Hamilton Steelers replica 1986

So I made a jersey.

The short version of the story is, the Hamilton Steelers is the reason why I have a love of soccer.  When they died, and ultimately the national league died, I reached across the pond for my fix.  The Steelers’ home stadium was 10 blocks away, Brian Timmis Stadium, a.k.a. Ivor Wynne’s parking lot, and I went to many games.

I always wanted a Steeler’s jersey as a kid, but what kid has $50 kicking around in 1991?  Not this one.  Anyways, I will forever have to settle for the next best thing… making one.

The first dilemma was recreating the logo.  I’m sure it was designed with the best intentions, but clearly symmetry and continuity were not on the menu as this appears to be drawn by hand.

Taken from Wikipedia

It was a labour of love/insanity, and a quest as a logo geek, that got me to this spot. Since I understood the logo to be hand drawn, I had to create my own word mark for the name “Steelers”.  Attempting to maintain the subtle serifs in the original mark, but have a consistency amongst the updated version, below is the finished product.

created by Mark HinkleyDownload the .zip file of the CS4 logo here.

I once did a re-imagining of the logo (which I will post in the future) but that’s because I’m clearly insane.  So once I did up the logo, it was time to recreate the jersey.  The design was based on the photo below.Hamilton Steelers team photo, circa 1986The yellow I took a Pantone book to an old programme that I still have and this is how it turned out.  The jersey cost me $85 to make.  Totally worth it for nostalgia’s sake.  Now humouring the idea of getting into the kit-making business.

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