MLB alternate logos project

[ltravisjr]

Following up the AL Central, here are the AL East logos for my MLB alternates project. They are presented, hopefully correctly this time, in the order of the teams' 2006 finish:

Yankees:

This was the impossible task - tinkering with perfection. The "NY" obviously is the alternate logo for all times, but in my effort to create alts for all the teams, the Yankees were no exception. I decided to borrow the hat from the primary logo, modernize it and put a baseball under it for the sake of originality. I darkened the blue to the navy of the uniforms, and darkened the red to compliment it. Through this project, my rule is to not invent colors, but I just had to break it this time with the red.

Blue Jays:

Not much to say about this one. I resisted the urge to go retro, and instead just took the existing logo, flipped the head and removed the initial.

Red Sox:

This proved the most difficult task, and I am still not pleased with it. For the sake of originality, I removed one of the socks from the current alternate and added the initial. I thought it looked more complete with the circle, although I must admit that it slightly resembles the old White Sox alternate from the 1970's. I am certainly open to suggestions on this one.

Baltimore:

I know the bird on the primary gets raves, but I am not fond of the detail in it. Therefore, for the alt, I copied just the head and cropped it inside a diamond which is also a simplified version of the diamond in the primary.

Tampa Bay

Before I started this alternate, I had to check the team's logo history because I couldn't believe they hadn't already done it. In any case, I just took the existing "TB" and put them over the characteristic oval.

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That's it for this round. Overall, I am more pleased with the AL Central logos from earlier, but when you have do deal with the venerable identies from New York and Boston, it is a difficult task. The AL West will be next, and I have some promising ideas for those.

LT

[cappital92]

The O's logo would make a great shoulder patch on the jerseys.

[boardname]

I like them, especially the Yankees one. Only problem I'd have is that the TB is just the primary logo over a different backround; I think it needs to not be so similar to the primary.

[elliott]

I like the way the blue jay looks. It kind of looks fierce, although I do like the one with the 'J' better. I think that a retro logo would look best as an alternate. Maybe you shouldn't have resisted the urge, but the one you created looks pretty good.

[kewp80]

I like the Red Sox one, it's simple and goes with the team identity very well, but maybe some blue could be added.

The O's and TB seem TOO simple for my tastes.

The yankee's one looks more like it would fit better with a minor league team, it just seems that way to me. While the Jays logo looks like it could definatly be used by them.

Great work!

[DailyRich]

Maybe something like this for the Rays (in all its Paint-ed glory):

[steiny_ramone]

Yankees: Probably the best idea of all of these. I don't really like the way the hat sits on the baseball. Maybe the ball should be bigger?

Jays: Probably my favourite of them. This could almost work as their primary. Good work. I don't like the J logo that they attach it to, because they aren't the "Jays", they're the "Blue Jays". That's got to be one of my least favourite characteristics of the overhaul from a few years ago.

Red Sox: I like it. Very old school. Maybe the make the circle navy though.

Orioles: Nothin to say about this one. I just like it.

Rays: As others have said, putting their logo over an oval is too simple. I'mnot sure what else you could do, but the oval doesn't work.

Overall, good work. I can't wait to see your next designs.

[mike2sana]

the yanks one reminds me of the nationals

[BallWonk]

Yankees:

Blue Jays:

Red Sox:

Baltimore:

Tampa Bay

New York: No, the Yankees are not "perfect," as your fantastic alt logo shows. The stitching on the ball is a bit too realistic for the scale of the logo; fewer, bigger, more abstract stitches would serve you better. Also, the orientation of the stitching makes it look like a giant nose under the hat. You might want to think about changing the aspect and orientation of the ball. Anyway, this would be the best part of the Yankees identity if they added it.

Blue Jays: Pretty good use of existing team imagery. I'm not sure if this fits into your project, though, since it's so derivative of the team's actual logo. Did you give any thought to using a tail feather instead of the head? The blue-and-black striped tail feather of a blue jay is one of the most distinctive bird feathers you'll see in this continent, and the Jays rarely make use of any element of the bird other than the head.

Red Sox: Like the single sock with the B. Don't like the circle. Creates so much negative space that it overwhelms the sock and the B, and your description of your thought process doesn't give me any confidence that you had any actual design purpose in mind when you created all that negative space. Looks slapdash, which is a shame since the core of your idea is so strong. Question: Instead of vertical "elastic" detailing at the top, why not horizontal stripes to make it look more like an actual Red Sox stocking?

Orioles: Very nice. Very bold imagery here; would work well in stadium iconography and advertisements. This is my favorite of your project so far. This is the perfect synthesis of the cartoon/realistic dichotomy in Orioles history. A post-Angelos team identity built around this concept might be enough to make me stop hating the O's with fiery hot passion.

Rays: I like how you composed the shapes. I'm not such a fan of the way the colors work here. The balance of the blue and white give this a very cold, almost clinical, appearance, that's not at all right for a team in the Tampa Bay area.

[ltravisjr]

In response to some of the comments, I decided to try a couple alterations. For the Yankees, I enlarged the ball to fit the hat a little better and changed the seams - although perhaps I could reduce their density a little more. I went a different direction with Tampa Bay, merging the letters and slanting them. I don't know if its effective, but there should be a "T"(ampa), "B"(ay) and "R"(ays) visible in it. I leave it open to the experts whether its preferable to my original version.

Ballwonk, I just had to say your feather idea is fantastic, and I may well experiment with that idea. On the Red Sox, you are correct in that I hit a bit of a mental block in the composition. My only justification for the circle was my imagery of it as a sleeve patch border, but the negative space is an issue. The tradeoff is the space versus the starkness of a single sock. Hmmm...

DailyRich - Thanks for the suggestion. I have toyed with something like that, and may continue to do so. However, if I could pull it off, I would probably present it as a primary logo.

[espo]

That Tampa Bay D-Rays new version is fantastic.