Sunday, September 11, 2011

Fixing... University Of Maryland Football

I am well aware this is a little late, but I was waiting on Uni Watch (www.uni-watch.com) to post my designs. I also didn't know Maryland was going to spring surprise uniforms on everyone for their opening game, apparently a uniform design version of "pull my finger" that had a similar outcome. I also didn't know that Maryland's intentionally garish uniforms would be so successful at making people talk about them, their cry for help worked really well.

I'm going to break from my Tweak/Fix format because the uniforms they unveiled initially and the ones they used against Miami are beyond tweaking for me. All I could think about during their first game was how Maryland looked like they should be the Joker or Two Face's henchmen from the 1960's Batman show, all they needed was Randy Edsall doing a Cesar Romero impression on the sidelines (Go get 'em boys!) to make it complete.

The only redeemable design elements for me are a sparing use of the black/yellow pattern from the Maryland flag and the turtle shell pattern on the white helmets. The below pictures are graphic and may cause vomiting and dizziness, they should not be viewed by anyone under the age of 18.


Holy shit, what is going on with that sleeve?!

I still can't decide if these are worse than the ones worn against Miami.

Gah! Patterned gradient numbers! Damn you all to hell!

Ok, so those are all horrible. I can't stand gradients, and the double sin of gradient numbers with a pattern behind it just makes it worse. These aren't so much uniforms as they are an attempt to get attention through garish design, which is sad, no fan base deserves this (well, maybe stanfurd) kind of uniform treatment. Maryland also seems to have fallen prey to the growing desire for black uniforms, but at least in Under Armour's defense they actually have black in their school/state colors.

FIX

So I decided that the black/yellow stripe on the helmet was by far the best part of the original designs. I really liked that move, it was subtle and made a node to the state flag. I definitely didn't want to drape the players in the state flag, but I wanted to use the black/yellow pattern and stick to white and red as the base of the design. I also decided to get rid of the "Terps" helmet logo they have been using for a long time, but I didn't want a blank helmet like their design, so I went with a lighter shell pattern and a new helmet logo. I caved in and made a black third/alternate uniform, I managed to avoid the "everything black" treatment that most teams go for. I can only imagine what college football games will look like in 10-15 years with every single team coming out with a solid black uniform.

HOME

AWAY

ALTERNATE

ENLARGED HELMET (Home/Road & Alternate)