Professional League baseball

[teeray01]

Ok.  You do good work.  I would say the Darts and Bucks are my favorites.

[BurdBranding]

The Bucks logo looks so good on the brown. I'd maybe even put it as the top logo in the league because everything just works. The more I analyzed the look, the more I think the overall brand breaks down. The logo looks awkward on the red cap. Both the "C" and the buck being white gives a slightly muddled look, and I feel like you could just copy the route taken for the one done on brown (Make the "C" brown or white and the buck the opposite of what is selected for the "C" to create separation). The script also seems a little off brand compared to other aspects of the brand that were presented. This is baseball, so I really have no horse in the race when it comes to knowledge of what makes a good baseball identity, but I think the script would look better if it was closer to the block look that the primary has. This series has been fun! Wish we could see more about the history over the years.

[raysox]

21 hours ago, TheHealthiestScratch said:

The Bucks logo looks so good on the brown. I'd maybe even put it as the top logo in the league because everything just works. The more I analyzed the look, the more I think the overall brand breaks down. The logo looks awkward on the red cap. Both the "C" and the buck being white gives a slightly muddled look, and I feel like you could just copy the route taken for the one done on brown (Make the "C" brown or white and the buck the opposite of what is selected for the "C" to create separation). The script also seems a little off brand compared to other aspects of the brand that were presented. This is baseball, so I really have no horse in the race when it comes to knowledge of what makes a good baseball identity, but I think the script would look better if it was closer to the block look that the primary has. This series has been fun! Wish we could see more about the history over the years.

The C-Deer logo for sure looks best on the brown, but I really was aiming for a red cap. I tried your version, and it sort of looked like an incorrect reversed logo. Not that it's your fault, it was just my opinion comparing both. The cursive font comment makes me think of the Dodgers, who has a cursive font and a block logo. Not every baseball brand has a matching font. Most do! But I took creative liberty here.

Although after I posted it, I realized that the font I used was the one I wanted to use for a possible future expansion team so it might get changed anyway!

[teeray01]

Would love to see the Bucks logo on a brown cap.

[raysox]

On 11/20/2020 at 5:19 PM, TheHealthiestScratch said:

This series has been fun! Wish we could see more about the history over the years.

I don't want to dip my toe too far into the Sports Fan Fiction territory, but since you asked and that I was curious-

[_DietDrPepper_]

If your looking for a place to dip more into the sports fan fiction, you can click the link in my sig to go to the website that came out of the fall of the sports fan fiction section. 

 

But enough advertising, your work is always great Raysox, I love all of the looks. I'm excited to see how this evolves! 

[raysox]

Two more expansion teams that i'll add after another season(1978). First was a name I used before but I really think it works. In the mid 70s, the name Charm City was coined. Plus, the Colts would be there still, and the lucky horseshoe would be an easy tie in. Expect them to stay!

Introducing the Baltimore Charms

 

Had to pair them with another team. I deconstructed a logo concept I did for the for the Denver Bears that had this basic idea, but with a db. It's a good idea, so I made it work for the 'Yotes. Introducing the Denver Coyotes.

 

Finally, after I made the chart above, I didn't realize that Minnesota had been worse than Atlanta over their brief history. Their logo looked somewhat outdated going in to the 70s. Thinking of campy cartoon like logos, then something clicked in my head that I could make the shape of Minnesota with a loon. Introducing the look for the loons for 1977.

[scottyeagle]

Brothers doesn't seem like an era appropriate font, and it doesn't match well with the font in the paw. 

[osctheg]

Dang, that Loons logo is nice.

[raysox]

13 hours ago, scottyeagle said:

Brothers doesn't seem like an era appropriate font, and it doesn't match well with the font in the paw. 

"and that's when I took it personally"

You're right. The more I sat on it, the more it felt off. As well as the paw logo being slapped together from my old concept. I completely redid their brand, going with an abstract lined Coyote howling at the moon.

[teeray01]

If you are still thinking of Miami, I like the name Herons as a baseball name.  Just a thought.

[chcarlson23]

Can I seriously buy one of those loons hats? 

[raysox]

Hey guys! Little overdue update here. I haven't touched the save in December, but I have some teams that got refreshed and an updated timeline, just because I think it's interesting.

So with the last expansion of Denver and Baltimore, I finally went from 1 table to 3 divisions. I really waffled over doing this, but sure enough the division winners + 2 wild cards spiced up the playoff picture dramatically. The different shapes represent divisions, and the stroked versions of the shapes near the top mean the division winner. Expansion teams FINALLY started making the playoffs, although none closed the deal. The east dominated, as players who were heroes early on in the save retired, and were elected to the Hall of Fame.

You can see the teams that rebranded there, but for a closer look-

Toronto started to become irrelevant, and I wanted to facelift their logo. I used brighter colors for the 80s, while combining a T and maple leaf.

 

The other one is Golden Gatekeepers becoming San Francisco. The name is long, but I felt like it was overdue because the whimsey felt outdated. On top of that, this league's version of Mike Trout, who had won silver sluggers throughout the 70s playing for the Los Angeles Suns, became a free agent and signed with their rival.

 

Hope you all had a happy holidays, and I will probably pick this league up in a week or two. I'm not thinking about expansion just yet since there is still some recent expansion teams that are BUTT. 

That being said, i'm taking names for teams in New Orleans, Indianapolis, Pittsburgh, Miami, Montreal, and San Diego

[Jake3roo]

I can't wait to watch the 30 for 30 on the '78 Toros. What happened there?

 

As for the concepts- I'm absolutely in love with some of the simpler designs: LA, Boston, Atlanta (twice)!

The name that has been bouncing around in my head is San Diego Sandcastles, but that feels a little Brandiose to be major league. I'm also curious to see if you stick to classic color schemes for places like Pittsburgh, Miami, and New Orleans.

[raysox]

9 hours ago, Jake3roo said:

I can't wait to watch the 30 for 30 on the '78 Toros. What happened there?

Hah, Dallas is one of a few teams that had a generated owner who had a tendency to spend on building a roster. That was about 2 months ago real time, and I think they got a big FA pitcher and a former top 5 pick from Minnesota (?). But Cincinnati has a spending owner and haven’t done anything. 

 

thjnk my favorite one year wonder is the Baltimore team that made the playoffs the third season in the stacked East, only to fall back down. Still not sure how that happened.

 

BUT to make this not entirely a sim post - thanks for the suggestion! I have colors picked for New Orleans, but was playing around with swatches and thought a team colored like Borussia Dortmund would be cool, but I’d likely have to do Pittsburgh in that case

[raysox]

Surprise expansion! 

Doing the timelines, I realized I had the same amount of time gap between my first expansion in 1969, to the second set in 1976. Originally, I had hoped for an expansion team to make the playoffs before I considered that the league was well rounded enough to expand. It didn't happen until 1977, but I expanded anyway. But in 1984, the wayward Denver Coyotes signed a 40 year old future hall of famer, and somehow were well rounded enough to tie LA for the best record. On top of that, the entire league finished above .400.

In the background, I worked on my goals for expansion teams because we were heading towards the expansion crazy 90s. I didn't expect to do it so soon, but I think I created some great logos.
 

First, I thought the league needed another California team. There's a gap in the market in San Diego, so they got a team. The name Surf came to mind, but thought having both the Suns and Surf seemed kind of lame, but settled on the Tridents, the weapon of Poseidon. I color dropped the color of waves & sky from a picture in San Diego. We'll call it "Pacific Green". Made a simple trident logo that interlocks with an SD. 

 

With this expansion, I plan on going from 3 divisions to 4, including a Southern Division. This means I'm finally expanding to my home state! Little thing about me is I think the Miami Vice color scheme is a little hacky, since it feels like most of the people perpetrating it are from out of state. I think the most Miami brand to have ever existed is the orange/black Marlins set. For me, I used a Coral and Navy color scheme. Someone suggested Herons to me before, and I think that was a winner. Plus, picking Herons and Pink would link them to Inter Miami immediately. I love making old looking logos, and feel like I can do some cool stuff with the name when I am at a point where I can make it more realistic.

 

Oh and just for the heck of it, I updated the Suns scripts to fit the times a little better.

 

See you in a few years when we get up to 22 teams!

[jbird669]

I absolutely love this series! And the DC for Denver was cool, perhaps as a secondary logo? I want to buy these hats. 

[raysox]

So as I mentioned, mid-80s, I decided that I should lay out the expansion plan moving forward. 24 teams by 1990 seemed like a reasonable goal, since I needed to only grow by 4 teams.

 

I went with two big traditional cities, Montreal and Pittsburgh.

I did a MV logo for the Montreal Voyageurs, and actually exported them for the game. But sat on it for a night, and realized I misjudged the timing of the era. I looked for logos of the late 80s, wanting something more illustrative. A Voyageur is a French-Canadian transporter during the fur trade. So I made an outdoorsman with a animal skin hat and beard. This is a placeholder logo until the 90s rebrand makes an appearance. 

 

The other one is the Pittsburgh Stallions. Pretty simple overall. A black P logo in the traditional colors of the city. Not breaking any barriers here, but it's a baseball team and it didn't need to be.

 

Pittsburgh made the playoffs their first season somehow, so the expansion draft was kind to them.

[sky1324]

I really like that Voyaguers logo, but as always this whole series is great. The name "Baltimore Charms" is brilliant as well.

[GreenCat]

I've seen your stuff on the OOTP forums and I'm digging your designs! How do you find the fonts for your wordmarks and how do you create them?

 

I can't wait to see more from you.