Minnesota Twins Concept

[BallWonk]

I finally got the inspiration I needed to complete my long-standing attempt to recolor the Twins in blue and green. I'd been stuck on a number of points, and recently even tried starting over with a Wild-esque red and green theme, which forced a whole series of undesired choices on me with regard to color balance and ... and you don't care about the dead ends I've wandered into in nearly three years of trying to do a Twins recolor. Point is, I had a breakthrough, and here it is.

I wanted to create a new, more distinctively Minnesota look. Yet I also wanted to build on the team's rich aesthetic heritage and preserve a number of historical elements, if in slightly evolved form. The main thing I wanted to discard is the team's creeping identity breakdown; in 1987 the Twins wore uniforms where almost every element was consistent with every other element. Today, with only incremental changes, the Twins have a mishmash look in which nearly every uniform element clashes in some way with other elements.

Things I wanted to preserve in some way: Pinstripes at home and away (both date to 1912 for this franchise, one of the very first and most consistent pinstriped clubs in baseball); the shape of the T, which has been around in one form or another since 1961; both an M cap and a TC cap for the state and city; underline of "WIN" in "TWINS"; name-patches on back, which preserves legibility; varsity block numbers; use of coequal team colors, rather than one primary color, one secondary, which has been a Twins hallmark since the 1970s; incorporation of state profile in team visuals; and a sense of whimsy in logo elements, which has been a team characteristic since the 1950s.

Innovations I wanted to include: Color shift to blue and green; new script that could carry over from home to road; more distinctive design for the TC logo; and consistency among cap logos and jersey lettering. I also drew some aesthetic inspiration from the the proposed new state flag.

The light-gray pinstripes on darker gray road uniforms I stole at the last minute from nyy3351's recent KC Royals concept. The road uniforms are a warm gray with no red, giving a very subtle "slate green" tint. The lighter stripes look much better than dark stripes, and solved a blue/green debate I'd been having for waaaay too long.

The scripts and cap logo lettering are a custom font; the shape of the M was the bolt of inspiration that let me "see" the whole letter family and how it could work on the jerseys. My goal on the lettering for a long time has been to combine elements of German Gothic script, medieval Scandinavian letters, and a mid-20th-century "northwoods arts and crafts" aesthetic like you see in period LL Bean catalogs and old restaurant menus and lodge brochures from Mille Lacs and the North Shore.

For colors, the blue is more of a true navy than currently, and the green should be a bright green, like what the Cedar Rapids Kernels wear, not the dark green of Oakland and Tampa Bay. I've made the green here a little lighter than it should be to emphasize the light/dark contrast between the two colors, which is visible when looking at fabric swatches but not so much when using Pantone's CMYK equivalents on my screen. The greens here are a bit "washed out" and undersaturated as a result.

Finally, I wanted to include some thematic tribute to the team's imminent return to outdoor baseball on real grass under an open sky.

But enough advance apology. Here's what I've done.

Second Draft

First Draft

Logo Elements

Uniforms

Comments, criticisms, suggestions?

[DDR]

You know, this isn't a bad concept, but I don't like one single change you've made. The font is too wavy for my liking, the TC logo is overstylized, the M cap logo doesn't look like an M, and I know blue and green is the new black and all, but I don't think it works here, and basing the color change on a proposed state flag seems a bit of a reach. If that flag were to be adopted, I could see your case.

[BallWonk]

You know, this isn't a bad concept, but I don't like one single change you've made. The font is too wavy for my liking, the TC logo is overstylized, the M cap logo doesn't look like an M, and I know blue and green is the new black and all, but I don't think it works here, and basing the color change on a proposed state flag seems a bit of a reach. If that flag were to be adopted, I could see your case.

Fair enough, but I should clarify one point about the flag. It's been a "proposed new state flag" since 1988; every couple of years a bill to make it the state flag gets introduced in the legislature and goes nowhere. Minnesota isn't about to adopt that flag anytime soon; probably never. I just like the design of it is all. And blue and green really are the de facto state colors.

Which is to say, anything you don't like about this concept is entirely my fault; the "North Star Flag" is an innocent bystander here.

[McCall]

Sorry, but this just does not work. The lettering is way too graffiti-esque. It doesn't work for a baseball team. I reserve judgement on the colors for now, because, although I don't necessarily think the Twins need to change colors, I do think this color combination could work for a team, and so I'll wait and see if you can apply them to the Twins in a better concept.

[gordie_delini]

I really like all the thought that went into this - you've made very deliberate choices, and I have a huge deal of respect for that. For me, the M is the only character you've created that doesn't quite work, simply for the fact that it's difficult to read as an M. I keep wanting to see it as two characters combined, much like the TC.

I think the TC is a stronger mark, so perhaps switch that over to being the primary hat logo. I love the stylized baseball diamond - it's unique and original, so big points in my book for that.

The only other thing that catches my attention is the shade of green. Perhaps if it were to be a bit more electric - more towards the yellow-greens, it would help it pop a little bit more. Right now the green and the navy blue get muddled together, which loses a little bit of the aesthetic. Other than that, I really like this - solid work.

[Epiphanic]

I'm with El Duderino. You present your concepts excellently but I don't like what you've done.

The font is too stylized. I realize that you're trying to tap in to the Scandinavian heritage of Minnesota, but you struck out in my opinion. On second look, it's more like a foul out. The M and W don't look like an M nor a W. The straight piece in the middle of those letters ruin the whole thing for me. The rest of the script looks good (with maybe the making the I capital as well).

The primary is fine. I do have a question on the styling of the baseball diamond. Is there any significance to that? It makes me think immediately of Bank of America.

The TC seems a bit over-stylized. At some level I don't care for the TC they currently have (mostly because they're the Minnesota Twins, not the Twin Cities Twins), but this isn't necessarily an improvement. It's necessary to fit with the rest of the concept, my criticism is more with the TC existing in the first place.

The Patch needs work. First, the left seam is straight while the right is curved. You've got to change one of them. Secondly, the seams are red. I know that baseball seams are red but it totally clashes with the blue/green scheme you got goin' on here. The seems probably need to be blue.

The color scheme itself is neither better nor worse than their current set. It's different, but I can't say that they shouldn't use those colors.

The biggest positive that I think you've achieved is the uniformity of uniforms. With the home and road wordmarks done in the same script is much better than what they currently have, so you got it right on in that regards.

Overall, I don't care much for this concept. Upon re-reading my criticism it's mostly because of the M/W. I think if you fix that aspect and get rid of the TC hat (and maybe the TC altogether), I'd be on board.

To end on a positive note, I think you make fantastic concepts (your Gulf Coast Tropics concept for the Devil Rays Rebrand Contest blew me away).

[Thunderstruk]

Like concept can't stand colors

[I Am A Flaming Douche Bag]

Im sorry but I am not liking any part of this concept. The text is awful and the colours are terrible. Im not liking this.

[NEW.ERA]

I like the Concept it almost looks similar to the Norfolk Tides font

Change the colors and then it will look really nice

[leggman01]

you've obviously put a lot of time and energy into creating this, and there are some really nice components - i dig the colors and the unifoms themselves are really nice but the logo's and wordmark need some additional attention

i think the first thing you need to do is remove the "tail" on the M/W...it's got one too many "appendages", for lack of a better word - when you do this, angle the vertical portion of the middle "arm" to meet the side "arm" that it connects to - this would be a tremendous fix, in my book and make this wordmark much more legible and passible

the issue with the seem of the baseball has been discussed and needs to be fixed

the upward "tail" on the top right side of the "C" weakens this character, as well...i'd remove it or make it more consistent with the serifs on your similar characters (ie. the "E")

i think these minor modifications would really improve this set...

[patsox]

I have to say, I like everything except the primary and the 'M' cap.

[winghaz]

Ugh. As a die-hard Twins fan, I hate it.

The lettering is awful. And the change in colors, while being more Minnesotaish, just doesn't go with the Twins.

And by the way, if Minnesota is going to be blue (lakes) and green (forests), you also need gold for the prairies. People forget that there is a lot of prairie land in Minnesota.

[Bronxmet]

I think this is very nice. The blue and green represents Minnesota very nicely thanks to its location.

[BallWonk]

Ugh. As a die-hard Twins fan, I hate it.

The lettering is awful. And the change in colors, while being more Minnesotaish, just doesn't go with the Twins.

And by the way, if Minnesota is going to be blue (lakes) and green (forests), you also need gold for the prairies. People forget that there is a lot of prairie land in Minnesota.

Question for you as a fan: Do you prefer the home TC cap or the road M cap, and why? I'm always going back and forth about the TC cap myself; some days I absolutely hate it (with good reason: it's a terrible bit of cap design) while other days I love it (it has good history and character, and as they say personality goes a long way).

As a die-hard Twins fan myself, I have mixed feelings about the colors as well. I don't have the vision to pull it off, but I think that in the hands of a really good designer the Twins could really look good as a red-and-green team, in a way that would make people think, "Oh, so that's how those colors should be used together" and "Oh, so that's how a team called the Minnesota Twins is supposed to look." I suspect blue and green can work better than I've presented here, and I'll have another draft later in the week that tries to improve on the color use, but I'm not 100 percent sold that blue and green are the ultimate choice for the Twins. I am certain that the team can do better than red and blue, though. Looks like the Twins, but doesn't look like Minnesota, at least to me. Never has.

I agree with you about the gold, but I couldn't find a way to make yellow or gold work as a truly integral color for this concept, else I'd have done so. Blue and green may be the dominant popular state colors, but yellow or gold is never far away, and the balance among the three is why I love the North Star Flag so much. So in this concept, it's not blue for lakes, green for forests, because that does leave out the prairie and I'm a Minnesota prairie boy myself. It's blue for the open sky and green for natural grass.

Anyway, I'll play with the lettering a bit on the next draft too. I fear that my use of a wavy underline and a couple of misfires in letter design has given the scripts illusions of waviness or unevenness that isn't actually present in the letter forms. I ripped off much of the "feel" of these letters from the mind-blowingly awesome Norse-style lettering at an exhibit about the Vikings at a museum in Dublin I saw some years ago. Clearly I've not done the type justice with the presentation here. The raw letter forms I've made are actually quite linear and geometric, with none of the "wavy" or "graffitiesque" characteristics folks see in the letters as I've used them in this concept.

[rcb05]

Concept isn't that bad, but who are the Nyinnesota Timins?

[drevel]

I have to agree with the posters above, the script is difficult to read. I dont mind the colors though.

[cvitanza]

The concept is not bad. There are a few minor tweaks that need to be made.

Change the text, the M's and W's on this font are terrible and confusing.

I would go with a trend but make the royal either navy or midnight blue (I'm noticing it too much as of late and others can reply me if they see it to).

[wingsfan85]

not so much

[swilson160]

I like this alot. Suggestions:

1. Simplify the M and the W. Also, the C just doesn't look right to me with the 90-degree angle on the bottom-left corner.

2. The blue looks a little too light, and the green a little too teal.

3. The baseball diamond design is cool, but it isn't included anywhere on the uniforms. I'm not sure it's necessary to have the diamond logo AND the TC in the state AND the TC in a baseball. I'd ditch the TC in the baseball and replace it on the home jersey with the diamond. EDIT: I just noticed that the seams on the baseball form the shape of the state. I still think you should drop the baseball logo, but I like that little touch.

Any concept that gets some inspiration from an LL Bean catalog scares me, but this has lots of promise. Can't wait to see the update.

[EasleyK]

I don't think i've ever seen grey uniforms with white pinstripes.