Ottawa RedBlacks

Ottawa has had an on-and-off-again history with football. Their roots with the sport began in 1876 with the Ottawa Football Club and a color palette of cerise (a reddish pink), grey, and navy blue. in 1898, Ottawa would change their colors to black and red, which have represented the city throughout sports since. They would also first adopt the name Rough Riders at that time. They switched to Senators in 1925, allowing Saskatchewan’s eventual franchise to take the “Roughriders” name. Ottawa switched back to Rough Riders in 1930. By 1940, Ottawa’s Rough Riders wore a monochrome red uniform with black and white striped shoulders and a black helmet. The 1960s saw the team use a red and white look, with black becoming their dominant color by the end of the decade. The black-and-white centric scheme with red accents lasted, although the team wore red pants were used with their away uniforms from 1976 through 1979. In 1992 came the beginning of the end for the Rough Riders, as they started tinkering with silver accents to their scheme. In 1994, the Rough Riders introduced a red, metallic gold, and navy scheme that lasted only two seasons. The Rough Riders folded after one more black-and-red clad season. Next came the Ottawa Renegades who played from from 2002 to 2005. They also stuck to the standard black and red Ottawa colors. Ottawa’s current team, the RedBlacks were born in 2014 with a logo of a stylized R against a circular saw blade in black, white, and red. Up to this point the RedBlacks have worn mostly black and white with red and the occasional plaid accents.

My RedBlacks redesign starts with reimagining the primary logo. My version places a block R against a buffalo plaid shield. The secondary mark shows love to the city of Ottawa with a block O with a plaid center and three laces, simulating a ball. The mascot is a beaver, also known as nature’s lumberjack, wearing a plaid shirt and holding an axe. The gloss black primary and and frost white secondary helmets both feature the R-shield, while the gloss black classic helmet relies on the classic R. The black home, white away, and red alternate jerseys all feature plaid cap sleeves and drop shadow block numbers. Each of the three jerseys pairs with white, black, or khaki pants. The classic uniforms, worn for special weekend such as Labour Day, throw it back to the Ottawa Rough Riders days with the classic R logo and the jerseys from the 1970s and ’80s teams.