Continental Independent Baseball League: the Expansion

[dgnmrwrw]

This is a project I've been working on (off and on) for several months to a year. It's been a very long time since I did baseball work, and I don't think I've ever tried to tackle an entire league. I liked the idea of trying some baseball designs because of the potential to do some really interesting and different typographic work, including scripts and more old-style looks. Some of this work has been shown (in some form) before, including the recent PuckDrawn contest, but most of it is brand new.

So I'm presenting the Continental Independent Baseball League: four divisions of six teams each, for a total of 24 teams in non-MLB markets. With a few exceptions (which I'll do my best to point out), all the work is 100% mine, including the original base sketches and (I think) every bit of the typography. In general, there's definitely more of a minor-league aesthetic, from the style of the logos to the color choices. But I tried my best to do things that were fun, and (hopefully) the entire league features a variety of styles. On this initial post, I'll be displaying a league map (updating it as additional teams are presented), along with a grid of league logos and caps (ditto).

Team Logos // Team Caps

Each team will have a primary logo, cap logo, and home and road uniforms, each with an alternate. Right now, only some teams have alternate logos. Constructive, detailed C+C is of course welcome. And I'll be doing these in alphabetical order. So let's get started with the first team.

Albuquerque Spirits
Birmingham Colonels
Boise Wranglers
Buffalo Freeze
Charlotte Monarchs
Columbus Comets
El Paso Friars
Green Bay Mechanics
Hartford Warriors
Indianapolis Guardians
Jacksonville Tritons

Las Vegas Scorpions

Nashville Grays

New Orleans Bullfrogs

Norfolk Dominion

Oklahoma City Engineers

Omaha Thunderhead

Ottawa Stags

Portland Chinook

Salt Lake City Cougars

San Antonio Armadillos

Sacramento Condors

Vancouver Bears

Wichita Bombers

[dgnmrwrw]

Albuquerque Spirits

Albuquerque, NM

The Spirits' colors are wine, gold, turquoise, and navy. The primary logo features a stylized crescent moon/baseball combination set over a Zia sun symbol and crossed bats, with straight typography on top of it all. The cap logo uses the moon/zia combination encircling a white A. The alternate logo, used as a sleeve patch on all of the jerseys, is a similarly stylized thunderbird with a baseball and the team name circled around.

The Spirits wear white vested home uniforms with wine pinstripes, and wine sleeves. The home alternate simply uses a full wine-colored jersey. On the road, the unis are gray, with heavier emphasis on navy and wine/gold/wine striping on the sleeves and pants. The road alternate jersey is also wine colored. Here's a more detailed look at the home and road wordmarks.

[knnhrvy16]

Glad to see another series of yours! Always a true pleasure to see your work.

This concept here is absolutely stunning. Great colors, name, logos, scripts...everything is fantastic. It successfully captures that New Mexican feel and Southwestern flavor. I really have no complaints. Stellar concept, as always, sir.

[aci]

I only have three minor complaints/critiques/suggestions:

1) The 'Q' in your nameplate font looks incredibly 'O'-like. Minor, I know.

2) The turquoise numbers on the home jersey look very out of place when all three other jerseys' back numbers match the front numbers. Either make the front ones turquoise, or the back ones navy.

3) You may want to consider single-colour NOBs, just to help them stand out a little better.

[illwauk]

Absolutely no complaints about Albuquerque's identity... very regionally appropriate.

Although if you want a team in Wisconsin, Appleton or Madison would be better options than Green Bay. Appleton probably has the most entrenched baseball history in the state outside of Milwaukee and has a metro area almost twice as large as Green Bay's. Madison's media market might not be as large as Green Bay-Appleton, but it's far and away the biggest city after Milwaukee and has a much more centralized population, which is more important when dealing with baseball where games are played nearly every day.

[Whittier S]

Ditto what illwauk said about Madison.

Also, number on the back of the home jersey is awfully light. A darker colour would be more readable.

Could we get a full version of the shoulder patch?

Excellent job overall, I really like this colour scheme.

[Raymie]

Awesome! I like your work and am happy to see you taking on another series.

[Julius Seizure]

This is a fine breath of fresh air from the usual baseball identities! Very appropriate color scheme for New Mexico.

Have you tried a teal alternate?

[Spearhead]

Albuquerque Spirits

Albuquerque, NM

Really nice.

[jaha32]

I enjoyed your defunct hockey series from last year and am looking forward to following this project as well.

I like your choices for cities, except for Green Bay. Green Bay really has a small-town feel, because that's just what it is. If it wasn't for the Packers, it wouldn't be noteworthy on a national scale. Madison would be a better fit in my opinion as far as Wisconsin cities, but if you like Green Bay, by all means, it is your league.

Onto Albuquerque: I like the name and the way you incorporated the state flag into the logo. I like the unique colors, especially on the jerseys. I think there could be more color contrast on the primary logo, however, and a few of the seams on the baseball are so small, that they might as well be taken out since they're just a dot or sliver. Those are my only minor complaints. This is a nice, solid identity.

[raysox]

Oh man, I can't wait to see this series.

I get what you're going for on the concept, but I'm not really sure about how the colors work together. I'd tone down the aqua, and just make it blend better. The logos are really slick though!

[dgnmrwrw]

Thanks to everyone for the feedback so far. Glad that it seemed to go over pretty well. Some thoughts:

@aci: The nameplate font is the standard NFL Varsity Block A. I used it instead of the MLB Block font just based on personal preference regarding a few of the letterforms. In fact, all of the teams in this series use that standard font (I probably should have mentioned that before. But you've got a good point about the number coloring, so I'll take a look at it.

@illwauk, Whittier, jaha: Good point about the choice of Green Bay over Madison. I didn't really take too much time to make this realistic; for instance, I gave no consideration to stadiums/facilities. So I think I chose Green Bay based only on geography: it's farther away from Milwaukee (and Minneapolis and Chicago). I've already done the work for Green Bay, but it might not be a big deal to switch it to Madison. I'll give it some thought.

@Whittier: Check the links in the text description for links to larger versions of some of the logos. They'll be found there just to cut down on post sizes.

@Julius: A turquoise home alternate might be nice. I'll look at it.

Hope to have an update soon!

[NatsFan2004]

Oh man, I can't wait to see this series.

I get what you're going for on the concept, but I'm not really sure about how the colors work together. I'd tone down the aqua, and just make it blend better. The logos are really slick though!

Ditto here. This series looks really promising. I'm going to follow this one as closely as jaha32's EBA series.

I agree about the colors - could the wine and turquoise colors be made brighter and more bold? I kinda feel like they're fighting to be seen in this version.

[dgnmrwrw]

Okay, Albuquerque has been updated and finished (for now). I looked at tweaking the colors, specifically the balance between the wine and turquoise, but nothing seemed like an improvement. I did change the front numbers on the home jersey to turquoise to match the back (and fall in line with the rest of the set). While I know that color is pretty light, hopefully the gold outline and the pinstriped background would make them legible enough.

I did a mock up of a turquoise home alternate. IMO, it's a little too much of that color and the interactions with the other colors don't quite work, so I'm not including it in the official set. But for those who want to see it, here it is.

Next team coming soon.

[dgnmrwrw]

Birmingham Colonels

Birmingham, AL

The Colonels' colors are crimson, blue, and gray. The primary logo features a civil war colonel charging on his horse with a banner flowing behind, breaking through a circle with type set above a star. The cap logo features a stylized interlocking BC monogram (in the custom typeface) over two crossed sabres. The primary logo doubles as a sleeve patch.

The Colonels wear white home uniforms with shoulder striping featuring a red section with stars. The home alternate is crimson with the BC logo on the chest. The home alternate cap features a blue bill. On the road, the unis are gray, and the caps and socks switch to blue. The road alternate jersey is also blue. A more detailed look at the home and road wordmarks.

[aci]

I like it, especially the primary logo and the shoulder striping.

The only thing that's got me is the 'intertwined BC' logo, because at first glance, it really looks like 'SC'. I think that could be fixed by essentially inverting the C, so that where it currently goes in front of the B, it goes behind, and where it currently goes behind, it goes in front. The risk of the B being confused for a 2 is much slimmer than being confused for an S.

[cohenj21]

Birmingham logo is fantastic. Agreed with previous post about the cap logo, although I would suggest just using the "B" with the crossed swords on the cap, because the interlocking feels sort of forced. Great job so far on the series besides that, and looking forward to more.

[GeauxColonels]

Holy crap that Birmingham logo is fantastic. Could you possibly post a larger version of the cap logo? To me it looks more like an "SC" than "BC".

[rtrich11]

The art on the primary is terrific. Great rendering. Not that you have any reason at all to change anything, I wonder what it'd look like if the man+horse were larger in the circle.

Good work.

[Spearhead]

Birmingham Colonels

Birmingham, AL

Again, great logo, really well done.