Cardboard Creations: Bunch of Jerks

Hopefully the title gave this one away pretty quickly. I absolutely love what the Carolina Hurricanes have been doing with their Storm Surge celebrations after victories on home ice. I don't see what the problem is with a team trying to have some fun. 

Some people might not agree with that, but that's just how I feel. Same thing with the over the top pre-game shows that Vegas put on during last year's playoffs. I loved watching those and don't understand how so many people had such a huge problem with it.

Anyway, back to the reason for this post. Its been a while now since I came up with a custom hockey card design. My last two projects were music based. What better way to get back into this than with everybody's favorite bunch of jerks?

I wasn't really sure where to start with this one other than wanting some type of storm cloud background. Once I found that I kind of just winged it from there and after several iterations ended up with a design I was happy with. Before I talk about some of the details, here's a look at the first one of the seven I have so far.

I think these came out great, much better than I thought they would. The horizontal orientation was definitely the right way to go. I had played with the idea of a vertical design, but it never looked right so I scrapped that idea pretty quickly. 

Each card showcases one of the Hurricanes' Storm Surge celebrations. I tried to find a good quality photo so it was evident pretty quickly which celebration we're looking at. The first one was a bit tricky so I went with a great shot of the players getting the crowd going. This was just before they all skated toward the end boards and jumped into the glass. 

As far as the overall design, I wanted to incorporate the Bunch of Jerks text from the t-shirts as well as the Canes colors and logo.

I also added the Upper Deck logo just because it was easy to find and it gives the design a bit more realism, even if it is something that they would likely never make. I did the same fade effect as the Hurricanes logo to keep things consistent.

Each card also has a date on the bottom. This was just to give each card something that would be unique from the rest, other than the picture of course. I tried going with a full description similar to UD's recent game dated moments, but it just looked too crowded.

Up next we have a look at the second Storm Surge that took place on October 9th after the Hurricanes beat the Vancouver Canucks 5-3. This was similar to the first one as the players skated down the ice and jumped into the end boards. Here is a link to the video.

After their 3-1 win over the Flyers on New Year's Eve, rookie Andrei Svechnikov went for a nice long slide from center ice, through his teammates lined up on either side, and into the empty net. Here is a link to the video. Looks like fun, doesn't it?

Up next is one of my favorites. After a 4-2 win over the Blue Jackets, the players gathered in a circle at center ice with Brock McGinn in the center. McGinn does his best Thor impression and the rest of the team falls to the ice. Here is a link to the video.

This one is an example of when I had to settle for a picture of the aftermath rather than the core of the Storm Surge. After a 3-1 victory over the Oilers, Warren Foegele hits a walk-off home run and gets drenched with Gatorade by his teammates. Here is a link to the video.

It was also pretty neat when they did the limbo after beating the Stars 3-0 back on February 16th. Brett Pesce and Jaccob Slavin led the way using a stick as the limbo bar and everyone else got in on the action including the team's mascot. Here is a link to the video.

Last but not least is one of the more interesting Storm Surges. After a 5-2 win over the Blues the Hurricanes were joined on the ice by Evander Holyfield. Jordan Martinook was the lucky one who go to face off with the heavyweight champ. Here is a link to the video.

That's all for now. I'm working on some more of these and hopefully I'll be able to post an update later this season. There are a few more celebrations that I really enjoyed that would make for good cards. It will be interesting to see what happens if they make the playoffs. I've been rooting for them lately just because I want to see these in the playoffs.