Toronto Blue Jays Concept

[Audiodrama]

Trying to put together a new identity for the Jays...made a concept back in '05 I think, but didn't like it all that much...here is a preview...will post more soon...C&C so far though please (logo is unfinished)...

[Ben5]

Looks pretty good so far. The wordmark fits. My two grips are that the maple leaf looks weird over the head of the bird (the black outline matching it) and the base ball kinda looks like the stitching could be in a x shape. I'd offset it a bit.

[patsox]

The wordmark is alright, but the Jay head just doesn't look any good without the J. It looks bare.

[Epiphanic]

To the contrary, I think it look better without the "J". Although I don't care much for the bird (I actually prefer "T-bird"), I like the fusion of the current look with the early 90s. The wordmark is spot on. Given that the stem of the maple leaf "gradients" (can I use that as a verb?) into the baseball outline, what happens with the ball removed? Or is that variation not part of the whole concept? Overall, excellent job.

[lets_go_red]

I really like this combination of old and new, however the baseball stitching on the bottom is wrong, it should be going the same way as on the top...a couple more tweaks and this could be spectacular.

[Audiodrama]

however the baseball stitching on the bottom is wrong, it should be going the same way as on the top

Excellent catch, I hadn't noticed that.

I'm working on a few more tweaks now -- I'll have another version posted within an hour or two. More C&C welcomed on this version.

[DG_ThenNowForever]

I like what you did with the maple leaf. You incorporated it in a way that made it look like you didn't just slap it on for fun. However, do you think you might slide it down a bit? I guess you'd lose its vertical base, but as it is right now, it almost looks like ornamentation for the bird, like a flower behind its ear.

I also think the outline of the ball is a bit too think. Maybe ditch the outline, and just have an actual ball? I don't know.. Just throwing out ideas.

Otherwise, I think it looks great. Nice job.

[Audiodrama]

K guys, here's an update...more C&C please!

[McCall]

K guys, here's an update...more C&C please!

I always thought that, with an update/major improvement of their newer logo, Navy in place of black would work better. Ya know, blue... blue... I think it would make up for these past few years of black and gray(s) to have a couple shades of blue. And really the navy could simply be used, like in this case, for the "outlining"/detailing of the bird. It's not like it has to be prominent everywhere else like in the uniforms. I mean, it could if so chosen, but taking this logo and simply changing black to a dark navy, I feel, would just help it even more.

[Epiphanic]

Thickening the outline was a big improvement. I didn't even think about it, but it's better and more defined. I like the text bein wrapped around the logo as well. Defines it further and would work well as a patch (with the logo sans words as an alternate variation). The only suggestion that I can think of to make "Tornoto" and "Blue Jays" the same size.

[lets_go_red]

Im starting to wonder what this would look like if the ball was outlined in red like the original Blue Jay logo, I would also like to see some color tweaks, maybe back to the navy and sky blue of the same era...excellent work keep it coming.

[Korbyn]

I like the writing, but not where you placed Toronto. The maple leaf does look kind of weird there.

However, I do like the Bird with out the J behind it. Looks alot better.

[BallWonk]

Im starting to wonder what this would look like if the ball was outlined in red like the original Blue Jay logo, I would also like to see some color tweaks, maybe back to the navy and sky blue of the same era...excellent work keep it coming.

It would almost definitely look better if the ball were outlined in red instead of black. Avoid the whole black-to-red gradient issue.

I think it would be an interesting exercise to see this with midnight navy instead of black, but I think a black-and-royal color scheme is the ideal for this team anyway. Blue Jays are bright blue and black, after all. So I'm not sold that there is any reason not to stick with the black, as long as blue is the primary color.

I'd rather see the Jay's head continue to the right edge of the ball. You can keep the current wedge-edge bird head for the caps if that's your plan, but I really think the logo would be simpler and stronger if the Jay and the ball shared an edge. However, this would screw up my "turn the ball's border red" plan.

I'm not sold on the utility of the maple leaf -- it seems to me to be vaguely patronizing, as if you're telling Toronto fans that it's not really their team and as if you're telling fans in the rest of Canada that Toronto is a Canadian city so they should root for the Blue Jays on principle -- but I'm particularly not sold on its placement. It's just a shade too high, so the Jay loses its distinctive little plume of head feathers. What do ornithologists call that? Anyway, the bird needs to have a slightly more visible crest thingy on its head than the placement of the maple leaf currently allows.

Also, I very much preferred the original wordmarks. There's nothing wrong with the city name being beneath the team name -- ask anyone who says otherwise what the name of the second Star Wars movie was, and unless they answer "Star the Empire Strikes Back Wars" they will have proven the point that people can understand logos just fine even if the words aren't necessarily displayed in the order they would be written in a prose paragraph. The small black "Toronto" lettering really makes the "Blue Jays" lettering jump out. The giant blue "Toronto" on version 2 de-emphasizes the team name and also creates too much of a clash of letter styles between the simpler "Toronto" letters and the similar but more complex "Toronto" letters. If you're married to running the letters around the ball like every other team with a ball logo, at least shrink the "Toronto" lettering and consider making it black. Or, if you're going to make the city name that prominent, get rid of the maple leaf, because the giant city name pretty much makes a mockery of any attempt to "nationalize" the team logo.

I can't wait to see uniforms based on this logo!

[I Am A Flaming Douche Bag]

Im loving the update logo. The only thing I dont like is the ball in the background. I wouldnt mind seeing the Maple Leaf as the background with the bird inside and the text around it.

[spyboy1]

I like this a lot. It looks very clean an modern.

[Audiodrama]

Here's a quick preview of the away hat...

Most likely my last update until Monday...please keep giving C&C though, I'm always reading and making changes! (I might release the entire away uniform set on Monday, depending how things go.) Thanks for the responses so far, keep 'em comin!!

[IceCap]

I agree with McCall. Switch the black out with navy and you have a winner. A perfect update of the WS era logo.

[LucaMaz3]

This looks pretty good. The one thing I might do (beside the ideas mentioned before) is making a circle around all the text with the bird protruding it so you could have a uniform navy outline of the whole logo. Just my two cents, though

[VitaminD]

Nice stuff!

Some thoughts:

1. Navy instead of black.

1a. If you're going to go navy, lighten up the royal blue. As 'Wonk said, real blue jays are a bright blue, brighter than the color you used. It would heighten the contrast between the double blues. Please note that I am not advocating going back to the sky blue/Carolina Blue/Dennis Blue from their inception, just something a little lighter.

2. Great wordmark.

3. Not-so-great gradient. If a red outline on the ball means no gradient, then an red outline it shall be.

4. Rules question: can you have a baseball on the cap logo? I had heard somewhere (unconfirmed) that you can't have a baseball design on the cap, as it would distract the hitters, or something to that effect? If that's the case, I am pushing for a return of the white front panels and the bird without baseball on the front. Or maybe, the new bird with the Maple Leaf behind it (like the Clemens Era hat).

Can't wait for unis. I like it so far.

[averyj]

Nice stuff!

Some thoughts:

1. Navy instead of black.

1a. If you're going to go navy, lighten up the royal blue. As 'Wonk said, real blue jays are a bright blue, brighter than the color you used. It would heighten the contrast between the double blues. Please note that I am not advocating going back to the sky blue/Carolina Blue/Dennis Blue from their inception, just something a little lighter.

2. Great wordmark.

3. Not-so-great gradient. If a red outline on the ball means no gradient, then an red outline it shall be.

4. Rules question: can you have a baseball on the cap logo? I had heard somewhere (unconfirmed) that you can't have a baseball design on the cap, as it would distract the hitters, or something to that effect? If that's the case, I am pushing for a return of the white front panels and the bird without baseball on the front. Or maybe, the new bird with the Maple Leaf behind it (like the Clemens Era hat).

Can't wait for unis. I like it so far.

1.11

(e) No part of the uniform shall include a pattern that imitates or suggests the shape of a baseball.

I would have to say that this would include the cap.