A Ray of Hope: The Tampa Bay Baseball Overhaul

[BallWonk]

Edit: Hey, how do I do a text wrap to do the Tampa (wing) Bay? The last time I just arched it, but now it's not working right.

I won't say this is the right way to do it, but here's what I would do, assuming you're working in Illustrator:

1. Copy the green background circle.

2. Use the point selector (white arrow) to select the bottom-most point on the circle.

3. Hit "delete" so that you now have an unconnected half circle.

4. Select the type tool and click on the top of the unconnected half circle. This will let you type with the arc as your baseline. The green color of the half circle will disappear when you select the shape with the type tool.

5. Type in TAMPA BAY and create enough space for the wing to go between the words.

6. Rotate the text until it lines up on the correct side of your logo. You might also have to scale up the circle the text is on so that it isn't sitting directly on the green circle. You want a little white space between the letters and the circle.

7. Sit back and admire your work.

Somewhere between steps 5 and 6 you do whatever you need to do to make your type the right color, outline, and so forth.

[Shumway]

Sweet. Thanks, Ballwonk.

Updated...any more thoughts?:

Full-sized view

[GUINNESS]

now presenting, your Tampa Bay Floridians:

(excuse the graininess, please)

i think the TBF logo is very nice!...is that your own idea?.....its pretty impressive...i dont like the colour combo though..but i think this concept has much potential..would you consider a colour change at all or are you sold on this combo?

[TwoRsAndTwoLs]

Is there a chance I could get a little C&C on the Tiburones (page 3)?

[VitaminD]

I don't know what some people are seeing. There are some really well-done concepts here.

My vote is undecided yet, but in the interest of a little C&C to those who asked:

dorf: brilliant concept. I didn't even see the "F" inside the "TB" the first time I saw it. Very very clever, and great uniforms. My only gripe is to get rid of the black. Black/blue is already done by an AL East rival (Toronto) and by Florida's other MLB team (Florida). Besides, it looks iffy together with blue, and the blue looks great.

2R/2L: really well done - like most of your other work from what I've seen. I always like your stuff. Just a couple things:

1. The cap logo is nice, and I see what you're going for, but are you worried people will mistake the "T" for a "C"? It's one thing to use a calligraphic font for the entire city name or team, but it becomes harder to discern the letters when you only have 2 letters to work with on a cap.

2. Blue and silver is already done by a division rival (Toronto).

3. The thick, modern number font really doesn't blend well with the graceful lines of the wordmark script.

ChiShawn: Love the idea and colors. Unsure of the name - a little too regional for a team in a major sports league. The gator is a little small in the primary logo. Biggest issue with the uniforms is the home jersey - the positions of the number and monogram should be reversed.

Shumway: Good stuff (as usual), but with a bird mascot and those colors, it'll be hard to distance yourself from a Miami lookalike (especially with the modern font for numbers).

BigShoop: What thread have you been following? You're missing one helluva a contest, and since no one has ever seen you put anything up for evaluation, maybe it's time you put up or shut up - if these are that poor, beating these designs ought to be no problem, right?

[Shumway]

Alright, here we go. I changed the colors to de-Miami mine. Well, I changed the orange to more of a yellow color. I kept the dark green/teal. I like the colors now, but there's always more tweaking to be done. Lemme know what you think:

[ucnu112]

Alright, here we go. I changed the colors to de-Miami mine. Well, I changed the orange to more of a yellow color. I kept the dark green/teal. I like the colors now, but there's always more tweaking to be done. Lemme know what you think:

Good colors, but now I see the Oakland Athletics. Doubt it would be a problem if they weren't an AL team too.

[eRay]

Good colors, but now I see the Oakland Athletics.

i do to, but not as much as i saw miami. the yellow could be a little more orange, but that might just look bad, who knows. i like how it looks right now, i say just kick the A's out of the MLB.

[CS85]

Is there a chance I could get a little C&C on the Tiburones (page 3)?

The Tiburones name sounds good with the Tampa Bay name, but the colors are blue jays colors and the Tiburone was ruined by EA sports, IMHO. It's a good concept all in all, here's what troubles me outside of those things:

- The font makes the T look almost like a C.

- The shark and the baseball is too disproportioned. The shark needs to be bigger and more involved, front and center.

- Just being picky, but the number font on the alternate is gray, I think it should be white.

Hmm I dunno experiment with your logos a bit, spice them up. Other than that it's a good start to what could become a solid concept.

[Shumway]

Allright, I'll throw this into the hopper.

- I'm not sure that your wordmark font goes well with your number font. They're two "decorative" fonts, which kind of clash in my eyes.

- I love your cap logo. It's simple, but very effective. I love it.

- I'd try to overlap the shark a little more on the ball. There's too much ball showing right now. (insert immature joke here)

- On your alt, I'd try using white numbers rather than gray. It's a little hard to read right now, but white on blue will really stand out. Actually, I think using black sparingly in these might give them an edge. Kind of "pull a Royals" and add some black for minor detail.

It's a good looking concept. I think a few minor tweaks'll really make this one great.

[Cola]

TwoRsAndTwoLs:

I am curious as to why you went with that spelling. I always thought it was Tiburons without the 'e' unless it is spanish or something. I could be wrong. Besides that, I love your shark/baseball logo. The T looking like a C does bother me though, especially on the hat but also throughout the design although I know it's part of that font.

Shumway3319:

Great improvement. I don't even see Oakland whenever I looked at it because you used the colors very well- not too much green in the home and away and it works well. Nice job.

iamthedorf:

You have an excellent logo concept there, and it would be even better if you cleaned it up a tad. The right side of the B looks strange somehow and the logo doesn't seem to flow together- yet I see what you are trying to do and it's awesome.

[TwoRsAndTwoLs]

Thanks for all the C&C guys!

Some ideas I want to throw out there:

I'm not too worried about the colors, because the Blue Jays should sooner or later snap to their senses and take a step back into what they've worn, historically. Or so I hope. However, what would you think about two blues for the concept?

As for the T that looks like a C, I made the following adjustment. See what you think.

[Shumway]

Thanks for all the C&C guys!

Some ideas I want to throw out there:

I'm not too worried about the colors, because the Blue Jays should sooner or later snap to their senses and take a step back into what they've worn, historically. Or so I hope. However, what would you think about two blues for the concept?

As for the T that looks like a C, I made the following adjustment. See what you think.

It looks much more like a T now. I thought it looked fine as it was, but now it's clearly a T.

[CS85]

Awesome, that's a nice looking T!

[eRay]

not only does that look like a T, it looks like a great one. there is something funky going on with the 'e' though.

[BallWonk]

Changes I would make if this were for my team:

1. On the cap logo, give the yellow circle a thicker green outline. Then give the whole thing a yellow outline of equal thickness. I normally hate double outlines, but with the bird's green wings extending into the green cap, you need to increase contrast. Also, the yellow outline extending around the bird's wings will look like the glow you get on a real silhouette.

2. I would at least try the cap logo without the TB. Now that you've got a dark bird in front of a sun-like disc, that is a striking logo. I think it would work even better standing on its own. Sort of like how you don't need to put a C on an Indians cap or a B on an Orioles cap. Plus the TB is so tiny. On a real cap, the TB would only be about 3/4 of an inch tall by my measurement. That's just too small to communicate anything to a fan sitting 200 feet away, and the white completely breaks up your awesome silhouette logo. Maybe the TB can stand on its own as an alt cap logo, either for a road cap (a yellow cap with a green TB?) or for BP.

3. I would outlaw the green cap with the yellow bill. You can get away with the A's color scheme with your primaries, but that Sunday home cap looks like Oakland overstocks.

[Shumway]

1. On the cap logo, give the yellow circle a thicker green outline. Then give the whole thing a yellow outline of equal thickness. I normally hate double outlines, but with the bird's green wings extending into the green cap, you need to increase contrast. Also, the yellow outline extending around the bird's wings will look like the glow you get on a real silhouette.

2. I would at least try the cap logo without the TB. Now that you've got a dark bird in front of a sun-like disc, that is a striking logo. I think it would work even better standing on its own. Sort of like how you don't need to put a C on an Indians cap or a B on an Orioles cap. Plus the TB is so tiny. On a real cap, the TB would only be about 3/4 of an inch tall by my measurement. That's just too small to communicate anything to a fan sitting 200 feet away, and the white completely breaks up your awesome silhouette logo. Maybe the TB can stand on its own as an alt cap logo, either for a road cap (a yellow cap with a green TB?) or for BP.

3. I would outlaw the green cap with the yellow bill. You can get away with the A's color scheme with your primaries, but that Sunday home cap looks like Oakland overstocks.

Actually, I took out the TB last night, but I haven't posted it yet because I'm doing some more work on it. I like your double outline idea....I'll have to work with that.

Thanks.

Here's the next installment..sorry the pic's so small:

[TwoRsAndTwoLs]

In a move that would make Pantone cringe, I decided to make the gray lighter on the alternate uniform. I'm also still looking for a different typeface for the numbers, but until I show those off, I wanted to toss these around.

[zoneranger]

I'll stick my neck out and ask for critique on the Corsairs.

[snetsrak43]

edited one last time.....