Introduction, and a sneak peek of where I'm going with the redesign.

Hello faithful readers. I'm back

As mentioned on the weekend, for my next major brand overhaul project, I am taking on the WHL's Vancouver Giants. I am not a huge giants fan, but do get out to a game or two every season. It's cheap, and good hockey... "Hockey with Heart" as the Giants put it. I remember the Giants' inaugural season... it wasn't too long ago, only 2001. Not much has changed for the Giants since their inaugural season (aside from the revolving door of players, which is typical in major junior hockey). The Giant's have enjoyed a very successful history thus far.

They have only missed the playoffs once (in their first year).

They won their division from the 2005-06 season up until the 2009-10 season (5 years in a row).

They have been to the Memorial cup twice (hosted in 2006, after qualifying by being WHL playoff champions as well, AND won in 2007)

This year however, the Giants have started of POORLY... they are currently a league worst 7-17-0.

Not much has changed from a design perspective either. They still use their original logo, and have not established a signature look with their sweaters (this seems to be difficult in major junior hockey, as most of the teams wear Reebok "cookie-cutter" jerseys).

I think it is time for a GIANT overhaul (you should probably get used to this pun...looks like I will be using it a lot), to reflect a new era in the team's history... and hopefully use a new uniform to inspire a new team to greatness.

Here is a sneak peek of where I'm going. I am, for the most part, keeping the logos, but changing the colour scheme. instead of a 90's modernist colour scheme which features black and silver. I tried to create a loo which reflects the lumberjack motif in the logos, using browns, vintage white, and red. These logos will be tweaked slightly, but here is what they look like right now. Hope you enjoy them, and as always I would love to hear some feedback.

A "Giant" Update

hey guys, I'm still alive. For the past few months I have been blogging over at HJC. Lately I have been really uninspired to make NHL concepts, simply because they aren't playing right now. I do want to keep making some concepts, and do a bit of work here at SOAC, but this time instead of doing Canucks concepts I will eb focussing on the Vancouver Giants of the WHL. Look for that in the next few weeks. Thanks for still stopping by this blog even though I rarely update it... hopefully with this Giants project that will change a bit.

Pressing Pause

Hey everyone, I have decided I am going to be taking a break from Shirt of a Canuck for a while. It has been so much fun to run this blog, but I am simply not getting enough input to make this blog sustainable. I am by no means shutting this down, I am simply pressing pause until I have some more Canucks concept ideas (for the past few months I have basically done no other concepts except Canucks ones, and I really need to take a break from doing that. I feel my creativity is wearing thin for Canucks stuff). The site will stay up, and I will still publish any comments, and if I do get concept contributions, I will post them (eventually).

I will likely start a concept blog of my own where I will post my work for other teams, but I haven't set that up as of yet. Once I do, I will post it here.

In the mean time, I will be writing on fridays for HJC, and as always you can check my work out on that site.

Lastly, I want to extend a huge thanks to all of you who have read and contributed over the past few months, you have been awesome.

As Arnie said "I'll be back."

Friday, August 17: Contributors Concepts

Matt Marczel is back with his proposal for a Canucks alternate:

I like what Matt has done here. It's green. It's vintage inspired. You gotta know I'm gonna like this!

The work on the logo is superb. I especially like the diamonds, they really fill out the circle. I am not sold on the off colour name-plate. I can't say it looks bad, because it looks good, but that element really belongs to Philadelphia. Overall really solid work.

If you have any comments or suggestions for Matt, please post them in the comments below.

Thanks for reading!

Friday, August 10: Contributors Concepts

Hey everyone, sorry for the lack of posts lately. Life is busy between finishing up summer classes, and preparing to go away next week. Honestly, I don't think I will be able to get a midweek post up this week, but I may have some time to work on concepts, which would mean I would have a solid set of posts for the following week. There will a friday post for sure next week.

These last few weeks have been a bit of a dry stretch for SOAC, simply because I have not had a lot of time to do concept work. I will probably not have enough time to create enough Canucks concepts to fuel this blog the way I have for the past couple months in the future. I will be writing for HJC, in addition to SOAC come the end of August, and I know I will have less time for PURELY Canucks concept work.

SO, I want to encourage you readers to send me your Canucks concepts. My concepts alone will not keep this blog going (In truth I am scraping the bottom of my barrel for Canucks concept ideas, and am tiring of having to make basically only Canucks concepts to provide enough material for SOAC), and it would really take some pressure off of me if I could feature more work from others on this blog. Please send your work in to me: shirtofacanuck@gmail.com


As mentioned earlier this week, Matt Marczel makes his SOAC concept debut this friday. Matt sends along his ideal Canucks home and road uniforms. The look of every ideal Canucks set that has been set in to SOAC follows the same basic idea (Use the current third jersey, or a slight variation of it, as the home sweater, and create a matching road jersey). Matt does the same here, BUT also sends along another option which he would consider if he were in charge of choosing Canucks unis.

The striping pattern used looks really great on the home sweater, but looks a little awkward on the away sweater. I actually don't think the blue cuffs are necessary. If you are going to use them, I would either make them small cuffs, like on the habs uniform, or merge the lower blue stripe with the cuff (so remove the low white stripe). but really I think it would look best with no cuffs at all.

I really like the gloves, they are simple and cool, and really hearken back to the uniforms from the 70's.

The second set Matt sends along is one he would consider for the main home and road sweaters. I have made similar sweaters, and think that they would be best suited as home and road alternates (if the NHL allowed teams to wear more jerseys).

What do you think of these sweaters? If you have any brilliant ideas for Matt, please post them in the comments below.

We will see a proposition for a third jersey to go along with these home and away options from Matt next friday!

Thanks for dropping by!