Minor/Independent/Collegiate League Baseball Logo/Uniform Changes

[DCarp1231]

I’m a sucker for batting mascots so this is a win in my book

 

[The_Admiral]

A home plate of cheese? This is as bad as the flamingo-prank soccer team is good.

[Gothamite]

56 minutes ago, Sec19Row53 said:

Not to nitpick, but they aren't professional -- they're a collegiate wood bat league. Decidedly NOT professional.

Where I agree with you is that, like the team, the logo isn't professional either 

Point well taken.

[MilSox]

This is almost as cringe when the Milwaukee AA team chose that goofy Milkmen identity.  Essentially, "Hey, we're a baseball team in Wisconsin" which makes even less sense when the Mallards play in a league with 9 other in-state rivals.  The only thing inherently Madison about this is the capitol skyline in the back.  Even the puddles don't look like the lakes surrounding the isthmus. 

Also, the old colors tied the Mallards back to the Madison Muskies, the Oakland A's affiliate that broke in the nucleus of their pennant winning clubs from 1988-90.  THAT'S what says Madison baseball to me.  The fact that it had to be pointed out that the new colors (allegedly) came from the city flag tells me they really missed the mark on a local-based identity.

[Eastport76]

idk but the mallard look like more a Richard Scarry Character. Remember his Busytown series?

[DMadSport]

The wordmark and "winged M" hat logo, I admit, do show promise.  However, the whole package comes off as far too comical for a baseball team, collegiate-level or otherwise.  Note that the position of the Madison skyline in the primary logo is immediately behind the duck's backside.  For a team that's part of the Madison community, treating its most noteworthy landmark as... well, you know what, just seems so very ignoble and cringe-inducing.

A couple of things to note from the Wisconsin State Journal (article link below):

• The rebrand comes from the same design group (Planet Propaganda) who designed the identity for Forward Madison FC; that team shares ownership with the Mallards, and their branding, IMHO, incorporates the Madison touches in a much classier way.  (Soccer is perhaps more discriminating in terms of visual brands than baseball, but you get the idea.)
• The rebrand originated with an off-the-agenda remark from the team president during a staff meeting about whether coming out of the COVID lockdown was the right time for the Mallards to rebrand; the staff thought it was.  That meeting took place last September -- only eight months ago!

https://madison.com/wsj/sports/baseball/amateur/a-perfect-fit-mallards-rebranding-with-madison-community-in-mind/article_26b56097-056e-5965-9508-afa1e753d4e9.html

 

[mjd77]

Sorry...this is a downgrade in every way.  Absolutely terrible.

[Gothamite]

2 hours ago, DMadSport said:

• The rebrand comes from the same design group (Planet Propaganda) who designed the identity for Forward Madison FC; that team shares ownership with the Mallards, and their branding, IMHO, incorporates the Madison touches in a much classier way.  (Soccer is perhaps more discriminating in terms of visual brands than baseball, but you get the idea.)

 

I don't believe that.  Not that I doubt the facts, but it seems inconceivable that the best brand in lower-level American soccer came from the same firm that gave us this mess.

 

Seems like the teams may share ownership, but they sure as hell don't share staff.

 

2 hours ago, DMadSport said:

• The rebrand originated with an off-the-agenda remark from the team president during a staff meeting about whether coming out of the COVID lockdown was the right time for the Mallards to rebrand; the staff thought it was.  That meeting took place last September -- only eight months ago!

 

Now that I believe.

[ManillaToad]

Pretty cool

[Gothamite]

14 hours ago, NicDB said:

This is almost as cringe when the Milwaukee AA team chose that goofy Milkmen identity.  Essentially, "Hey, we're a baseball team in Wisconsin" which makes even less sense when the Mallards play in a league with 9 other in-state rivals.  The only thing inherently Madison about this is the capitol skyline in the back.  Even the puddles don't look like the lakes surrounding the isthmus. 

Also, the old colors tied the Mallards back to the Madison Muskies, the Oakland A's affiliate that broke in the nucleus of their pennant winning clubs from 1988-90.  THAT'S what says Madison baseball to me.  The fact that it had to be pointed out that the new colors (allegedly) came from the city flag tells me they really missed the mark on a local-based identity.

 

I call BS on this claim.  It's not in any of the promotional materials I can find, and after the wildly successful Forward Madison branding I would expect that to be front and center if true.

 

I did learn a little bit more about the process from this Madison.com article, including this peek at rough drafts:

 

 

I like that one on top a lot.  That would have been a better starting point.

 

We also learned that they considered changing the name too, creating a new mascot called "the Muskellard", a muskie/mallard hybrid.

 

 

Finally, there was this WTF moment from team president Vern Stenman:

 

Quote

Ultimately, the team and designers stayed with the Mallards and built a new look for the team as it enters its 21st year at Warner Park. This duck will be the third logo used by the team, representing to Stenman a desire to strengthen the connection between the team and the city, specifically the north side.

 

“Kind of a fun little reference in here that you might not see right away is that he's calling his shot, like Babe Ruth. But he's also pointing to the north side of Madison, which is home,” Stenman said. “And there's a lot of interesting things happening — good and bad — on the north side of Madison."

 

Good and bad, man?  Seriously?  Way to rep your town.

 

 

 

[Sodboy13]

This manages to look both overdone and unfinished. Like a rough sketch crammed full of ideas that accidentally got sent to print. It's The Homer as a baseball logo.

 

There are a multitude of ways to create an "old-timey" baseball look without also making it look like something a guy from the local ad agency put together on a 3-martini lunch for $20 and a carton of Chesterfields, because it's an era when the main use of a team logo is on letterhead.

 

Madison's only saving grace here is that Beloit is still intent on coming up with something worse, for now.

 

EDIT: Just saw the tertiary, which is the secondary ringed by ill-rendered sausages, and I'm somehow angrier.

[EJ_Barlik]

Interestingly enough, with enough digging, you can find logos for a bunch of the minor league baseball teams that they used in the Latino Heritage games (is that the proper wording??).  @ChrisCreamer - is there any thought to perhaps including them on the site here?  And, @TruColor, do we know any of the color sets (I realize these may not have been released). ???  Anre they bringing these games back for 2021???

 

My apologies if this was discussed somewhere else....I didn't see it when I searched for a topic.

 

Examples:

 vs  

And  vs.  

[mcrosby]

$50 they have a one-off game played as the Bozhos in the next 2 years. 

[BigEd76]

 

 

[nash61]

They'd better wear those yellow vests without undershirts.

 

[monkeypower]

I like that the wave and sand are part of the jersey wordmark, but I think there's too many colours going on.

 

----

 

My Timber Rattlers are starting the season against Beloit tomorrow. Where did we end off with that whole (failed) Snappers rebrand?

 

There were the finalists which seemed to be widely panned, including by people outside of here, and then they were going to still be the Snappers on like weekends(?) once they moved into the new stadium at some point this season, but then the entire rebrand was pushed back a season?

 

Is that right?

[andrewharrington]

On 5/3/2021 at 7:39 AM, Gothamite said:

 

I don't believe that.  Not that I doubt the facts, but it seems inconceivable that the best brand in lower-level American soccer came from the same firm that gave us this mess.

 

Seems like the teams may share ownership, but they sure as hell don't share staff.

 

 

Now that I believe.

Looking at all their work (Planet Propaganda), I think Forward may have been the exception rather than the rule. Even that one, the art style is a bit simplistic for me. They’re an older agency, looks like they’re really entrenched in that mid-2000s Minneapolis look as far as design goes.

 

The fact that Forward is tossed into their catch-all “Hits, Rarities, & B-sides” section tells me sports identity is not their passion or focus, so it’s also possible they contract outside the agency for projects that are beyond their specialties.

[Gothamite]

Good point. 

 

I also understand that different designers within a studio can create very different work.  Especially if sports isn’t a focus, they might not have a house style. 

[Dynasty]

A ridiculously busy logo with too many elements. I never cared for the Daffy Duck logo they used, but it was a lot less rough compared to this.

 

Also as mentioned, there are other ways to represent Madison (or Wisconsin) than using the tiresome dairy theme... I mean a home plate made of cheese? Really?

[Sec19Row53]

4 minutes ago, Dynasty said:

A ridiculously busy logo with too many elements. I never cared for the Daffy Duck logo they used, but it was a lot less rough compared to this.

 

Also as mentioned, there are other ways to represent Madison (or Wisconsin) than using the tiresome dairy theme... I mean a home plate made of cheese? Really?

Yeah - and Swiss cheese isn't yellow, either. I wasn't going to point out that nitpick, but there you go.