MLB Tweaks (4/27 Angels and Rockies updates)

[davidrpaige]

One thing in these designs that I think is important is that they can not exist in a vacuum.  What I mean is, how do they look on the field with other teams?  So I've been starting to do that, taking uniforms and comparing them, so that I can determine if they are "out there."  I wanted to share one of my tests with, what should be, their most natural rival, the Seattle Mariners!

 

The Beavers vs Seattle

 

 

The Mariners vs Portland

 

 

Speaking of the Mariners, while I was creating their uniforms for my test I decided that they needed a new home alternate.  I seem to be a huge sucker for the large logo over the heart side look.  Oh, and the home and away uniforms have very minor tweaks to them, but nothing to write home about.

 

 

And while I'm on the subject of Portland, I figure I should share my idea of the Oakland Athletics moving to Portland, instead of Portland gaining and expansion franchise, would look like.

 

New Portland arm patch:

 

 

Home, Away, and Alternate uniforms.  The A's have a classic clean look that there is really nothing to change, outside of the city name on the road uniform and the arm patch.  I also just did a small update to the cursive script, just to make it a little cleaner and match between the road and home uniforms.

 

 

Ok, so that is your Portland A's.  Hope you like my dive in the Pacific Northwest.

[coco1997]

What a ton of cool stuff!

I LOVE that Seattle alternate. And the A's elephant with axes in its trunk is a really clever idea. Great work!

[Seattle1917]

I love the idea of Bily Beane and Co. moving to the Rose city. But your take on a Major League Portland Beavers is excellent.

[mamiller99]

Very nice topic. I feel that maybe adding a bit of red to the A's due to the Rose City stuff in Portland would be nice too. Although you should use a darker red, because both the Angels and Rangers have that brighter red covered.

 

I also would like to see your fixes on the Tribe

[davidrpaige]

I'm still working on finishing off the Diamondbacks, Beavers, and Rays, but I thought I'd throw out a sneak preview of the Cleveland Indians that I'm still working on.

 

[Krz]

Looks like you recolored the feathers from the redskins logo and put them an the Indians current cap

[coco1997]

Have you considered any different color schemes for the Indians? I only say this because blue and red are overused in MLB, and you've changed the colors of all the other teams you've done.

[wat11]

I really like the idea of putting feathers on the C for the Indians!

[davidrpaige]

4 hours ago, KRZYBDGRZ said:

Looks like you recolored the feathers from the redskins logo and put them an the Indians current cap

At the moment it is. I'm using it as a conceptual placeholder, I am still working on it. 

[Paul Lucas]

I personally love the "caveman letters."

[Flames1fan]

http://www.newerabyyou.com/cheatsheet.aspx

[davidrpaige]

Ok, so I went on a whirlwind journey with the Tribe in the design process.  My first intention was to keep things very simple with Cleveland.  One of my main missions was to wipe out Chief Wahoo from my sets.  I just felt that there were better ways to represent the team then a bad, racially offensive character.  At the same time, I didn't want to walk away from an iconography of Native Americans, I just wanted to be careful on what I used.  The last thing I wanted to do was create/use something even worse then Chief Wahoo...if that was possible.  I also wanted to keep the color scheme, and shift back to using the blue much more, as Cleveland has a huge history with the color blue.  I mean, they were named the Cleveland Blues for a while!  Besides, the blue with red treatment works really nicely and I just can't imagine the Indians that didn't use blue and red.

 

So I started out just keeping the Indians very plain with only one direct Native American reference, the hat logo.  Everything else I wanted to bring them back to a cleaner state, an updated version of their 1986 set.  I wanted Major League to return, in a way.  So I was designing some feathers off the C, which I first used a modified Washington Redskins feathers to see if my idea was on track, and cleaned up the uniform era I had chosen.  So in the middle of the process, I had these:

 

 

So far, minus finishing the feather art, I had achieved everything I had set out to do.  I kept it simple.  I kept it clean.  I got rid of Chief Wahoo by just adding simple feathers.  I got it all and...it sucked.  Sucked in that there was nothing special about it.  It won't offend, sure, but it won't inspire either.

 

This is a design concept forum, damn it, push it along!

 

So I went back to the drawing board.  I wanted to add more Native American influence.  I looked at a lettering and the trim.  I found a few textures I wanted to work with while researching Native Americans of the Cleveland and northern Ohio area.  Iroquois, Seneca, and Erie Indians were the dominate groups in various points in time.  So after doing a few searches and played with a few things, I had created this:

 

 

The lettering has a Native American influence without pointing to one specific tribe, or region for that matter, but still being legible.  The arm trim I used an Iroquois patter to give a specific nod to the tribe that had the greater influence of the region.

 

My only fear was that I was going too gimmicky.  I don't feel that I went over that line, but I was starting to push it, especially with how the A is stylized.  So I went back to the drawing board.  I wanted the INFLUENCE of Native Americans but also be modern.  So that is when I came to this design:

 

 

A clean font with a representation of Native American art traditions.  The arm pipping is the Iroquois Confederacy flag, representing 5 Native American tribes.  The sock treatment is an Oneida bead pattern that I liked for its simplicity and that it had a diamond in it, because, baseball diamond.  Duh.

 

So, that is my take on the Cleveland Indians.  I had hoped to create a look that can be honoring Native Americans without toeing the line of offensive, but still look modern and looking towards the future.  What do you think?

[DarkKnight]

Indians look great. It's modern but simplistic, if that makes any sense. 

[coco1997]

All I can say is WOW!  This is the most unique take on the Indians I've ever seen. This is like what the designers of the latest Diamondbacks rebrand would come up with if they had their hands at Cleveland, and I mean that in the best way possible. 

 

I actually prefer your first version of the Native American lettering, so I'd go back to that. 

[davidrpaige]

While I was working on my Cleveland Indians update I had fiddled around with a MLB Expansion concept.  This is the Indianapolis Stars:

 

 

I based the uniforms off of the city flag, which I also used as an arm patch.  I kept it pretty simple and traditional, using blue and white as the dominate colors.  I kept red as a very minimum touch, paralleling the city flag's minimal use of red.  What do you think?

[DarkKnight]

I like the use of the city flag in the Stars concept, but I have to say I'm not a big fan of the star logo on the hat. I think it works on the blue alternate, but not the home or road. Also, the use of white on the hats is interesting. I can't think of a team that has a white crown or bill on their hat, you could leave it, or you could try doing white front panels like the Orioles home hat. I think a blue crown with white front panels and a red bill would look pretty good with that home uniform. What you have here is solid, I just think it needs some fixes to perfect it. 

[coco1997]

The Stars look really nice. Just a good, crisp look. 

 

As far as other MLB teams go, I'd like to see your take on the Brewers.

[loneranger158]

I like the Stars a lot, reminds of Indy Eleven in the NASL (soccer)

[davidrpaige]

Small update.  The more I looked at the uniforms the more I wanted Indy to emphasis on the white.  There is no team that focuses on white as their main color, much like yellow is not a primary color.  So I simplified the trim and put a small detail on the "Stars" script.  The road reverses the color of the "Indianapolis" script to again focus on white as the primary.

 

 

How about that?

[coco1997]

1 hour ago, davidrpaige said:

Small update.  The more I looked at the uniforms the more I wanted Indy to emphasis on the white.  There is no team that focuses on white as their main color, much like yellow is not a primary color.  So I simplified the trim and put a small detail on the "Stars" script.  The road reverses the color of the "Indianapolis" script to again focus on white as the primary.

 

 

How about that?

 

The photos aren't loading for me. Anyone else having this problem?