Tweaking the Brewers

[Gothamite]

I've made no secret of my distaste for the Brewers' new logo and uniforms.  I'm hoping that the club will do with their 50th Anniversary set what they did for their 25th Anniversary set, which is make some tweaks after a couple years.

 

With that in mind, I worked up some tweaks to the current set, and would be glad for your feedback.  Nothing here is more radical than that 28th Anniversary makeover (with one notable exception we'll get to later), so I could see something like this actually happening.  Template is courtesy of @rsaline, with my gratitude.

 

The basic ground rules I set for myself:

• only minor changes to the typeface and logo(s).
• keep the color scheme.

I really wanted to try and limit the scope to what the Brewers did in 1997.

 

So, with all that said, here's the concept.

 

The cap logo is consistent across all platforms, being a very slightly modified version of the classic logo.  Certainly less modified than the current one that the owner let his kid trash.

 

HOME UNIFORMS:

 

 

I kept cream as the primary home, and pinstripes on white as an alternate.  I don't think the Brewers are on a schedule anymore, but I liked the "On Fridays We Wear Pinstripes" campaign.

 

The cream uniform eliminates the thick 70s sleeve striping in favor of taking the current pants stripes and applying it consistently to the jersey.  This also ties in with the striping pattern on the current road uniforms.

 

The sleeve patch is @ren69's gorgeous update of the Brewers' 1940s Barrelman logo.  I think it works a little better as a sleeve patch than the swinging Barrelman, being more square and with fewer thin appendages.

 

The pinstripes are clean and classic.  The cap logo is repeated on the sleeves as an homage to the alternate uniform worn from 2006 through last season; the Brewers have never worn pinstripes with any other logo, so it certainly seems to fit.

 

ROAD UNIFORMS:

 

 

Again, I conformed the stripes on the road jersey.  It really bothers me that none of the current jerseys have the same striping.  The sleeve patch is carried over from the home creams, to create another consistent element in the two primary sets.  I did consider re-coloring his uniform to gray, but decided to keep him in the home uniform.

 

The road alternate is near-perfect (so long as I'm keeping the current scripts).  All I did was swap out the sleeve patch for the Barrelman batting.

 

And here's where we get creative.

 

HOME/ROAD ALTERNATE:

 

 

Although powder blue is overused in MLB right now, the Brewers certainly have a claim to it (even originating the #PowerBlue hashtag a couple seasons ago).  This jersey could be worn on the road or at home, and incorporates the classic Milwaukee wordmark with the People's Flag of Milwaukee, symbol of the city. 

 

Well, whadd'ya think? 

 

[bcon_731]

@Gothamite Solid set! Would you consider a yellow set with the barrel man? 

[Gothamite]

On 8/28/2020 at 3:22 PM, bcon_731 said:

@Gothamite Solid set! Would you consider a yellow set with the barrel man? 

 

Thanks!  You mean something like this?

 

[MilSox]

Not sure I'm feeling the head spoons.  Much as I can appreciate you went there because it ties them to the AA Brewers, I feel like the serifs on the modern wordmark makes it look too messy.  Plus, the modern incarnation has never used them.  

Love the idea of tying the People's Flag into the powder blue.  I'll be very upset if the Brewers introduce a powder blue uniform without doing exactly that.  But without powder blue pants, this feels half-hearted.  As you alluded to, the Brewers have one of the strongest claims to powder blue.  The fact that it's so prominently featured on the flag you now see more than the city flag is only more of a reason for them to embrace it.

If you changed those things though, I'd say this is the best possible outcome for the new set.

[itsmb8]

Its alright, but I personally think headspoon across the board is a backwards move.  I also have come to appreciate the new BiG version more due to the centered ball.  And lastly, with the powder uniform, I'd use the new Milwaukee script and get rid of the People's Flag sleeve logo, as that logo has nothing to do with the Brewers organization.

 

Im super appreciative if your time and creativity to create this, especially because its another Brewers concept I get to look at, but what it all boils down to for me is this just screams doubling down on the "mismatched eras" criticism from the original branding unveiling.

[coco1997]

For the yellow alt, I’d put the BiG logo on the chest instead of reusing the “Milwaukee” script.

[bcon_731]

13 hours ago, Gothamite said:

 

Thanks!  You mean something like this?

 

That looks great 

[ThatGuyInShorts]

I would agree.  Although I really like the recent Milwaukee re-design, I like the "Milwaukee Proud", "Good as Gold", and "Road Grey" in this redesign.  I gotta ask though, what specifically Gothamite do you not like about the newest re-design?

[BBTV]

The triple-striped placket trim (aka headspoon) on the light blue jersey makes it look a little too busy.  I think either a single color or none at all would work better.  I don't think scripts should go on top of piping.  The script makes the statement itself and doesn't need that extra flair, but if that's what you want then a single-color spoon would be fine.

 

 

[HoopsCoach55]

I think that rather than losing the stripe consistency that you're going for, perhaps outlining the script on the True Blue and Good as Gold jerseys in the jersey color might help to separate from the placket trim.

[Gothamite]

19 hours ago, NicDB said:

Not sure I'm feeling the head spoons.  Much as I can appreciate you went there because it ties them to the AA Brewers, I feel like the serifs on the modern wordmark makes it look too messy.  Plus, the modern incarnation has never used them.

 

Sure they have. Best uniform the Brewers have ever worn, in my opinion. 

 

19 hours ago, NicDB said:

Love the idea of tying the People's Flag into the powder blue.  I'll be very upset if the Brewers introduce a powder blue uniform without doing exactly that.  But without powder blue pants, this feels half-hearted.  As you alluded to, the Brewers have one of the strongest claims to powder blue.  The fact that it's so prominently featured on the flag you now see more than the city flag is only more of a reason for them to embrace it.

If you changed those things though, I'd say this is the best possible outcome for the new set.

My original thought for the Milwaukee Proud uniform was full #PowerBlue, I’ll post that one later. 

[Gothamite]

2 hours ago, HoopsCoach55 said:

I think that rather than losing the stripe consistency that you're going for, perhaps outlining the script on the True Blue and Good as Gold jerseys in the jersey color might help to separate from the placket trim.

That’s a good idea - I did it on the cream, pinstriped, and gray roads.  I just haven’t made a vector of the wordmarks yet, and didn’t get around to outlining the modern “Milwaukee” script. 

[Gothamite]

If the three-color piping is too busy, how about reverting to the thick blue piping of the late 1990s?

 

 

I still like the three colors for the #PowerBlue, since it reflects the original striping.  But I added a powder blue set of pants for it.  They could wear with matching pants or use it like a regular alternate jersey.

 

[TBGKon]

You did the right thing by adding a powder blue pants option.  I agree it can work as either a home or road alternate, but powder blue jersey with gray pants always looked off to me.  For example, the Rays in spring training.

 

 

White looks crisp, as does the powder blue as pants options, gray just looks muddy to me.

[Gothamite]

I can see that.  I also wouldn't pair it with a light blue cap.

[MilSox]

Yea, not enough contrast with powder blue and grey.

The single color piping is an improvement, but I still think most of these would look better without a head spoon.  But what if you tried a cream uniform with the two-color headspoon and used the BiG as a chest logo?  I guess I'm not against the headspoon as a concept per se, I just think it feels awkward with the new scripts. 

[ThatGuyInShorts]

Love the single large piping!  And if someone would to be so kind as to inform me what a headspoon is?

[Gothamite]

"Headspoon" is slang for the piping that circles around the neck and runs down the placket.  It has a spoon-ish shape.

 

 

 

 

Personally, I hate sleeve piping that's not mirrored on the neck and/or placket.  It's unfinished, unbalanced.  One of the major problems I have with this Brewers set.

[OnWis97]

I like the nod to the mid-1990s look, which is my favorite look in the team's history (starting with the removal of the Motre Bame from the hat).  Unfortunately, there's not much to remember on the field from that era.

 

I dislike Beer Barrel Man. Otherwise, I only have minor complaint and, like with BBM, it's an unpopular opinion.  I like the current two-seem ball. Give me your glove with that ball, and it's perfect (relative to the BiG, that is).  But overall , this is pretty sharp.

[Gothamite]

Thanks!

 

The second seam is the least of the problems with the new BiG.  I could have lived with that if they didn't off-center the ball itself.