Tampa Bay Rays Rebrand

[raysox]

Couple things before I post PNGs!

First, i'm a Rays fan! I like the Rays current brand. I like the Devil Rays too. But I wouldn't want to go back to Devil Rays straight up because it feels like regression for nostalgia. Everyone would still call them the Rays. I think the navy blue look they've been sporting with the gradients are super sharp. But a big issue I have is that this brand was designed as a SUN Rays, although everything had gone back to the stingray motif. (I even think the sun burst looks like a stingray until the designer said it was not designed that way)

But recently, i've seen people harping on the Rays  going "to a design firm and asked for the pyramid scheme font" or saying the team looks like it has the least swag. The road greys (which I don't mind either) were ranked last on an Athletic ranking of road unis.

 

That brings me to this tweet that a twitter mutual made 2 years ago.

 

I'm in the replies saying this is such a unique take and i'm honestly a big fan of it. I feel particularly weird designing for teams I root for. But it had been since high school for the last time I had rebranded the Rays. I liked that concept, it's unique. I think the rendering of the stingray is bad looking at it now, but I was proud! It was fresh!

 

The thing with any rebrand is it needs to be different enough to actually justify the change. Why recolor an existing logo or merge two eras of logos? My goals were to use the Navy/Lime/Yellow, and completely drop the sun aspect while creating a new sting ray.

Fast forward to this week. I end up sketching a bunch of stingrays, and tweeting about how stupid they are as an animal. I flesh out a concept in about 2 hours and tweet it in the middle of the night. I had about 50 when I woke up. The next day I shared a revision and it only started gaining more traction. Almost 300 people liked my first draft rendering of a Ray. I used a Cownose Stingray, the ones in the Ray Tank in right centerfield at Tropicana Field specifically, and made it in a dynamic swooping down position. But the concept really unlocked when I went to off white. In my eyes, it dimmed the set but made the green really stand out.

 

 

I did some revisions shortening the tail, making the dorsal fin more prominent, and angling upwards slightly.
Next I took to creating some logos and rounding out the concept. My sketches had the B fitting the curve of the tail. I laid out all my fonts to try and pick the best. But something kept going back to this Adobe font thats really basic. I wouldn't call this a finished concept, but something about looking absolutely clean beats little swooshy serifs. 

 

I also did some semi-quick uniforms to get an idea of how they'd look on the jersey. I think i'm going to develop a Tampa Bay script next.

 

So yeah, let me know what you think!

[The_Admiral]

I really like the color scheme, which looks fantastic on the gear above, too. (I could also see it working really well for the Mariners.) The font does not work at all for me; I think it's simple to a fault. It reminds me a lot of what the Rams have now. I think the R with the extension next to the A sort of suggests a prescription symbol -- bad omen for if these Rays ever got caught with PEDs. Bold and mostly straight lines don't really fit the marine nature of the brand; it's gotta be wavier or curvier or something. 

 

Any consideration for an '80s Giants-style TB monogram on grey instead of a Tampa Bay script?

[raysox]

Yeeeeeah I had heard that on twitter after I posted it. I had a casual thought of the Rx logo but didnt think it would be an issue since it was more of a rigid take on the current Rays script. I hadn't thought about the Rams connection, but I was seeing this as a little more style minded than a traditional rebrand since I was using off white and a basic font. Although I guess we'd need to change the name Bone because stingrays are supported by cartilage, haha. 

 

No skin off my back, Ill definitely keep looking at some other font options!

[SpenserRM]

Needs a jersey with Tampa Bay on the front. One of my pet peeves with the currents Rays set is not having one. Otherwise I like it. 

[coco1997]

How about making the script on the home jersey lime with a navy outline? It would help evoke the original Devil Rays unis without being a straight throwback. 

[The_Admiral]

18 hours ago, raysox said:

Yeeeeeah I had heard that on twitter after I posted it. I had a casual thought of the Rx logo but didnt think it would be an issue since it was more of a rigid take on the current Rays script. I hadn't thought about the Rams connection, but I was seeing this as a little more style minded than a traditional rebrand since I was using off white and a basic font. Although I guess we'd need to change the name Bone because stingrays are supported by cartilage, haha. 

 

No skin off my back, Ill definitely keep looking at some other font options!

 

I didn't even catch the off-white as a conscious choice. I just thought it was white. I've been wearing those blue-blocking aviator glasses when I type so my whites are all off. 

 

I really like the ray you made, but is there a way to bring the letters in more so that it's a little tighter and puts more emphasis on the ray?

[raysox]

15 hours ago, SpenserRM said:

Needs a jersey with Tampa Bay on the front. One of my pet peeves with the currents Rays set is not having one. Otherwise I like it. 

I addressed this in my first post.

 

14 hours ago, coco1997 said:

How about making the script on the home jersey lime with a navy outline? It would help evoke the original Devil Rays unis without being a straight throwback. 

I'm not trying to evoke the original Devil Rays set. Lime green on off white, even with a thick navy stroke would be harsh on the eyes and not the look i'm trying to have.

[TBGKon]

I'm a sucker for white front panel caps, so thats a plus.  I too agree that the navy/lime combo is a good one.

[Jake3roo]

This is a fantastic update, colors-wise, and you're doing a lot of things really right. However, I think this set fails to solve the lack of life in the current set. I think the font, although not a horrible choice, could be something a little more aquatic, or at least have the R swoop. And I love your stingray, but the shape he creates is really awkward. I think part of it is that that big white shape takes up so much space, and pushes the details to the fringe. I think having a stingray logo that could stand on its own on a cap would really elevate this set, along with a more lively RAYS wordmark. (I love your idea for a Tampa Bay script tho)

[jbird669]

I love the new logo and the color scheme! I'd love to see a hat with just the ray on it. And I concur, you need a jersey with the word Tampa on it. 

[packerfan21396]

Ringside is a font that modernizes the geometric wood types of boxing posters of the past, so I feel like a swooping leg off of the R in a similar curve as the end of the S wouldn't be that much of a deviation.  Also, the football team I see when looking at this isn't the Rams, its the Seahawks with the color scheme and extended font.  That being said, that's a good looking ray and a good looking aquatic color scheme.

[jaytavo305]

I like it, but it almost feels too blue heavy and "cold" for a Tampa Bay concept. I think the font is slightly too generic, and I'd love to see more of an incorporation of the yellow, maybe in the gradients that they use now with the navy-green-yellow. I think the color scheme works if you were to add a bright yellow, to give it that Florida, sunshine feel.