Sapporo Dogs (Expansion Team Explained) + Sneak Peak for next project

[Emi 229]

In today's article i'd like to explain some of the things behind the Sapporo Dogs and why everything has been made the way it had been in the remake.

So first of all let's start with some history of Hokkaido as that ties very much into the Sapporo Dogs.

 

 

The thing above is the flag of Hokkaido. The colours in the flag are the same as that of my hockey team. The reason for this that they all have a representation and a meaning.

First off the dark blue is a reference to Hokkaido's Sea and sky. I thought it would be a good base for a main colour of the team as it is different to what is usually found within hockey for the usage of blue which are usually a lot lighter.

Next the red is a representation of the people of Hokkaido's energy i thought it would be a good accent colour for the jeresy.

Then we have the white, this represents the snow and light. Hokkaido is the most northern part of Hokkaido so it is a lot colder than the rest of Japan even more so in the winter months.

We finally have the acutally 7 Pointed star which does have a meaning which is the development and hope for the future of Hokkaido.

Now we've gone over that i should explain why Sapporo. First of all Hokkaido is only the Home to 5.281 million due to the size of the area it is relatively small to the rest of Japan. Tokyo on it's own has 9.273 Million people. So i had to look into where the place with the most people is. That is Sapporo who have 1.952 Million people that live in the area and as a result it is one of the biggest cities in Hokkaido. I then started to look into local sports teams for the area in real life. They have a baseball team (The Hokkaido Fighters) and A football team (Consdole Sapporo). They didn't have a hockey team in the area. Hokkaido is one of the biggest areas in Japan to produce hockey players too and i found this a bit confusing.

So then looked into the local transport into the area and i know that they have a Shinkansen that currently only goes to the very beginning of Hokkaido. However, it is expected to expand by 2025 to the city of Sapporo. I thought that due to this then the idea was perfect really. It had good reliable connections to other parts of the country and was a large enough area to be able to support the team.

Now we get onto the logo. The logo is a dog but more importantly it is a Hokkaido Inu/Dog, these dogs can be found as home pets and in the while.
The dogs are known for being very loyal and they're small and calm usually but if someone threatens they're willing to fight things way larger than them and don't have fear against big threats.
I thought this was the perfect way to represent the team that i was trying to make due to the fact when you're an expansion you're the underdog fighting the more established opponents so i though it would be a good idea. (Image below of a Hokkaido Inu)

 

 

Now, we get onto the Jerseys.

First let's look at the home jersey again.

So quickly to touch on this one i thought the best thing to do here with the colours would be pay homage to one of my favourite baseball teams! The Hokkaido Fighters. They had a jersey that was in a very similar colour scheme! This jersey also shows where the idea for a Hokkaido patch comes from too! It's one that i think is really nice in the way it was designed,

 

 

Now onto the Away Jersey!

 

 

This design was all me. I looked at the home jeresy and decided to make some changes. The socks in this one is something i really liked. I thought let's make it so there is a brake in the colours and that when we swap back to the white in the socks. I thought it would be an interesting idea and i really like how this one turned out. One thing you might notice is that i changed how the patch for the Hokkaido flag is on the shoulders. This is due to the fact it would have not shown up otherwise. I thought swap it and it still holds the same message.

 

Finally, we get onto the 3rd jerseys!

 

 

This 3rd Jersey is once again a reference to 2 different Jersey's by the Hokkaido fighters. First the overall design in a reference to this jeresy.

 

 

I cannot find a good image of the jersey but you can see ideas behind my design however. I was not looking at the actual jersey so all these things have been accidental. I was doing them by memory. Next is an example of the letter and why i did it.

 

The fighters used to have something very simple like this as there logo and i thought it wouldn't look good so i decided to do it like the rangers and the bolts who had done it before. I think it turned out well. The reason i still did the Dog version is so that i can alterate between the two.

So as you can see there was a lot of thought behind why i did everything with this team and nothing was left to chance. I think it has been one of my best i have made. However, i would like to quickly bring up my first design and why i used the bright cyan.

 

This is the flag for the sports association of Hokkaido so i thought i'd use these and go ahead with that. I also made a similar team in NHL 17 a few seasons ago!

Anyways that is everything!

And now for what you've been waiting for! What is my next project!

At the moment i haven't decided everything yet than it would be a minor league team as an affiliation kinda to this team.

Below is the mascot that @Riley_Couture created!  (Yutoku - Inari)

 

 

 

I'm going to make a bubblegum colour scheme. I'm interested to see if i can get it work. I am going to try my hardest!

The team will be based Kashima in the Saga Prefecture!

(Saga Prefecture Flag)

 

(Kashima Flag)

 

Words: 1000+

 

Edited August 4, 2020 by Emi

[Acydburn 1,607]

Geesh, this could have been a media spot instead of an article... lol

[Emi 229]

20 minutes ago, Acydburn said:

Geesh, this could have been a media spot instead of an article... lol

Thanks I guess xD I'm not confident with my writing so I put it here. 

 

I'm really enjoying writing these though. 

[Plate 386]

On 8/4/2020 at 7:11 PM, Emi said:

Thanks I guess xD I'm not confident with my writing so I put it here. 

Difference between not having confidence and not being good at it. These are easy media spots for you if you posted them there as is. Very good work!