As of a couple hours ago, the Grand Rapids Griffins’ alternate jersey contest is closed. I wrote about my submission early in the contest but with it done I feel a little more comfortable iterating on it a bit.
After staring at my work for nearly a month, wondering if it would hold up to the other incoming designs (I’m not sure it does), I kept finding little things I wish I’d taken the time to think about.
The shoulder logo, for example, comes across as a little flat to me. That’s going to be the case with the “vintage” colors as they’re more muted, but I think making the text blue with a white outline and adding an outline to the interlocking GR (as the version I inadvertently recreated had) helps add some complexity.
For the primary logo, I neglected to take into account that every logo the Griffins have ever selected has featured the team’s name in some form. As such, I added a “banner” across the bottom of the shield with “Griffins” in it and re-positioned the griffin inside the shield to make room for the banner.
I didn’t change the design of the jerseys at all but with these updates I think the red version is the best one.
I actually don’t know if I like this better than my original (aside from having come to prefer the red version) but I wanted to at least document it.
There is one thing about the contest that, as I’ve followed it, has bothered me a little. I’ve seen reference to this as a “fan” design competition but pretty clearly there are submissions from people who are not Griffins fans. If that’s the case, aren’t the Griffins just asking for spec design work? And one of their last winners was a professional designer.
I don’t know. I entered knowing what it was and I’m sure everyone else did, too. Just feels wrong.
