Friday, July 25, 2008

Reasons To Visit This Weekend

I have a busy weekend planned here at Icethetics. Below are just a few of the reasons you should be sure to visit over the next few days.

CENTER ICE TOURNAMENT
I'll be officially announcing the new Center Ice Tournament along with all that that entails. You'll get a rundown of how this tournament will work — it'll be somewhat different than in the past. You'll get to preview all 30 new center ice graphics which I feel fit nicely with the new look of the blog. And most importantly, you'll find out when the voting will begin!

PROJECT: IHA
The IHA logo design project has been going great! You guys have been sending in some amazing artwork. This weekend I'll be unveiling the finalists for the Atlantic Division team logos. I'll also outline the process for how we'll come to a determination for each team's logo set, when the voting will start, and what's ahead.

CONCEPT ART
I'll have concept art galore to share for the Blackhawks, Blues, Coyotes and others plus a lot of great ideas for third jerseys based on some of the many rumors that have been floating around. You won't want to miss any of it!

Thrashers Up In The Air

I've been getting a lot of emails about the Atlanta Thrashers' alleged unveiling of their new third jersey at tomorrow's Select-A-Seat event. So I thought I should make a general clarification of my position on this.

First, the emails I've been getting basically say that an administrator on the Thrashers' official message board is denying any possibility that a third jersey will be released/unveiled/exhibited in any way at the event tomorrow. It should end there. He's obviously connected to the team whereas Icethetics is not.

And I was all set to remove the countdown from the sidebar until I re-read the email that went out to Thrashers fans last week. I wrote about it last Thursday. Even if it does turn out that the Thrashers will not show off their new third jersey this weekend, there's supposedly something going on that I'm sure will be of interest to Icethetics readers.

The email states as follows:

Members of the Thrashers Blue Crew and ticketing staff will be on hand to help direct you to available seats in great locations and give tours of the team locker rooms. In addition, fans will have the opportunity to see a new look for the Thrashers. Kids inflatables and special $1 concessions will be available on the concourse, and parking will be free at the Centennial Parking Deck when you present a printed out version of this message.

Notice the highlighted part. Some are under the impression that "a new look" could mean a new perspective of the game, that is, from a different seat within Philips Arena. But because of the "in addition" part, I'm tempted to believe it must have to do with something else.

"A new look" could also be interpreted as the new players the Thrashers acquired over the offseason, but it's awkwardly worded for that. So it seems to me that this must have something to do with logos or uniforms. I could be way off base here and as such, I'm qualifying the countdown. It now says they'll be unveiling "a new look" tomorrow.

Any Thrasher fans attending, I'd love an email after/during the event with regard to what this is all about. If it turns out to be nothing, then so be it. I'll have unintentionally gotten your hopes up for nothing. And for that, all I can say is... oops.

Freak Out Friday XL

This is the 40th installment of the Freak Out Friday series. And the Roman numeral for 40 suggests I'd better have an extra-large helping of freaky hockey artwork this week. Let's hope I can deliver.

The biggest real-life freak out of the last couple weeks has been the public unveiling of the Iowa Chops along with their new logo. But someone's made an improvement.



(Apologies for the low image quality, but this is what was sent to me.)

It seems that with the Buffalo Sabres, when it comes to fan made concept art, you either love it or hate it. I wonder what you guys will think of these.



But wait, there's more.



There have even been jerseys designed for them.



And more along the lines of Matt's recent rebrand of the Stars, check this out.



Something else I got this week that made me chuckle were concepts for the Vancouver Canucks.



Don't get me wrong, I appreciate the effort someone put into this but wow, you can't help but shake your head in amazement.



Here's a concept jersey for the Chicago Blackhawks.



Don't shoot the messenger.

Sometimes folks send in team-branding concepts that miss the mark a little.



I can only imagine the nightmares the children of Cleveland would have to endure.

Speaking of nightmares, if you recall about a month ago I started a series within a series for the Freak Out Friday. One reader created 30 logos based around the Mighty Ducks' third jerseys from the mid-90s — one for every NHL team. Last week I posted the Atlantic Division and the week before was the Ducks' own Pacific. Today we're going to the Northwest.




Be sure to notice the half-stripes on the Oilers logo. Yes, all of these are based on last year's new Rbk EDGE jerseys.

And that's all folks. We're back with another Freak Out Friday in two weeks — assuming you get all your ridiculous artwork sent in! My big thanks to everyone who's submitted work — good and bad alike!