Minnesota Twins concept

[Joshawaggie]

There are so many red, white and blue teams, that I felt that the Twins' could get away with changing, although slightly. I darkened the red to a more maroon color, it still has the same feel, but if you are flipping throught the channels, you would recognize better that it was the Twins, instead of the Indians or Braves. I cahnged up the main logo, doing away with the baseball logo, and making the shaking hands logo the primary, and slightly altering it to include jsut the "Twins" wordmark. The home and away jerseys stay the same, with the alts changing.

These are Mr Creamers' uniforms on his site, altered, so the credit goes there.

[BallWonk]

First off, if anyone has to adopt maroon to differentiate themselves in the AL Central, it should be the Indians.

Second, while I think this concept is generally OK, it's an example of why you can't just slap one change on a uniform and call it a concept. By leaving the TC cap, but darkening the red to maroon (or dark red or whatever you want to call it), you've taken the single worst non-alt element of the Twins uniforms and made it about 100 times worse. The bright red C on the TC logo is already damn near invisible in most lighting conditions from any distance. But darken the red threads and you no longer have a TC logo. You have a T logo with an inexplicable break in the T and a slight smudge around it.

Which means that even though I think you've shown that a dark red could work for the Twins, your particular concept has pretty much ruined these uniforms. You really need to find a way to address the loss of contrast between the red and the blue when you darken the red, especially on the TC cap.

(I give credit for switching from the current Twins script on the home to the script used on most print applications; the drop shadow helps clarify the two low-contrast colors of the script and keeps the whole thing sharp instead of muddled, like the low-contrast road script.)

Also, the single worst design problem with the Twins uniforms right now isn't the TC cap logo, as bad as that cap logo is. It's the proliferation of alts. No Twins uniform concept is going to look like an improvement if it has more than one alt jersey.

[VitaminD]

I agree with the crux of 'Wonk's take. I am also partial to the "M" monogram over the "TC" monogram for reasons that have been expounded upon far too many times. While his argument skews toward the aesthetic - and his point is valid in that regard - I favor the simple fact that the team is purported to represent the entire state; as such, the entire state should be recognized. So "M" > "TC".

Applying that logic would rid this concept of the other major beef 'Wonk and I share - a concept woth an alternate to the alternate. Really, a team doesn't need an alternate. But I concede that MLB is fueled by the revenue stream rather than common sense, so if a team wants an alternate as an occasional change of pace, then so be it. Many teams have well-deisgned alternates that, when used sparingly, are a nice change of pace from the usual. But a team needn't have an entire steamer trunk of options for playing a game of bsaeball. So I woulf opt for the "M" monogrammed alternate jersey, and ditch the "TC" once and for all... until the team is renamed the Twin Cities Twins.

With those arguments as a prelude, I say this: a little maroon goes a long way. A subtle change made a very nice change for the better, even though I one of many who associate the Twins with a brighter red.

One nitpick: the area between the Twins' caps on the primary logo should be colored in. And a white outline to separate the maroon outline from the navy of the state map would do wonders to improve the contrast. But all in all, I like the idea, and the execution.

[Joshawaggie]

Well, I just made two alts, basically to see what they would look like, in all reality, teams use alts, there is no changing that.

I plan on making a few changes to the concept, I need to work on the main logo, as VD said, i didnt notice that white part, and yeah, A white outling would probably work better.

And ballwonk, thanks for not being too harsh on me

[BallWonk]

And ballwonk, thanks for not being too harsh on me

I don't dislike your concept -- I just think it has a couple of very minor flaws that have a big negative effect on your work and that you could easily solve. It's not your fault that the TC logo as the Twins use it is badly designed, but by using it without improving it you're letting the Twins' real-life mistake ruin what would otherwise be a much better concept. Their work is getting in the way of your work.

Question: What if instead of the pretty dark maroon you use, you went with something more like the deep red that the Wild use? It's a more saturated color, so it would provide better contrast with the dark navy blue. But it may not be different enough from, say, Cleveland's shade of red to tell them apart unless the players are standing side-by-side. Just a thought.

[Joshawaggie]

The more I look at this, i'm not too happy with it. I've just had it in my head to try navy and maroon, because I've seen that combo in various places recently and it looked good. It was one of those concepts where you need to try it, and you don't care if it looks good or not.

Wonk, I think trying the wild red would be a good idea. I also tried to NOT use the traditional 'TC', i tried to fashion one myself that oncorporated elements from the current wordmark set, but it didn't work, and I just caved in and used what they already have.

I'm pretty much gonna start over on this one, I tried my color set that was stuck in my head, and it didn't work like I thought. Now, I just need time again, so it might be awhile!

[OnWis97]

I like it overall. The color change is solid, but it does present BallWonk's problem with the "C" in the "TC" hat. That is unfortunate because a) I think it looks good elsewhere, especially the road jersey and I prefer the "TC" over the "M" by a long shot.

I also like the "TC" Alt. While I agree that two alts is excessive (for any team), I do like your two alts better than the current alts, wich simply replicate the primaries.

Also, I find the 3rd cap to be excessive. I am not really fond of it. I would rather just see the same caps with the alts (TC at home and M on the road) or else TC for primary and M for alt.

[Anomalied]

Does anyone happen to have this template saved somewhere?