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.

The Branding: Primary 'C' Logo, Secondary 'Horse-Face' Logo.

305cHL Calgary Flames Logo Set

Calgary is pretty much spot-on with their logo set.  They have only tweaked the outline (stroke) of the C in all their years and introduced a Horse-Face shooting fire out its nose.  What is the only common problem with these logos? Use of color. 

One Too Many Outlines

The C is a perfect logo for them.  Never change it.  Ever. The only problem I have is the fact that they try to jam all of their color palate into the logo.  Why?  Let the logo do the work with simplicity.  Worry about using all of your colors in the jersey itself. I  tried to simplify the C without taking away too much from the logo itself.  By removing the immediate outline on the C and filling the secondary outline with a different color, it really gives the C a good, complete look.

I'm sure most people would debate me that I think the Horse-Face is a good logo.  It is kind of cartoonish and is very strange to have along side a C on fire.  I agree that is is kind of strange but with the right colors and used only as a small secondary logo, it can do wonders for Calgary as a complete set.  Plus, The Flames have to have a mascot and I don't think a dude running around in a giant foam 'C' is going to do the trick.

Home & Away Jerseys: Home Primarily Red-Orange, Away Primarily Eggshell.

Goodness, Gracious,
Great Horses on Fire
(est. 1995)

The 305cHL home and away jerseys are almost identical to the long used 1981 Flames jerseys.  I took some inspiration from the current alternate jersey as far as stripe spacing was concerned and kept on tweaking until I was satisfied.  I decided to keep the stripe thickness the same for all three stripes and remove the bottom stripe at the hemline because it could easily blend into the pants. I wanted the three stripes to be distinct. 

The current Calgary jerseys have two flags, Canada and Alberta. At first glance, I thought the Alberta flag was interesting because it introduced a splash of blue, but the more I thought about it, the more I thought the flags were a bad idea.  First off, adding blue to a jersey that is supposed to be all about fire is very counter-productive and secondly, we all know that this is a Canadian team.  We don't need two different reminders that you are in-fact, within the Canadian border.  Instead, continue selling us some good old Canadian brewed beer and we'll all be happy.

The easy fix for their flag faux-pas is to add the Horse-Face to the shoulder area. With the coloring fixed on the Horse-Face logo, no one can complain about how out of place this is in the Calgary logo lineup.

Alternate 3rd Jersey: Eggshell.

Current Jerseys with 3rd
(est. 2009)

Instead of taking the easy route of making a dark version of the home/away jerseys, I decided to get some inspiration from the 2003 Calgary jersey set. I believe that they were onto something special with those 2003 home jerseys. They had interesting diagonal striping, the use of black was intimidating and they used all of their logos pretty well. The only problem for me was that, again, they tried to shove all of their colors together instead of trying to spread the colors around the jersey.

Basing my alternate jersey off of the '03 home jersey, I kept their diagonal stripes but made the color scheme eggshell and burgundy.  The stripes were in reference to a military-type feeling for me.  I know that Calgary didn't have anything to do with the US Civil War, but the original namesake of the team did.  The diagonal striping, especially on the shoulders and arms should reinforce that militaristic feeling.  

Summary:

I believe that this set of jerseys really has a solid thought process behind it and really incorporates the full history of The Flames brand. Although the alternate jersey isn't as smooth of a transition as some of the other teams in The 305cHL, it does reinforce the the idea behind the namesake of the franchise.

Final thought: I got through this whole post without describing something as 'flaming'.

Images of jerseys from Chris Creamer's Sports Logos &  The Hockey Uniform Database.

Jersey Template from Icethetics.