So it was 2006 that Oregon first introduced the "all of our colors in each element of the uniform so we can mix and match and never wear the same thing twice" mode of college football uniforms.
Not sure if I'm alone in this, but by now it seems completely played out to me. Everyone does it. MAC schools do it. Even some high schools do it. It's been done to death. It is not remotely cool and unique anymore, it's the conventional wisdom that the cool and unique rebel
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That got me to thinking about this picture:
Football helmets are very different than they used to be. When I was a lad, this was a football helmet
A big, round, blank, uniform space that practically demanded some sort of adornment. Now because of the various technologies being worked into helmets for concussion-prevention purposes there are all kinds of holes and seams and irregularities. And on any given team there are a variety of different helmet styles for different players. We are not the only football team with "where to you put the decal?" problems arising from that. So what if you were designing a football helmet based on the realities of the modern canvas, so to speak?
One helmet I always thought was a classic was the mirror chrome finish ones Oregon wore for the 2012 Rose Bowl
Being able to see the crowd and the sky and the other players in the reflection of the helmet, just spectacular.
Chrome helmets are kind of a fad these days, often with sort of a dulled finish that doesn't have the same reflectivity, but you can get that sort of effect with a colored shell as well:
Again, you can recognize the stadium in the helmet! And with the elements, it's just an incredibly cool image, IMO.
But of course all of these are very inside the box of conventional helmet design. Just taking what you already have and making it chrome, sticking shiny versions of the decals you already have, etc. And it will be the matte version next week, and the gray-out the week after, etc etc. Done to death, as I said.
What if that mirrored chrome, the reflection of the surroundings, was the central design element around which the whole thing was built? Picture a helmet like that Washington one, with an orange color effect rather than gold, but with no stripe, no decals, no contrasting facemask, just an orange mirror.
Stick with that every week and it's never the same. The opponents are different, the stadiums are different, the weather is different, the time of day is different, every picture you see is completely one-of-a-kind. And you pick up a lot more in the reflection without the graphics stuff breaking it up.
To me, that's pushing things forward, not just going along with the crowd.
Another trend that is done absolutely to death is schools always foregrounding their most bright, garish color, in their uniforms and their student sections and fan wear. Illinois got its money's worth there, we were better at this trend than most, but nostalgia for the design sensibility of the 70's and 80's is out, and 90's nostalgia is in, big time. If Illinois wants to be ahead of the curve we've gotta pivot to navy blue.
That, with an unadorned orange mirror chrome helmet. Make the trends, rather than follow them.
