We like to think that those who work for major design companies like Nike are just more talented than us. They know more than we do. They are more artistic. But Nike's latest NFL redesign shows how random it all is. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers unveiled their new uniform design Monday morning, and the collective response was less than thrilled. The redesign was the first since 1997, when the Bucs completed the single greatest redesign in sports history. We at the OIL have been sponsoring a uniform design contest for the hypothetical Oklahoma City Roughnecks NFL team. And what we've received from random Internet users with access to graphic design programs is superior to what took Nike two years to develop for Tampa Bay. Take a look at what our readers designed and then look at the new Buccaneers uniforms and tell me franchises couldn't save time and money by crowdsourcing their redesigns and bypassing Nike's expensive design department. For reference, here is the evolution of Tampa's uniforms:
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Skott Schoonover previously submitted a design for the hypothetical Oklahoma City NFL team design contest. His original design included a slanting oil derrick made up of the letters 'R' and 'n,' which was unique and clever. But the slant was a little too much. He sent an updated version without the slant: "Hi, I updated my roughnecks design. I took away the slant to the logo and the numbers. I like it a lot better. I think the logo could be a bit more legible as the 'R' and 'n,' but I'll work on that. Hope you like the updates." I like the numbers without the slant more. And the overall look of the oil derrick logo looks better, but I did like the 'R' and 'n.' I think Skott can find some happy medium between his first submission and this one that would be perfect.
Thanks for the extra work, Skott. If you want to submit your own design, send them to OklahomIraqis@gmail.com. The deadline for entries is March 15. Here are the other entries:
The winner may get something from our league store. It is a good thing I check my SPAM folder. Otherwise, Andrew Seagraves's submission for his Oklahoma City Rattlers would have never made it to okiraqi.org. Mr. Seagraves found our contest on Uni-Watch.com, so thanks again to that site. They've referred over 10,000 unique visitors to our site. We appreciate it. Our original post asking for logo submissions is: NFL in OKC? Here is what Seagraves had to say about his design: "Dear fellas, It's not Roughnecks but I like the design and concept. Here's his full entry:
Skott Schoonover sent in his Roughnecks design this week. According to him, he completed it entirely using Microsoft Paint, so bravo Mr. Schoonover! It looks too good to be done with that platform. Here's what Schnoover had to say about his submission:
After Uni-Watch linked to our logo submission post again, our site traffic went through the roof. By 2100 CST, over 5,000 unique visitors read our site. And we received our second design submission. David Firestone also broke the first rule of the contest (by not naming the team the Roughnecks), but that's just fine. We're happy to have another submission. Mr. Firestone chose the name Crazy Eights: "I created an Oklahoma City design called the Crazy Eights. The theory behind that is that Oklahoma is the 8th largest city in the US by area, and the 8 is a graceful and simple design. The white and silver color scheme is based on the Oklahoma Wranglers, as they were the last pro football team to play in Oklahoma City. I couldn't choose between red over silver, or silver over red, so I went with silver over red on the right side, and red over silver on the left." Thanks to Mr. Firestone for his submission. Love it? Hate it? Tell us in the comments. And don't forget to share the contest page on social media. Send your own submissions to OklahomIraqis@gmail.com. We recently discussed the possibility of an NFL team coming to Oklahoma City. UniWatch was kind enough to link to our post asking for uniform and logo design submissions. We received our first submission this week. Tom Bierbaum of Erie, Pa. said he'd been thinking of an Oklahoma City NFL franchise named the 89ers for decades: "The name probably sounds funny to most ears, but the old minor league baseball team from Oklahoma City used to be called the 89ers (after the people who rushed into the state when it was opened to settlement in 1889) and I actually saw that team play at the Tacoma Cubs in old Cheney Stadium in the summer of 1968 as a field trip with my Colt League baseball team. For whatever reason, I was fascinated by that visiting team, the city and the name, so that fall, when us Bierbaum kids decided to "add" expansion teams to our pretend pro football league, I came up with the improbable idea of creating an Oklahoma City 89ers in the pro ranks." I also remember the 89ers. They're now named the Redhawks, and I cannot express enough how much I hate that name. The 89ers was local, unique and historical. I deliberately ignored the name when it came time to name our hypothetical NFL franchise though. It is too close to 49ers to be a viable name for an NFL team in my opinion. Mr. Beirbaum admitted straight away that he violated the only rule of the contest: naming the team the Oklahoma City Roughnecks. But he had his reasons: The last two posts on the OIL blog discussed the possibility of a future NFL franchise in Oklahoma City. As a reminder, the OIL's hypothetical OKC NFL team is named the Oklahoma City Roughnecks. Because the end is nigh, I have been thinking about this hypothetical team more than I should. What would it look like? How would it be marketed? I reached out to Paul Lukas at UniWatch to see if he would help start a design contest for the logo or uniform of this hypothetical franchise. I chose UniWatch because: 1. it has the largest audience of uniform-obsessed fans; and 2. their design contests are legendary. Just look at this one UniWatch hosted for what became the Thunder. Well, UniWatch obliged and linked to our post on its blog dedicated to "the obsessive study of athletics aesthetics." Located in the Grab Bag section of its February 1 blog post, UniWatch does the OIL a solid: So, there you have it. Send submissions to oklahomiraqis@gmail.com. For reference purposes, we are talking about oil field roughnecks. I will post updates as submissions come in. I hope to see many different stylings on the theme. But this is a small blog dedicated to a small group of soldiers who love fantasy football, so I don't expect too much. And, who knows? Maybe the contest winner will receive officially-licensed OklahomIraqis merchandise as a prize. Everyone else will have my eternal gratitude for indulging this hobby of mine. |
March 2023
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