Quad City River Bandits

[Ez Street]

[RyanB06]

Meh. Swing of the Quad Cities was a better name.

[-kj]

Eh, Swing was an awful name. But this isn't a particuarly good logo. In fact, I think I liked the simplicity of the original River Bandits better.

[rams80]

Man...Rally the Redbird would have cleaned Ranger Rick the River Bandit's clock.

Shame Rally's no longer with us.

[slapshot]

per Ballpark Digest...

The logo was the result of a unique collaboration between two acclaimed graphic designers, Francis Santaquilani of FSDesign and Todd Radom of Todd Radom Design.

Santaquilani drew the raccoon.

Wow...I would have guessed Plan B or Silverman. The wordmark doesn't scream "Radom" to me at all.

[BallWonk]

Wow. I hate the name River Bandits, I liked pretty much everything about the Swing, and ... and I actually kind of like this. It's got too much going on all in one place, of course. But I love the inclusion of Centennial Bridge (see, team owners? you should have named the team the Centennials after all). I like the raccoon mascot. (And I'll be extra pleased if we see the raccoon, rather than the old bandana-ball logo, on the caps.) And the Bandits script is a fantastic bit of baseball script. Also, dark red, yellow, and black are good colors.

I'll reserve real judgment until we see uniforms. But though this logo doesn't quite work well as a stand-alone team logo, it gives me a positive impression of the team's identity and their likely uniform choices. We'll see, but if the uniforms are in line with this logo, I would call it an even trade from the Swing uniforms, not a downgrade.

[CubsFanBudMan]

I always thought the old logo was classy, even if the name was a mouthful. However, this seems fittingly minor league and it provides plenty of options top work with, with the addition of colors and logo elements (bridge, raccoon.. who never left as one of the mascots).

There's a lot going on there, but I like Radom's work and think he'll do a nice job with the rest of it. Very curious to see the caps, which the article said would be unveiled with alt logos next week, and the unis will follow in January.

[Brian in Boston]

It is a tad busy, but this logo is a major improvement over the bandana-wearing baseball that previously accompanied the River Bandits name.

[bmoore]

per Ballpark Digest...

The logo was the result of a unique collaboration between two acclaimed graphic designers, Francis Santaquilani of FSDesign and Todd Radom of Todd Radom Design.

Santaquilani drew the raccoon.

Wow...I would have guessed Plan B or Silverman. The wordmark doesn't scream "Radom" to me at all.

Plan B did the Swing logos

I always thought the switch was a bad idea. The old baseball wearing bandanna cap was a very good seller an I never understood why they went away from it. I bet they use the old bandits cap as an alternate.

[Blackjack76]

It is a tad busy, but this logo is a major improvement over the bandana-wearing baseball that previously accompanied the River Bandits name.

I respectfully and completely disagree with you. Two different designers, with two different styles, never seems to work too well, and this is no different. To me, it looks like the "Ouad Cities River Bandits" and the choice of font for "Ouad Cities" and "River" is really, really boring, and the skewed rendering of this certainly does not make it look better; it actually makes it even more unreadable.

FS's baseball renderings have never looked good, and this is no different (stitching is too close together in the middle) and his highlighting and shadowing effects are completely off on the raccoon-ball combo. On the raccoon, the highlight is only along the left side of the tail, yet 80+% of the baseball is shown to have a light source fixated on it, and the scarf has no shadowing effects at all. Completely inconsistent. In addition, the cowboy hat's bill is shadowed incorrectly, and the it looks as if it is torn the way the gold outline fills in the top part of the crown.

There's just way too many individual pieces here fighting for attention.

As some of you know, I am a big proponent and use of baseball history in team branding, but this, in my opinion, is an unmitigated disaster.

[leopard88]

I couldn't stand the whole "Swing" concept, so going back to "River Bandits" is an immediate upgrade for me. I also like the overall package, at least for what they were trying to do.

Now, in case you were wondering why I included the disclaimer in the last sentence, it is because I'm incredibly tired of the idea that the name "Bandits" has to be depicted by a raccoon. I blame Disney, because it all seemed to start after the movie with the raccoon named Bandit (I can't remember which one that was), highlighted by the Disney-owned/affiliated Baltimore Bandits hockey team.

I have to admit that I can't think of other examples offhand, but it just seems like an easy fallback to me.

[Gothamite]

Yeah, a raccoon isn't terribly original, but I actually love this one. Not the best rendering, but there's a spirit about it that's pleasingly minor league.

And at least this little guy's in something approximating scale (you hear that, Fresno? Pay attention, St. Louis!)

[ClutchIsEverything]

Didn't see a post about this anywhere else, but they also renamed their ballpark, and, have a logo for it too.

I'm kinda amused by the logo, because the ball that is coming out of the park is clearly a foulball, but I'm guessing they took this angle with the park so you could include both the stadium and the bridge. What I can't figure out is what is the black part of the oval, the part just above the words "Modern Woodmen". Is that supposed to be part of the parking lot? It just looks odd.

[Brian in Boston]

I respectfully and completely disagree with you. Two different designers, with two different styles, never seems to work too well, and this is no different. To me, it looks like the "Ouad Cities River Bandits" and the choice of font for "Ouad Cities" and "River" is really, really boring, and the skewed rendering of this certainly does not make it look better; it actually makes it even more unreadable.

FS's baseball renderings have never looked good, and this is no different (stitching is too close together in the middle) and his highlighting and shadowing effects are completely off on the raccoon-ball combo. On the raccoon, the highlight is only along the left side of the tail, yet 80+% of the baseball is shown to have a light source fixated on it, and the scarf has no shadowing effects at all. Completely inconsistent. In addition, the cowboy hat's bill is shadowed incorrectly, and the it looks as if it is torn the way the gold outline fills in the top part of the crown.

There's just way too many individual pieces here fighting for attention.

All of that being said, it still doesn't change the fact that this logo - in spite of its considerable problems - represents a major improvement over the bandana-wearing baseball of the old River Bandits. Frankly, that abysmal logo amounted to little more than Clip-Art.

[Burning River]

I like the logo. Seeing how the Bridge is almost on top of the ballpark... I like the touch. It looks like the racoon head & bandana can be easily broken-off in to a nice cap logo.

I checked Google Earth to see the ballpark: Looking at the Ballpark logo... it looks like the black line at the bottom is representing the river bank or the road that wraps around the ballpark behind right field. Man, I LOVE where the park is placed. What a scenic view it must have. Does this place get a lot of flooding, though?

[Blackjack76]

I like the logo. Seeing how the Bridge is almost on top of the ballpark... I like the touch. It looks like the racoon head & bandana can be easily broken-off in to a nice cap logo.

I checked Google Earth to see the ballpark: Looking at the Ballpark logo... it looks like the black line at the bottom is representing the river bank or the road that wraps around the ballpark behind right field. Man, I LOVE where the park is placed. What a scenic view it must have. Does this place get a lot of flooding, though?

The fact that it DOES look like it can be easily broken-off only points to the inherent problem of this logo package...it appears as if it is puzzle piece that is jammed in there.

Now to support my theory, I found this little ditty on the R-Bandits' online shop.

I'm not sayin'...I'm just sayin'....

[powersurge]

I'm really getting sick of the gratuitous use of animals in logos for teams with names that have no obvious relation to animals.

I understand the whole "appealing to families and kids" aspect to the minor leagues, but its really getting out of hand. Does everything have to appeal to kids?

What about the over thirty, product of the 90's, don't ever want to grow up kid? You don't see them creating a logo with an underachieving mascot with large sideburns, wearing a plaid flannel shirt, listening to altenative music with an apathetic smug look on his face while he loathes "conformity" and "the system". You don't see that now do you?

Y'know, if they did create a logo like that....I'd probably buy a t-shirt or atleast a hat.

[Gothamite]

Doesn't bother me at all, and I've got 40 in sight.

If they were my local team, I'd buy a cap with a well-designed raccoon logo.

[CubsFanBudMan]

Didn't see a post about this anywhere else, but they also renamed their ballpark, and, have a logo for it too.

What I can't figure out is what is the black part of the oval, the part just above the words "Modern Woodmen". Is that supposed to be part of the parking lot? It just looks odd.

I think it might be the wall along the river -- I'd say flood wall, but there really isn't one, which brings me to...

I checked Google Earth to see the ballpark: Looking at the Ballpark logo... it looks like the black line at the bottom is representing the river bank or the road that wraps around the ballpark behind right field. Man, I LOVE where the park is placed. What a scenic view it must have. Does this place get a lot of flooding, though?

It used to flood a lot, at least twice since 1993, I think. Covered the whole field. Part of the reason they switched to Swing after the upgrades to the stadium and surrounding area (renovated stands and more flood protection) was because the Bandits identity was so tied to the flooding. Oh, and the view is amazing... the setting on the water seemed unique for a long time, though PNC, Great American, Pac Bell have since been built. And FWIW, Modern Woodmen HQ is in the two big buildings that can be seen across the ricer in Rock Island. I guess if they had to rename it, it's not terrible. It'll always be John O'Donnell Stadium to me.

I'm hoping for a throwback alt cap, preferably the original all-black. I guess one man's clip art is another man's simple, classic.

Not sure what's going on with the guy in that shop logo -- was that the original Radom design before the raccoon replaced it?

EDIT: It also looks like their website abandoned the unique look and has migrated to the templated look of MiLB.

[slapshot]

I'm really getting sick of the gratuitous use of animals in logos for teams with names that have no obvious relation to animals.

I've seen many Bandit teams with raccoons in the logo. Aren't raccoons considered the bandits of the animal kingdom? Picking and scavenging through garbage and such?

It's not like it was an arbitrary combination of nickname and animal.