MLB 2019 Changes

[Marlins93]

I attribute people wearing the 2012 cap more to the design. Especially those people who aren't devoted Marlins fans. While I did not like the 2012 insignia personally, it's flashier, more distinctive, and more Miami than the rebranded one is. 2012 kind of went against the grain, particularly with the oversized logo. Visit a Lids store where the new cap is flanked by those from other MLB teams and it does not grab your attention off the rack at all. The colors pop better on the 2019 cap than they do on the jerseys but I wouldn't call it vibrant at all.

[IceCap]

2 hours ago, SilverBullet1929 said:

The post I originally responded to said the Marlins jersey is boring because "they just slapped a wordmark on a white jersey and called it a day."

 

If slapping a wordmark on a white jersey and calling it a day is boring then someone please give me a logical reason why the Dodgers and Athletics don't have boring jerseys because it sure looks like that's what they did. 

 

Thinking ahead I'm sure the answer will be "because their wordmarks aren't black." If so, it's still just a wordmark on a jersey. 

Those scripts are more organic, and they use colour well. The blue wordmark on the Dodgers' jersey pops against the white, and is complemented by the red front numbers. The A's green and gold is distinctive and colourful.

 

The Marlins, in comparison, have two problems. The first is that unlike those classic teams? The script is too uncanny valley as @SFGiants58 and @Marlins93 have said. The Dodgers and A's scripts may have been touched up over the years, but they still have character hand drawn wordmarks have. The Marlins' script was very clearly designed entirely digitally and so it lacks the character of the classic scripts it's trying to mimic.

The other problem is the colours. Whereas other teams with wordmarks on plain jerseys make good use of colours given their limited options? The Marlins simply don't. Everything comes off as black on white, or black on grey, or black on black. That works for a team like the White Sox, whose entire identity is being the white and black team. Even the Sox have a more dynamic identity, however. The Marlins aimed for a Heat-esque Miami nightlife look of bold colours against black, but it fell way short. We have enough footage and photographs to prove that the identity just looks drab and bland in anything but ideal lighting conditions.

 

So the sterile script combined with an over-emphasis on black at the expense of their bright red and blue shades leads to a uniform that reads as bland. Sure, it's got all the same elements as the Dodgers' uniform, but all the crying about double standards won't change the fact that the Dodgers' uniform is way more visually interesting and colourful.

[Marlins93]

2 minutes ago, Ice_Cap said:

Those scripts are more organic, and they use colour well. The blue wordmark on the Dodgers' jersey pops against the white, and is complemented by the red front numbers. The A's green and gold is distinctive and colourful.

 

The Marlins, in comparison, have two problems. The first is that unlike those classic teams? The script is too uncanny valley as @SFGiants58 and @Marlins93 have said. The Dodgers and A's scripts may have been touched up over the years, but they still have character hand drawn wordmarks have. The Marlins' script was very clearly designed entirely digitally and so it lacks the character of the classic scripts it's trying to mimic.

The other problem is the colours. Whereas other teams with wordmarks on plain jerseys make good use of colours given their limited options? The Marlins simply don't. Everything comes off as black on white, or black on grey, or black on black. That works for a team like the White Sox, whose entire identity is being the white and black team. Even the Sox have a more dynamic identity, however. The Marlins aimed for a Heat-esque Miami nightlife look of bold colours against black, but it fell way short. We have enough footage and photographs to prove that the identity just looks drab and bland in anything but ideal lighting conditions.

 

So the sterile script combined with an over-emphasis on black at the expense of their bright red and blue shades leads to a uniform that reads as bland. Sure, it's got all the same elements as the Dodgers' uniform, but all the crying about double standards won't change the fact that the Dodgers' uniform is way more visually interesting and colourful.

This x1000

The Marlins might have the same "elements" as other teams in a technical sense (piping on the sleeves etc), but they use them in a fashion that has no character whatsoever. Hence the profound differences with other designs that are actually timeless and visually pleasing.

[IceCap]

Yeah...point to "the same elements" all you want, one of these two uniforms is clearly more interesting and bold than the other.

 

 

[SportsLogos.Net News]

Out of Luck? Athletics Sweep Homestand in Kelly Greens Then Leave Them at Home

July 18, 2019 - 21:04 PM

The Oakland Athletics appear to have caught themselves a little case of jersey superstition this week. Oakland opened their five-game homestand this past Friday, clad in their Kelly green home alternate “Friday Night” jerseys, with a 5-2 victory over the […]

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[SilverBullet1929]

@Ice_Cap thank you, good job actually giving a rational explanation. 

 

If "just slapping a wordmark on a jersey" is bad then like 20 teams have bad jerseys. Comments like that irk me to a fault. 

 

But you took the time to explain beyond that and it makes a big difference in the argument. 

[BBTV]

The Marlins new identity is soulless.  That's the only word I can think of for it.  And the biggest shame of it is that it doesn't have to be that way.

 

Remember how excited most of us where when we saw their new colores?  Then they went and used them in the absolute worst way possible.

 

The script is sterile AF.  It's not even a real script, as nobody would ever write like that.  It's computerized, perfect, and (again) soulless.  Black and white is soulless.  Their most interesting colores are reduced to next-to-nothing.  

 

I don't love their logo, but you could take it, along with their new colores, and build a dynamic - and classic - identity that would potentially boost it into the top or second tier of uniforms.  

 

Instead they have a boring, sterile, soulless identity that is nothing short of forgettable.

 

[DC in Da House w/o a Doubt]

The Marlins look has potential.  It's not that hard, they just need to focus on the blue more.

 

[DC in Da House w/o a Doubt]

It's been said before, but I think the new primary uniforms are supposed to be sort of a Vice Lite look.  My guess is they were too scared to take the risk of fully committing to Vice like colors, so they went with a safer option -- hence why it looks so boring

[SilverBullet1929]

4 minutes ago, DC in Da House w/o a Doubt said:

It's been said before, but I think the new primary uniforms are supposed to be sort of a Vice Lite look.  My guess is they were too scared to take the risk of fully committing to Vice like colors, so they went with a safer option -- hence why it looks so boring

They wanted a nightlife look but also wanted a Latin American colors look at the same time so instead of teal and pink they went with blue and red because those are (sorta) colors of the flags of Cuba and the Dominican Republic. 

 

This is an important aspect of their brand that they have said before that nobody seems to remember. 

 

So it's not so much that they played it safe as much as they wanted "Latin American colors at night" more than the "traditional" Miami Vice colors that the Heat use.

[Digby]

1 hour ago, DC in Da House w/o a Doubt said:

It's been said before, but I think the new primary uniforms are supposed to be sort of a Vice Lite look.  My guess is they were too scared to take the risk of fully committing to Vice like colors, so they went with a safer option -- hence why it looks so boring

 

1 hour ago, SilverBullet1929 said:

They wanted a nightlife look but also wanted a Latin American colors look at the same time so instead of teal and pink they went with blue and red because those are (sorta) colors of the flags of Cuba and the Dominican Republic. 

 

This is an important aspect of their brand that they have said before that nobody seems to remember. 

 

So it's not so much that they played it safe as much as they wanted "Latin American colors at night" more than the "traditional" Miami Vice colors that the Heat use.

 

Both of these explanations point to the same thing, though: that half-measures rarely make for good design. Trying to please everybody pleases no one. 

[Survival79]

21 hours ago, Marlins93 said:

I attribute people wearing the 2012 cap more to the design. Especially those people who aren't devoted Marlins fans. While I did not like the 2012 insignia personally, it's flashier, more distinctive, and more Miami than the rebranded one is. 2012 kind of went against the grain, particularly with the oversized logo.

 

With a few tweaks it could have been perfect.

 

[Around the Horn]

Didn't someone mock up the Marlins script in blue? I thought that looked great.

[Marlins93]

6 hours ago, DC in Da House w/o a Doubt said:

The Marlins look has potential.  It's not that hard, they just need to focus on the blue more.

 

6 hours ago, BringBackTheVet said:

I don't love their logo, but you could take it, along with their new colores, and build a dynamic - and classic - identity that would potentially boost it into the top or second tier of uniforms.

 

6 hours ago, DC in Da House w/o a Doubt said:

It's been said before, but I think the new primary uniforms are supposed to be sort of a Vice Lite look.  My guess is they were too scared to take the risk of fully committing to Vice like colors, so they went with a safer option -- hence why it looks so boring

 

20 minutes ago, Around the Horn said:

Didn't someone mock up the Marlins script in blue? I thought that looked great.

 

I do think that they could salvage this identity in some respects, but there's a ton of work that needs to be done to elevate it from one of the worst in MLB to one that's actually pretty great. They need to basically rethink the entire concept underlying the branding. Do away with the nightlife theme completely and adopt something that is very Miami (but not stereotypical) and distinctive. Make baseball not "fashion" jerseys.

 

Adding "more blue" would be a major improvement (the most obvious step that needs to be taken), but that still wouldn't be enough. As many in this thread (including myself) have pointed out, the wordmark itself is actually pretty terrible in terms of actual design; it looks so machine-like and sterile that injecting color alone can't salvage it. I'm sure many would feel better about it if they make those changes, though.

 

I feel like if they change the wordmark, they'd have no choice but to redo the cap insignia and primary logo as well. At that point it would almost be like they were starting from scratch.

 

It's a Vice Super Lite, but I don't think that making it more closely resembling the Heat jerseys is the right approach, either.

[Marlins93]

7 hours ago, SilverBullet1929 said:

They wanted a nightlife look but also wanted a Latin American colors look at the same time so instead of teal and pink they went with blue and red because those are (sorta) colors of the flags of Cuba and the Dominican Republic. 

 

This is an important aspect of their brand that they have said before that nobody seems to remember. 

 

So it's not so much that they played it safe as much as they wanted "Latin American colors at night" more than the "traditional" Miami Vice colors that the Heat use.

I know that the Marlins have commented on those colors being integral to the flags of Latin American and Caribbean countries, but that kind of rings slightly like a marketing spin to me rather than something that was actually driving their design process. Of course I could be way wrong on this, but considering that they aren't even using the same shades as what you see in those flags, I suspect it's a comparison they drew later on. It's an aspect of the brand that I always remember but something I have difficulty seeing as something more than a PR take.

[Survival79]

1 hour ago, Around the Horn said:

Didn't someone mock up the Marlins script in blue? I thought that looked great.

 

I don't have the Marlins script, just the Miami script.

 

[SilverBullet1929]

13 minutes ago, Marlins93 said:

I know that the Marlins have commented on those colors being integral to the flags of Latin American and Caribbean countries, but that kind of rings slightly like a marketing spin to me rather than something that was actually driving their design process. Of course I could be way wrong on this, but considering that they aren't even using the same shades as what you see in those flags, I suspect it's a comparison they drew later on. It's an aspect of the brand that I always remember but something I have difficulty seeing as something more than a PR take.

I agree with this. I remember thinking at the time about the color shades being off and that it might have been some retroactive marketing. 

[IceCap]

Red and blue are two of the most common colours found on flags. In fact only one national flag in the world doesn’t include the colours red, white, or blue (Jamaica). 

Having red and blue can certainly reflect the flags of many Latin American countries, but they also reflect the flags of the US, UK, France, and the Neatherlands. The shades of red and blue the Marlins use probably closest matches Luxembourg’s flag of all countries. 

 

As for saving the current identity? I would say the colours are great. The new Marlin is great. I would ditch the new M and wordmark though. It’s too soulless. It’s not Vice/80s/vaporwave, it’s not Miami nightlife, it’s not classic baseball...it’s just a pseudo-script someone rendered on a computer. 

 

So I would say they need to design to a new M/wordmark that commits to a direction and emphasize the bright blue and red more. 

[chcarlson23]

25 minutes ago, Ice_Cap said:

Red and blue are two of the most common colours found on flags. In fact only one national flag in the world doesn’t include the colours red, white, or blue (Jamaica).

I thought there was a central African country that has a solid green flag... 

[IceCap]

2 minutes ago, chcarlson23 said:

I thought there was a central African country that has a solid green flag... 

That North African country was Libya, and they changed their flag when they overthrew Gaddafi’s régime. The new flag of Libya is the old pre-Gaddafi red, black, and green tricolour with a white star and crescent in the centre.