Jersey Reflections

So.... my third project has not been blogged about until now. Originally I was going to learn the cello, then the drums and then the guitar... as the semester progressed and as my hockey schedule continued to be irregular, it became ever apparent that I was not going to learn an instrument. At least not now.

First a bit of a background on me and hockey jerseys. I have a massive jersey collection that includes 9 Vancouver Canuck jerseys and 6 Team Canada jerseys... among many other jerseys of various sports and teams. My favourite is a Montreal Canadiens jersey, personally signed to me by Ken Dryden.

This all began shortly after the 2007 Stanley Cup finals, when the NHL signed a jersey-manufacturing contract with Reebok. Each team in the league was forced to redesign their uniforms using Reebok's material pattern, termed "RBK Edge." During that summer, I regularly searched the internet for rumours and leaked images of jersey images. I eventually found a blogsite that was revealing rumours and posting leaked images... it was perfect! It was called "NHL Tournament of Logos" and was the precursor to the Icethetics blog, which is still going strong today.

Icethetics still posts rumours and leaked images as they occur, but it will never receive the attention it did in 2007. The author of the blog maintains a photographic directory of NHL uniforms and a gallery of concept uniforms, submitted by readers like myself. Icethetics also introduced me to sportslogos.net and nhluniforms.com, huge image databases of sports logos and nhl uniforms respectively.

My motivation for doing this project came from the Ottawa Senators. Last summer, Senators management discovered a concept uniform drawn by JACOB BARRETTE in Icethetics Concept Gallery and used it to design the Senators' new uniform, which was introduced earlier this year [http://www.icethetics.info/blog/2011/11/4/the-jacob-barrette-interview.html].

Inspired by this, I began planning to put together a series of documents that ultimately became this project and I never got around to actually do it... until now.

The idea is to have a document that compares the current NHL uniforms with my idea of what they should be. I haven't just changed all jerseys for the sake of changing them, this series of documents is intended to be about what I think would look the best in the original "RBK Edge" pattern.

Throughout this experience, I've learned a few things. First, I like traditional, old-style uniforms and, second, I'm a big fan of bold, contrasting colours. I attribute this to the fact that I'm partially colour blind... I can see all colours, but when contrast is low I have difficulty distinguishing between colours. I fail to see the numbers in the circle tests.

When considering the interdisciplinary aspects of this, I'm always surprised at how much geometry goes into designing a uniform. Spacing the stripes, making sure everything is symmetrical and the just right size... most of the designing process involves watching numbers on an axis. Creatively, there's generating an idea. I found that I was usually inspired by different elements of different uniforms, which I would piece them together to form my personal ideal uniform.

I don't expect this to ever be more than a hobby and a good way to take quick breaks when writing papers. Although it sure would be amazing to see one of my own designs get used by an NHL team

Unfortunately the documents are in pdf form and could not be posted on this blog... I'll have to make a gallery here of my own images somehow.