Now that my favorite team has made a strong push into relevance, I feel a change in their visual identity could be close behind.
These are an example of what I hope the Wild will go towards in the future. They maybe already are, based on the road unis of the Aeros, which definitely influenced me. As attached as many fans are to the red, green, and white color scheme, I think it's time for a slight shake-up.
I've seen them redesigned several times on sites across the web but I've yet to see an idea that looks any better than what they've got. So, I accepted that challenge to see what I could come up with. Definitely not trying to totally change their entire look, but to tweak it, update it, etc. I went in trying to design jerseys that could be easily put into action without making all the old logos and jerseys appear out of place in the stands.
To start, I've completely phased out the red. I know this will be a polarizing approach amongst many fans, but I think the Wild are better off not sharing their colors with a major holiday. Instead, I chose to simplify, and go with Green and White. With Silver, and then Black, as accent colors. Bold, simple, strong. No one has claimed Green outright in the NHL and I think it would be perfect for the Wild. Dallas seems to be emphasizing black over their green from the North Stars era, and Vancouver only uses it as an accent. It's there for the taking, let's claim it. Something I know would also upset some fans is my change from wheat to white. I know many people like the wheat on a jersey, but in my opinion it should stay in the golden age of baseball, on wool jerseys, or just with the San Francisco Giants. It just screams forced nostalgia. White, in my opinion, is a much stronger secondary hockey color.
Another noticeable change, is that I chose to silhouette their logo in either green or white. I've always liked the creative design of it, but didn't like the color collage look with a yellow moon that just stood out terribly. Always looked like a place-mat that some kid colored at Perkins, or something. I feel the logo has been around long enough that people will easily recognize it in silhouette form, and it will appear more updated, cleaner, and less garish on the jersey.
My design for their alternate is pretty different, but I think it's a cool look. I altered the logo to look like a snowfall and added a snowflake pattern for the shoulder patch. A very dark Blue and White I think works perfect with the theme. Kind of a "snowy night" theme. Definitely fitting for Hockey and for Minnesota.
I incorporated the pattern from the 1980's Flyer's jerseys in some way for each design, most heavily in the home jersey. It's probably my favorite pattern, and I feel it works well with the Wild logos. I also added the shooting star from their logo to the breezers. This has been done before by someone, but they had the star pointing the other way, which I think looks weird and doesn't flow well, so I just flipped it.
Too keep this shorter, I'll not get into too much detail on all of my design decisions, but they all were mulled over, to be sure. A very important factor, that I think gets lost by other designers, is "How will it look on the ice?". I tried my best to make a jersey that not only looks well in design, but in action.
Would love to hear opinions and comments from other fans. Hope they're a hit!
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