collar area, and collar tag to create a sense of flow through the uniform.

The arm stripes are a hybridization of many different striping patterns from the Canucks' uniform catalogue. The width of the stripes are inspired by the stripes from the 1989-97 dark uniform, and the angled nature of the stripes is inspired by the 1997-2007 uniform striping.

The pants are inspired by the pants worn with the 1985-89 uniforms, and feature a "V" on them.

Without further ado, here they are. Hope you enjoy them.

Thanks for reading. Vote on the poll. Comment below.

Going Green

There is a green deficiency in the NHL today.

Throughout the Canucks history, they have worn basically every colour jersey, except green, which seems ridiculous, especially considering the prominence it played in the original Canucks branding, and in the latest blue, white, green colour scheme.

Do the math. It is time for the Canucks to start sporting some green sweaters.

To start us off, I have a special treat. A green jersey which reclaims an awful jersey (which I actually like and own) from Canucks history. The Canucks 95-97 alternate jersey. I hope to feature these sort of faux-back sweaters/jersey reclaimation projects from time to time on Shirt of a Canuck.

Now into the heart of the matter. What should a green Canucks Alternate look like?

A couple weeks ago I posted a version of the green jersey (Option 1 below). I was not too thrilled with it, and have taken steps to refine it a bit. 

OPTION 1:

This is essentially the current Canucks alternate uniform in green, with the primary and secondary logos swapped. I modified the stick in the rink shoulder patches slightly from the previous version to add some definition and clarity.

But there are many more options which I considered to add some cohesion and pop to this concept.

OPTION 2:

Added a white shoulder yoke outline to add some brightness and flavour to what could be perceived as a dark and bland upper half of the sweater. I think it may also tie the sweater together a little bit.

OPTION 3:

A blue shoulder yoke. Again to add some flavour, and help to define the shoulder patches.

OPTION 4:

A white yoke outline combined with the blue shoulder yoke.

OPTION 5:

A double yoke outline in blue and white.

Vote in the poll to let me know your favourite. As always any comments and suggestions are welcome.