Tim Batzinger is a Uni Watch reader who is also a uniform designer, and he too has redesigned (and rebranded) uniforms for all the NFL teams. Unlike the two recent concepters who made slight tweaks and minor fixes to the current NFL uniforms, Tim has gone in a different direction. These concepts are decidedly more radical than more recent tweaks shown on Uni Watch. Like the other recent concepts, I’ll be running these by Division, and will be posted between now and the Super Bowl.
Here are the previous concepts from Tim’s NFL Redesign/Rebrand:
Enjoy!
NFL Redesigns/Rebranding Project: AFC North
by Timothy Batzinger
The goal for this project is to reimagine each team with all-new (or updated) branding and uniforms. To keep it simple, I’ve created a new primary logo, secondary logos (in some cases perma-memorials), a word mark, and 3 uniform sets – Home, Road, Alternate.
I’ve tried to stay true to each franchise’s history, whether they’re more “traditional” (think Packers) or more “risky” (think Seahawks). For some teams, there are alternate pant and sock combos, but for the sake of keeping this uniform (pun intended) I’ve kept it to what I feel is the best representation of each team’s brand.
Baltimore Ravens
Branding: The primary logo is inspired by the Baltimore flag and their history of using a shield in their logos, with the shield forming the shape of the logo, and the pattern at the center in Ravens colors. To round out the design, I’ve added a B for Baltimore and wings to represent the Ravens. The secondary logos include an updated raven head design, and a full-color shield.
Uniforms: The primary uniforms feature a wing motif on the sleeves and the “Baltimore” patter on the pants. I’ve decided to use gold pants for the home uni to go with the gold numbers. The alternate is an homage to Baltimore with the “Baltimore” pattern in black and gold on the sleeves and the pants.
Cincinnati Bengals
Branding: I’ve redesignated the bengal head logo to primary status, with an updated look. The secondary logos include an updated leaping bengal design, as well as a CB design that includes tiger stripes.
Uniforms: For the primary uniforms, I’ve changed the number font, removed the outline, and added an extra stripe and tv numbers to the shoulders, as well as the CB logo to the left chest. The pants feature more accurate tiger striping, some orange on the white pants and vice versa, as well as ditching the white pants with orange stripes with black outlines. The alternate is a completely new design that features the new bengal head logo on the sleeves and a collar design inspired by tiger stripes. The pant stripes are an abstraction of a tiger with a little white and mostly orange stripe on a black base.
Cleveland Browns
Branding: The Browns primary logo combines the shield on the Cleveland flag and their helmet design. The secondary logos feature Brownie the elf (their mascot) and a mastiff representing the Dawg Pound, over a football bearing their helmet design.
Uniforms: The uniforms are inspired by their original uniforms from 1946, featuring orange numbers with a white block shadow on the home jersey, and brown numbers with orange block shadow on the away jersey. I’ve made the striping consistent throughout all elements of the primary uniforms (O/B/W/B/O) with only white outlines on the brown-based elements. The jerseys feature the new shield logo on the left chest, and the pants feature the secondary logos on the hips- Brownie at home, and the Dawg Pound on the road (so they always have their fans with them). The alternate is a throwback to 1953.
Pittsburgh Steelers
Branding: The primary logo features the “steel diamonds” with a P within a keystone- a reference to Pennsylvania’s nickname. The secondary logos feature a Pittsburgh coat of arms-inspired design, as well as a P formed by a steel beam.
Uniforms: I’ve changed the facemask to chrome to match the “steel” outline of the primary logo, brought back the block numbers. I’ve added a tread plate pattern to the helmet and sleeve stripes. The striping on the away jersey is now mostly black, much like their pre-1966 unis, and I’ve included a contrasting nameplate. The alternate is inspired by their 1962 road unis and their ’63-’64 preseason unis, replacing the gold diamond with a keystone.
Thanks, Tim.
Readers? What say you?
I’m on the fence about some of these, but those Steelers sets are just perfect.
The hypocycloid-like mark on the Bengal’s forehead is an interesting choice.
I like The Ravens purple set – though I’m not crazy about the mustard color. Make that closer to Steelers gold – for me anyway and you have a winnr.
Everything about the Steelers is awesome.
Love the Bengals uniforms. The Tiger head logo is odd. Doesn’t look like a tiger, and why a star (Steeler Hypocycloid) on the forehead?
CB Logo very cool.
Also – please fix link to NFC North – it goes to NFC South
Should be fixed now.
Love the idea behind the Steelers redesign. It’s not easy to take on a classic and come up with a fresh spin. Well done.
It does feel like that primary logo is missing something in its color treatment.
Perhaps a white background? Maybe it would look better with the current logo’s coloring?
In any case, I would not hate it if they announced a switch to these tomorrow.
Another great set. Add my name to the folks who especially like the Pittsburgh combos. I can’t explain why but the black/white/gold combo looks especially classic.
I’m curious to hear from Tim Batzinger. I’m sure he’s got his favorites. Which? And which of all of his renderings does he feel isn’t getting the love he thought it would.
That’s a great question. Every team presented it’s own challenges, which was the point of this experiment. The toughest ones to do were the 49ers – their logo and uniforms are so iconic and mostly unchanged for so long that it was hard to create something unique while staying at least somewhat true to their brand history. The Packers, Bills, Dolphins, Raiders and Seahawks were all difficult for the same or similar reasons.
My favorite logos are probably the Cardinals, Rams, Giants, Saints, and Titans.
My favorite unis, I’d have to say the Steelers, Browns, and Giants. I also like where I ended up with the Dolphins.
The Vikings, Texans, and Bucs unis feel a little under appreciated to me. Obviously, taste is subjective, and you can’t please everyone, but I feel like those have a nice balance of traditional and modern, while tying in to the teams’ nicknames.
Same with the Vikings and Browns logos. I hate that the Browns primary logo is just their helmet. It’s so lazy to me, so I think combining the shield from the Cleveland flag with their helmet design is a good balance that doesn’t go too far, and also ties into the community. I really like the “MV” Vikings logo I made, and think it works really well as an element on the uniforms.
Great work! The Steelers P beam logo needs to follow the right side of the letter shape though, otherwise outstanding!
Bengals are good. Ravens and Steelers ok. The Browns block shadow is a big uck!
Gold on the Ravens is a big nope from me. The Ravens are one of the few teams in major American sports to let purple be (mostly) free of gold. Let purple be purple! (Though if you added a little red to the purple and black as an accent here and there, it could strengthen the Ravens’ grim, austere Gothic horror aesthetic. Gold undermines it.)
I, too, am digging the Steelers set.
The Browns alternate set needs more brown.
I’m sorry, Tim, but everything about your Browns remake is garbage. You are trying waaay too hard to fix something that isn’t broken.
The stupid dog silhouette is every bit as lame as “The Land” junk that people keep trying to foist on us. Real Clevelanders don’t like that crap.
I could go on, but I won’t.
It’s fair game to offer a critique. But you don’t have to be mean. That crosses a line.
Aesthetically, the Browns are a challenging team to try a re-brand. Their helmet logo has always bothered me. It feels like they gave up and punted with clip art. The color scheme is very limiting.
I always enjoy seeing attempts at Browns redesigns. Shout out to Tim for doing these. This whole series has been fun to follow.
I really like the keystone elements of the Steelers logo but the shape of the “steel diamonds” is off (they’re actually hypocycloids). The shield logo is also a nice touch but the Steel beam P feels like it’s trying too hard.
I like the Keystone elements for the Steelers and the Bengals takes what works about their current stuff and builds on it.
The Bengals one is okay.
Hard pass on the Ravens one. Those are really bad.
The Cleveland one looks too much like the god-awful set they just got rid of.
The only thing the Steelers need to do to improve theirs is to go back to the block numbers they had in the 70s.
Some of the colours you’ve used in this series have been amazing, such as the dark purple on Baltimore’s alternate.
Love that Ravens Old English-esque wordmark. Make it feel reflective to the era of Edgar Allan Poe. I like the wings on the sleeves too and incorporating the flag pattern in the pants stripes.
That Cincy CB logo is glorious.
Love the Pittsburgh number font and the I-beam logo is fantastic, though it might be a little too long. I could imagine though that if it’s too short, then it wouldn’t look like an I-beam – I’d just have to play around with it to figure out the best look.
That’s not a “Baltimore” pattern, it’s taken from the Maryland flag.
The black and yellow in the Maryland is from the Calvert family, which was Lord Baltimore’s family.
And is on the Baltimore City flag.
As mentioned in the above comments (and in my description) the pattern and the shield shape come from the Baltimore city flag.
I’m shocked at the approvals of the Steelers redesign. The current version is a classic (I don’t even mind the number font). Maybe just add a pair of black pants with the thick yellow stripe to wear only with the white jerseys. Some teams should be near untouchable.
They are untouchable and shouldn’t be touched. That’s not the point of playing around with concepts. These are all meant to be “think outside the box” exercises for Uni nuts.
On a team-by-team basis, I like a lot of what’s presented here. As a division, there’s too much look-alikeness for me. Like, the use of gold for the Ravens is thoughtful and well-executed in the context of Baltimore and Maryland. But the gold pants just don’t work for me in a division alongside the Steelers. There’s also too much same-same between the two Ohio teams. Which is true of those two teams in the real world today! So that’s not a strong demerit, but tackling a whole division at once go presents an opportunity to create stronger visual differentiation.
On the Steelers, I’m shocked by how much I like what’s presented here, given that the Steelers are close to the top of my list of teams where I think they almost cannot even in theory be improved upon. I’m not sure I’d say this is an upgrade; perfection is hard to beat. But if the Steelers visual identity didn’t already exist, this would be a very strong contender. My one complaint is that the profile of the P in that clever I-beam logo should repeat on the right at the “back” of the mark.
BAL: my favorite of the set. I even like the gold pants but would modify the color a little. Wordmark is an upgrade.
CIN: solid, kept the tiger stripe helmet and the set works.
CLV: I like the uniformity. I don’t like the forced dawg on the logo. It is the embodiment of a section of the fan base as developed by a talk-show host 40 years ago, it isn’t the team itself. That aside, it is fine.
PIT: my least-favorite of the set. The 3D effect on the P monogram is wrong. The contrast-color nameplate is illegible. The almost-Block but not quite Block number font is like what the Browns did; just stick with the basics.
All in all, solid.