Re-Imagining the NHL: Colorado Avalanche

The Colorado Avalanche

The 305cHL Colorado Avalanche

Click here for a larger and more detailed version of the jerseys.

Colorado's Current Jersey Set
(est. 2009)

Here is my bold statement to start off The Colorado Avalanche re-design; The Colorado Avalanche has the best primary and secondary logos in the entire NHL. There, I said it. Now it is my job to try and convince you why I barely used these logos on The 305cHL Colorado Avalanche.

The Color Scheme: Black, Burgundy, Dark Blue, Baby Blue & White.

After they moved from Quebec in 1995, the team was successful on the ice, winning 2 Stanley Cups (1996, 2001) and looked good doing it. The only thing that stood in their way, design-wise, was the implementation of the Reebok Edge Jersey System in 2007. Colorado was an early casualty of the Reebok system and got too wrapped up in the jersey piping fad (too many unnecessary stripes).

Debut Jersey Set (est. 1995)

For the most part, Colorado's color scheme is right on the money. Their black, blue, burgundy, white and silver really remind me of Colorado. Cold and mountainous is the way to go. Having said that, I wanted to tweak those colors to give you more of a feel for the mountains.

The blue was darkened, along with the burgundy. The current burgundy is a little too red for me and I thought I'd bring it closer to purple to give you more cold colors. The silver was swapped out with with a baby blue to once again keep the cold feeling in your face.

The main colors were switched from blue and burgundy to dark blue and white. I think of cold and snow when I think of Colorado and I wanted this team to really express that with their colors.

Re-Imagining the NHL: Calgary Flames

Calgary's Current Jerseys (est. 2007)

The Calgary Flames already have a solid jersey set, but there is definitely too much going on in the home and away jerseys.  It's time to bring back some history to The Flames and really make them stand out as one of the best designed teams in Canada.

The Color Scheme: Burgundy, Dark Red, Red-Orange, Yellow & Eggshell.

Calgary's hockey team was born out of Atlanta's failure in 1980. The original team, The Atlanta Flames, got their name from the famous 1864 fire that destroyed the city and was widely viewed as the beginning of the end of the Civil War.  When the team moved from Atlanta to Calgary, the owners decided to keep the name and jersey style.  So, really, the team jersey was nearly unchanged from 1972 to 1995.  To me, their color scheme was almost as perfect as possible for a team named The Flames.  After 1994, Calgary introduced black into the mix and they've struggled with a consistent design ever since.

Debut Jersey (est. 1980)

I took it upon myself to get rid of the black color and go back to basics.  My red was brightened a few shades to almost orange, the yellow was dulled a bit and the white was tweaked to more of an eggshell white.  To me these three main colors really give off a feeling of fire.  Again, I didn't want this jersey turning to an over-used vintage white, but I thought that instead of a strikingly bright white, we should make it a dull yellow to really keep that warm feeling in the jersey.

The burgundy and dark red colors are to try and combat that troublesome black color that Calgary is insistent on using. I thought that using a monochromatic scaling of reds could give them an alternate look without trying to use the obvious black for the sake of black or white for the sake of white.