Continental Independent Baseball League: the Expansion

[Dbroalexander]

Everything about the Tritons set is :censored:ing fantastic. from the logo, to the jerseys, and the color scheme is just amazing. It looks great and fits the team name and city. this is a great series. Keep it up

[Raymie]

Almost perfect but for the armpit issues. Dude, you need to open a design firm and start selling your stuff. It is just that good.

[BrySmalls]

Is this concept series still ongoing or on hiatus?

[bulldogbarks55]

Fantastic work. Is there any reason that you have no script lettering? The variations on block-style lettering are great but you need a script name just to break things up a bit. My favorite team is the Birmingham Colonels. But shouldn't a colonel have an eagle on his epaulets instead of general's stars?

[dgnmrwrw]

Well, it's been a long time! I've been insanely busy for the past few months, and after being hit with malware from the site, I've stayed away for a while. But this series is (and indeed has been) completely finished for months, so I decided to go ahead and post the remaining concepts. Just to keep things moving quickly--to get the remaining concepts and the entire completed expansion series posted--I'll probably be providing slightly less input... I'm really just trying to get it all out there. So please feel free to provide as much C+C as possible, but don't be offended if I don't reply to things or move a little too fast.... So here comes the rest.

Las Vegas Scorpions

Las Vegas, NV

This primary logo is based loosely on an old image from the net. The Scorpions' colors are dark red, navy, and yellow. The light blue is a remnant from when the palette was deeper, and it may need to go. The cap logo is a simple monogram. The alternate logo/sleeve patch is the scorpion by itself.

Pretty basic uniforms, with red sleeves on the home and road. A more detailed look at the wordmarks.

[randyc]

Can't wait to see the rest of them! I'm glad this series will be completed, one of the rare ones on the concept forums these days that is worth following!

[cohenj21]

Really happy to see this series back, one of my all-time favorites here. Geat set for Las Vegas here, just a couple of suggestions. First, I would get rid of the light blue from the logo, as you mentioned it doesn't really fit the palette. Also, on the cap logo I would play with the intersection of the L and the V. The way they come together now is a little jagged, I would try to make that smoother. Other than that, solid job here as usual.

[cohenj21]

Oh yeah, one more question, and I apologize if it's a little forward. I was looking through some of your old work, like your NHL series and defunct franchise redesigns and I noticed that the pictures were unable to be seen by someone looking back through the thread. Is there any way you could put these pictures back on the threads for people to see? If it's not possible I totally understand, I just enjoy viewing your work and am always looking for some good concepts. Aagain, I apologize in advance if this isn't possible.

[Philsphan]

I agree with everything cohen21 said. The light blue needs to go and the LV should be played around with. Also, IMO I think that the word mark would look better if it was either all yellow or all white. Otherwise great concept! You have no idea how happy I was when I saw this thread back at the top of the concept thread. This is one of the best concept leagues I've seen and you clearly put a ton of craftsmanship into your work. Good to see the CIBL back!!

[Raymie]

Yay! It's back!

The only changes would be to improve the LV cap logo and switch out all the light blue for gold.

[dgnmrwrw]

Thanks guys! I'll definitely go back and drop the light blue. And I'll look at tweaking the cap logo... any specific points or interactions that are particularly problematic?

Also, as far as older series or posts go: the reason the images eventually came down was because they were still being viewed (or being hotlinked to by people on other sites) which was crushing my bandwidth limits w/ Photobucket. So after a while, I just took them down since they were so old and often preventing people from seeing newer work. I'd consider reposting them, but I'm also considering revisiting some of that older work and updating it all.

To keep things moving (since I've got about 20-22 teams already completed) I'm going to go ahead and keep posting teams. But I'm gonna update Las Vegas, so please add any relevant feedback for them as well.

[dgnmrwrw]

Nashville Grays

Nashville, TN

Here, the "Gray" is the Gray Fox. The Grays' primary logo is much more simplistic/stylized, and is more "major league" (free-formed/opened) than some of my previous, more "minor league" logos. The color palette is really a palette in the original sense: multiple blue-ish gray values, paired with orange. The cap logo is the beveled N. The alternate logo/sleeve patch is the running fox logo.

More old-school uniforms here, with cream at home (along with a script wormark) and gray on the road. Pinstripes on both, which I actually like (I know I'm in the minority). A more detailed look at the wordmarks.

[cohenj21]

Grays look really good, the logo in particular. I normally don't love road pinstripes, but they work fine here. I would consider tweaking the Grays script and simplifying it a little. I think with the retro-style feel of this concept, and particularly the cream-and-pinstripe combo on the home jersey, the script dominates the jersey. I like the idea of a cursive script, but something a little more mellow might be better. Maybe using less orange in the script would help. Overall though, nice job.

For the Las Vegas cap logo, I think what throws it off for me is the small part of the L that sort of juts out at the end. If you made the bottom part of the L (the horizontal part) straight and smooth, it wouldn't look as jagged.

On the Photobucket bandwidth, what you could do is create a new Photobucket account and put all of your "older" concepts on that account to split up the bandwidth. Then, you could repost the images using the new Photobucket account. That has worked in my experience for people who run low on bandwidth.

Of course, if you're in the process of updating them and posting the updates separately, we're up for that too.

[Whittier S]

Nashville has a clever branding and a great palette.

I found the "Grays" wordmark hard to read, since it's essentially a print "G" with a cursive "rays"--I'd suggest putting a tail extending down from the crossbar of the G, perhaps swooping back in a loop to reconnect with "rays".

[ElTeduardo]

IMO the Las Vegas cap logo looks too much like the lehigh valley iron pigs

[Philsphan]

I think that uniforms and scripts are fantastic, but the logo is a little too abstract for me. It seems the orange and white is almost randomly placed and IMO the concept would look better of you tried making the fox more "minor league." As always though, great work!

[jaha32]

Glad to see your still posting these.

On the Scorpions you did a great job rendering a scorpion. Lobster, scorpions, and insects are generally ugly creatures that are hard to render in detail. If I remember correctly, the old XFL team in Las Vegas had a nice LV logo, if you do something similar, but in this style, it could work.

I like the name Grays a lot for a baseball team. The script is also very very nice. On the jerseys, the numbers and Nashville wordmark (even the cap N) could go without the beveling highlights. The beveling seems unnecessary in my mind and doesn't add anything to the old-school feel that the jerseys have otherwise.

Look forward to seeing whatever you post next.

[dgnmrwrw]

Thanks guys. I'll take the Vegas feedback and look at reworking the cap monogram.

I would consider tweaking the Grays script and simplifying it a little. I think with the retro-style feel of this concept, and particularly the cream-and-pinstripe combo on the home jersey, the script dominates the jersey. I like the idea of a cursive script, but something a little more mellow might be better. Maybe using less orange in the script would help.

The script is also very very nice. On the jerseys, the numbers and Nashville wordmark (even the cap N) could go without the beveling highlights. The beveling seems unnecessary in my mind and doesn't add anything to the old-school feel that the jerseys have otherwise.

I get both of these. I think I was determined to work each color in the palette into the wordmarks and numbers, and it came out with a double-tone bevel and an outline to accommodate each color. But I do think it might be too much, so I'll go back and try other options. But do you think the cap logo needs to be reworked as well? Or does it need to "match" the chest style at all to make a consistent look/identity?

I found the "Grays" wordmark hard to read, since it's essentially a print "G" with a cursive "rays"--I'd suggest putting a tail extending down from the crossbar of the G, perhaps swooping back in a loop to reconnect with "rays".

Fair point. Perhaps if I really thin out the stroke connecting the G to the R? It might help differentiate....

I think that uniforms and scripts are fantastic, but the logo is a little too abstract for me. It seems the orange and white is almost randomly placed and IMO the concept would look better of you tried making the fox more "minor league."

Here, I definitely wanted a more abstract look (especially based on some other teams yet to come). I did my best to match the patterns on an actual gray fox (see here and here).

Updates (and another team) to come asap.

[cohenj21]

On the script, I think that you don't neccessarily need to overhaul it completely, definitely still use all the colors in the palette. I would just make it thinner and less slanted, so it doesn't immediately dominate the jersey. Does that make more sense?

[dgnmrwrw]

Two sets of looks at the 'Grays' script wordmark:

The original 'skew', with slight tweaks and eliminating the bevel and reducing the colors. And...

Essentially the same set of looks, but with slightly less skew on the type. Thoughts?