brandIDENTITY: Rockie Mountain Refresh

[tBBP]

Suppose I may as well get this on the interwebs.

I?ve been holding onto this concept for at least a year or two, stuck on what to do with it. I was also actually going to wait until I finalized an updated personal brand, but since I have yet to do that, and since by chance of luck I actually had an off-day during the week, I figured I?d go ahead and at least get this one close to finished out and post it up.

Somewhere hidden well within the depths of this forum is the first Rockies concept I did way back when, along with the 30,000 other ones that have sprang up over the years. Anyway, with this one, I wanted primarily to put a fresh spin on what already exists. That said, I?ve long wondered why the Rocks, after all this long time, have never bothered to update their identity at all. I?m cool with the purple and black, but I?ve long thought they would do well to infuse some of that nice pretty pine green that shows up on so many of their promotional materials, so that?s what I did here, while nixing all traces of black. I also came up with a new team font that I think evokes the, well, ?Rockies? pretty well, without overdoing it. As far as team logos go, I actually did these backwards?I wanted to find a way to do a stand-alone mountain logo, but it really didn?t work out too well for me, so then I came up with (what was then) a new primary logo that closely follows their current?which ended up turning into a roundel patch that I?ve designated as the primary for this set. (The first alternate logo in the set is what I originally had as the primary.) Along with those two is kind of a ?fun? alternate logo that also found its way onto the batting practice jersey on this set.

Which segues nicely into the uniforms?eagle-eyed viewers might see visual cues from both the current Cincinnati Reds as well as the former Tampa Bay Devil Rays uniforms--that?s no accident, as I?m a huge fan of both sets, and utilized both for a little visual inspiration. Gone are the pinstripes from this set, as I really didn?t see them working here. For some reason, the Rockies just strike me as a ?vest? team, probably because they?ve been wearing some version of them (albeit not exactly the best-looking color/style of them) for a while, so for both primary home and away, I went for the vested look. I know some folks aren?t fans of vests, but I believe some teams just make it work (like the Pirates for all that long time--still wish they would go back). The other thing is that, being that the Rockies pretty well own the color purple in MLB, vested uniforms allow the purple to be more prevalent on the field. And speaking of purple, both the alternate home/road jersey and batting practice jerseys are solid purple, the latter with the aforementioned ?fun? alternate logo on the chest, the former with simple green piping and the ?COLORADO? script on the chest, pretty much like their current purple jerseys. The ?COLORADO? script also adorns the primary away set, while ?ROCKIES? adorns the home vest. All jerseys feature the primary logo as a patch on the left sleeve. I?ve also included two options for caps and batting helmet--one with green brim, and one without i.e. solid purple. You?ll see in the player model set that I chose to go with the green-brimmed versions of both, but left the solid purple as an option, in order to gauge feedback on whether or not the sets would be better off with solid purple headgear or green-brimmed. (And going back to the purple for a second?in my native files, the color I chose to use, PMS 273, looks pretty well purple, yet in my web-optimized .png files, it looks almost straight blue on my Mac notebook, and almost reddish purple on one of my PC tablets?this is an inherent problem when working with the color purple, as it seems to never want to act right, so Imma need y?all to tell me how it appears on your screen, as well.)

All that having been said, my intended purpose for this set was to present a modern update on an otherwise (save for the scripts) pretty solid identity, as well as make for a look unique among MLB teams. Of course, that?s up to y?all and whether you believe it meets that standard or not, so?

(Oh wait--let me add one more thing: before anyone even conjures up the desire to flame me behind my player model set?I know Ubaldo Jimenez got traded at some point last season, but he?s the only Rockies pitcher I knew of, and I don?t really follow baseball all that much, and I really don?t follow the Rockies, so I have no clue who currently plays for them, so for the player models I just went with what I could remember. )

And now that I?ve gotten all that out of my system, here?s my almost two-year-old concept set for the Colorado Rockies, dusted off and, admittedly rather hastily, freshened up for the masses to comment and critique?have at it.

(By the way, mad props to my boy Nick for finding these files on my old computer...'preciate that, cat!)

Y?all know what to do?holla back.

~Buc

[jeh-see]

I really, really like this. The lighter purple, the addition of the green and its subtle use just to make things pop, the font choice is perfect. Definitely a winner. If I HAD to choose something to change/complain about, it's the "Rox" nickname usage on the alt/batting practice jersey, but that is just a personal pet peeve. Good job.

UJ

[aci]

In and of itself, this set looks quite good. The catch is that the colour scheme looks very 1990's Diamondbacks now... the green on purple looks kinda teal, and as soon as I looked at the actual concept, I got a vibe that I was looking at a D-Backs concept and it's a hard mental image to throw once it gets in your head.

[mbannon92]

I love this. The color scheme works really, really well. The logos look really good, and the new font is perfect. I like the vests as well. I agree that it works with the Rockies.

Overall, no complaints. You really nailed this one.

[slapshot]

Great presentation, but minor nitpick (maybe not so minor...)

In your logo, you have the team name set up like RockieS, but it's not carried over to the jersey, where you have all caps, vertically arched. There should be more consistency between the two, because otherwise there's a disconnect between them.

Not a fan of the "Rox" logo...aside from that already being used by the Brockton Rox, I don't think it reflects the team. "Colorado Rockies" emphasizes the beautiful mountains. "Rox" emphasizes random boulders. To me, anyway.

I like the color scheme, but I wish there was just a bit more contrast between the two colors...I'm seeing a weird vibration when the green is placed over the purple, especially on the primary logo.

Also, in your pitcher template, he has no stripes on his stirrups.

[UnclearInitial]

Definitely one of the better concepts in a while, and probably the best purple/green Rockies that I've seen (and there's been quite a lot of those over the years)

These are my critiques:

-The roundel logo. As is, it looks like the mountain is floating in mid-air, and it looks really weird. The alt logo provides a nice stable base for the mountain to sit on. Also, having a a circle with a smaller non-parallel baseball inside of it is distracting.

-Every Rockies wordmark in the logos are single or double-outline, depending on your point of view, but the jersey scripts and the cap logo are no outlines with a drop shadow.

-The Colorado script on the logos are radially arched, but in the uniform it is vertically arched.

-The previously mentioned RockieS on logos, ROCKIES on jersey inconsistency.

-It looks like the wordmarks lost a great deal of detail from the logos tho the jerseys.

-Everything on the jersey and pants has 1 green stripe, yet the socks have 2 green stripes.

-Team nicknames should generally not be used on official team logos

-While I agree that the Rockies feel like a vest team, they feel like a pinstriped vest team to me.

- I've just never found the green/purple combo attractive for the Rockies

[rcb05]

The catch is that the colour scheme looks very 1990's Diamondbacks now

Agree with this.

[MEANS]

nice work, I do like this much better than their current colors, however I do agree with the DB's similarity. Maybe a different shade of green/teal?

-In the primary logo I would lose the small serifs on the text in the circle, or just go with a basic sans serif font. The laces in the ball have too much detail as well. Do you really need the est. date in the logo too? I just think the word baseball or baseball club would be more appropriate.

-On the number set I would try it without the white outline

[MDC]

This is awesome, I love that color combo, looks much better on them than the Diamondbacks, and the logo is a fantastic modernization of what to me is a seriously outdated logo. Any chance we can see a large version of the logo you have on the hats?

[DL Watt]

For one, that has to be the best baseball template Ive seen on the boards! I am a big fan of the cap logo, simple and classy.

I do like the addition of green, but I would like to see it maybe with a light blue instead, give it a snowy feel to it.

[tBBP]

A couple notes while I'm sitting here waiting to get loaded...

- I didn't mention anything about this in my inital write-up and I should have, but when I first started working on this here, I knew then that comparisons to the old Diamondbacks' identity were both inevitable and unavoidable, chiefly due to the colors...but I went ahead with it anyway. (My justification: look at how many similarly-dressed navy-and-red teams currently exist in MLB now.)

- Re: logos/fonts/scripts...Jim and someone else made a good point, and its one that I actually half-thought about while cleaning this up, but shouldve thought MORE about--the jersey scripts not exactly matching the logo script. To be fair, the current jerseys don't exactly match to the current logo either, but still, I see what he said about vertical vs radial arched chest scripts--imma have to go back and look at that. (Of course, this also means I'll also have to revisit the whole outline/drop shadow thing as well. )

- Re: colors...the colors appear much brighter and more vibrant in the native files on my MacBook...purple looks deeper, the green much brighter.(And not just this set, but several other of my files are like this as well.) Soon as I go to optimize/save for web, BOOM!-roughly 30% of the contrast is gone and the colors appear somewhat muted. I have yet to figure out why that is or how that keeps happening. This issue was never this bad on my previous Mad desktop machine...I don't know if it's just something in the way my portable network graphic files are saved or what it is-any of you tech-heads out there knw anything more about this?

Overall, I can see where some of you see a disconnect between logo and uniform. Part of that was due to me not having a lot of time to work out the most finite of kinks like I did in times past; the other is due to me not really being a "baseball" guy and still trying to see what makes a baseball identity (logos + uniforms) really work--but then, that's why we do this, to learn, right? Suffice it to say I've got a good bit of helpful feedback to use and help me try to tweak this thing up some. (That said, I can always use more.) I don't know when I'll be able to do anything with this, but hopefully at some point I will get the chance to fix this up some more...eventually I'd like to get to same comfort level with baseball (and other sports) that I am with football, and this will only help. (Especially since I also have several other baseball concept projects currently in the works.)

[raysfan24]

The only thing I don't like is the cap logo. Other than that, if I were the owner of the Rockies, I would make these actual identity in a heartbeat.

[Shumway]

As usual, this is great stuff you got here, Buc.

As far as the colors go, I like the idea of green and purple, but I think lightening the green would be a mistake, and the current shade of purple is great. Just a thought, but maybe substitute a slate gray/light blue in for the green? At the least, it'd give you some more contrast.

The wordmark inconsistencies have been brought up already. I really think it works better with the outline, rather than the offset shadow. The arched vs. straight doesn't bother me...I think it works well arched on the uniforms, but flat on the logo. I don't think arching it on the logo would do any harm, however.

Diggin' the purple spikes, too!

[justie]

This is pretty good. The jerseys look amazing though, I would buy them if I saw one.

And that Alternate logo (1st one) is amazing!

[Epiphanic]

Whenever I see a brandIDENTITY thread in the Concepts forum, I know I'm in for a treat. This is no exception.

As a fan of pinstripes, I was kinda sad when I read that you got rid of them. However your decision to make the Rockies a vest team mitigates that and still makes 'em look sharp.

The typeface choice for the wordmark and numbers is fantastic.

Seeing just a "C" on the caps is a little strange. I'm so used to the "CR" that it looks odd. That's not something I don't like, it's just something that passed through my head.

My biggest complaint is the use of green. I love the fact that you decided to replace the black and use a green that they use. But it's too much. It makes 'em look like their colors are purple and green. I think when someone looks at the Rockies, just the color purple should be the focus. I think the amount of green could be toned down if you reversed the piping (instead of green-purple-green, make it purple-green-purple) and nixed the green bill on the cap.

Overall, I love this look. Just needs more purple.

[tBBP]

So...basically, what I'm pulling out of what I've read so far is:

- white outline/green drop shadows need to go?

- Maybe either try a brighter green, or replace it with slate gray/light blue? (I'll see how it looks, but right now in my mind's eye I can't say I'm liking that combo too terribly much--but I'll try it out and see.)

- Go for vertical arched scripts on the jerseys rather than radial arch?

- Solid purple caps? (Or hold onto green-billed caps as alternates?)

I'm taking down notes of all this...if anyone else has anything further to add, lemme know.

[bohob]

Here's what I'm seeing:

For colors, I can see where you are noticing the purple being too bright. You may want to darken it on a separate "web" file so we can see the contrast you are going for. Right now the green type on the primary is getting a little lost. (I'm viewing it on a white iMac.) I do like the idea of this being a purple/green team. I don't think you should lose that.

On the primary, I already mentioned the type in the circle. As for the mountain looking like it's floating, I believe that can be fixed if you enlarged the mountain wordmark for tighter cropping. The top of the mountain should stay where it is, but the wordmark would sit lower, leaving less "air" between the wordmark and the bottom of the ring. You may have to removed the EST. date, but that's not essential information.

As for the other logos, I like the first supporting mark, but the COLORADO is superfluous. It takes the focus off of the interaction between the mountain and wordmark, and that's you're moneymaker, so to speak.

The type on all of these logos has a nice balance between western and modern. I believe the jersey type should match it style-wise. Also, on the home and away uniforms the backside shoulder trim is missing. A singel outline type style would work very well with the trim. I like the vests as well, as it does put for purple on the field and baseball desperately needs more color. Lastly, Ubaldo is missing his stirrup and he's wearing black shoes. It would be interesting to see if the concept works better with purple shoes, or white with green accent, a la the A's. Great work as usual though.

EDIT: I prefer the solid purple caps. But I generally prefer solid caps over contrasting brims, unless the crown of the cap is a light color.

[tBBP]

Alright, jackals...update time.

Thank the snowstorm that decided to blanket most of southern Wisconsin and pretty much the entire top half of Illinois (to my knowledge) for forcing me to shut it down early. Figured I'd "use my time wisely" and do something with this--while smacking on some Denny's, of course.

Anyway, took in what comments and critiques were provided, and took to editing what I posted previously. Quick rundown of the updates:

- Couldn't bring myself to nix the green, so I kept it. I still need to figure out how/why my colors get so washed out when I go to save for web, but depending on what kind of monitor you're viewing this through, some of you may be able to notice the slightly edited colors.

- Roundel logo is no more. Took what I liked from that, mixed in some of the C&C about that particular mark, and ended up rendering it to look more like a truly faithful update of the currently-existing Rockies primary logo.

- "RoX" logo is also gone. In place of both that and my previously designated logo is a new (sorta) partial logo and a display of the cap logo (pretty much just a stand-alone "C" from the scripts.)

- No more offset outline/shadow. All scripts and numbers are now single outline. Speaking of scripts...

- Out is the vertical arch; in is the radial arch for the chest scripts. Per JP's and several other guys' suggestion, I figured I'd bring those more in line with the current Rockies' jerseys, script-wise.

- Per the "baseball guys", I didn't explicitly say so, but by virtue of them being on top now, the solid purple caps are now the de facto primary headgear, with the green-brimmed attire (hypothetically) designated as alternate.

I didn't even bother fooling around with updated player models; Imma wait and see where this goes before I go to render another round of those. All that said, here's the updates...

Better? Worse? Lateral? Almost there? Holla at me...lemme know what's up!

~Buc

[bohob]

Good updates. I think the only thing left is to figure out how to display the colors for web use. Are they listed as Pantone colors, or did you convert them to RGB already?

[henburg]

Really great concept. Brings a lot of color to one of the dullest looking teams in the MLB.