Back in Brown: San Diego Padres

[tBBP]

Been a while since you seen something outta me, ain't it?? Well, every now and then I can still do this stuff. So let's get on with this...

...Been a bit of chatter going on 'round the interwebs lately about a certain Major League Baseball team considering yet another identity update. Considering their past one was what, three or four years ago, suffice it to say this club might well be one of the most schizophrenic in all of American major pro sports. That said, whatever they do next, they really need to make sure it hits home and can actually last, so they can quit changing clothes more often than some of us change socks.

Popular opinion holds that the San Diego Padres should revisit and return to the brown and yellow colors. For one, its a unique colorway in that no other major pro four sports teams use it, and for two, it actually has bona fide history behind it--henceforth, where the main idea of this concept set goes. You see, when many mention a return to brown and yellow, many also indirectly pine for a near-facsimile of something akin to the Padres' sets of the '70s or whatnot. Here's the other problem I've seen with the Padres over the years: to me, it seems they have no clear clue of what direction they want to take their identity. The former logo set emphasized more of the "beach", with colors to match (sky blue and sand). That's all and good...except baseball, as we all know, has overall the most tradition-laden visual appearance of all. So bearing all that in mind, here's the question I posed in my own brain: how can I set upon an angle no one's yet really tried, to concoct an identity that the people in, and even out of, San Diego can immediately connect to at first glance?

THE BRAND

As we all know, "padre" translates to "father". The original Pacific Coast League Padres got their name from the Spanish friars of the Franciscan Great Order, who founded the city way back in 1541. Of the four great orders, the Franciscans were distinguished by their brown robes and were sometimes known as "brown friars" (so now you know where the brown in the color scheme comes from). For the Catholics among us, you know that priests are sometimes referred to as "father"; hence the word, and this team's name, "Padres". I based this set around the brown as well, albeit a bit of a different shade, one I call, aptly enough, "mission brown". (For any of you who happen to work in the roofing business, that's also one of GAF Timberline's designer shingle colors...and as I currently work in the business, the color name stuck in my mind and as such here it is now. Don't know if they pulled that name from this same source or not, though...lol.) The secondary color is golden yellow, but instead of inserting orange, I mixed in a bit of another color prominent in the Catholic church, cardinal. These two colors also come directly from the San Diego city flag, so they fit perfectly.

THE IDENTITY

Some of you may have deduced by now that the direction of this set is heavily rooted in history, particularly that of San Diego. Some of those friars I mentioned last paragrpah built missions in and around California, such as this one, the Mission San Diego de Alcala. And see, that right there is exactly the place I went for this whole set. The primary logo features a caricature version of the belfry of this particular mission, with an updated version of the script from the original PCL Padres uniforms. I'm actually pretty proud of how that turned out, since I vehemently suck at trying to render baseball scripts. I also worked the arch forms of that belfry prominently into this concept, as seen on the main logo. It's also worked into the road script and jersey numbers, as well. Mixed in a bit of cardinal for depth, but not so much as to compete with the yellow. I kept the swinging friar around as an additional logo, along with a slightly edited version of the Padres' current cap logo.

THE IMAGE

This is what I hope you will see with where I tried to base this identity; if your emotional and sensory reactions match up with what I was trying to create, I'll know this was a success. Of course, there's only one way to know, so here they are...

*Note: if for some reason these images are not working, you can also check this project out over in my corner of the dribbbleverse, as well as my personal portfolio over on Behance.

Lemme know what y'all think...like I said, it's been a long time. ~Buc

[JMurr]

Spot on. I think this captures a modern look while also holding true to the past.

[ThePeam]

Love the logo...but would look better in navy & sand.

[St Louis Cardinals]

This is beautiful!! add the striped socks to the whole set and it would be perfect!

[nas1787]

Thanks for sharing your thought process on this, it really helps elevate this concept to new heights. I really love everything you've done here. Sorry if you were looking for C&C, because you won't be getting any from me.

[GFB]

I'm in the brown and gold camp as well, but I don't know, man... Something's off.

To start with least on my monitor, that brown looks very grey... very reminiscent shade of "brown" that the Cleveland Browns use on their uniforms. I'd prefer a brown with a much richer saturation, or at least something closer to a friar's robe.

Secondly, the cardinal is making this concept remind me of a late 90's Pirates jersey (perhaps that has to due with the desaturated brown as well)... While it does make the primary logo look better, I think it's cluttering up the cap logos, wordmarks, and numbers. I'm just not a fan of the drop shadows. Maybe you could try a half-bevel on the inside of the numbers (like the old Nats numbers) instead?

Lastly, I would lose the tail on the Padres script. I know the tail screams "baseball," but tails are best on names that are +7/8 letters long (that way the tail acts as a unifier between all the cursive letters)... The scripts for the Braves or Tigers would look silly with a tail, IMO, and the Padres would be better served losing it as well...

[wildwing64]

I don't know if brown and gold works for the Padres, but this is good enough to sell me on the idea

Now, I'm not sure if it's just me but the way the tail comes off the script looks a bit awkward. But I can see the historical precedent for it. Just needs a little bit of tweaking and it will look fine.

[McCall]

Damn you, Buc! I've been working on a updated script similar to this but yours kicks mine's ass so there's no point in me even continuing with it.

Few quips:

- Make the friar's smock or whatever it is, brown.

- I wouldn't use the Thunder's number font either.

- And a personal preference, I don't care for the alt. I'd go all brown. I'm also not find of the gold bell cap either, but again a personal preference.

Other than those, this is awesome. And again I hate you for always being just a step ahead of me and your designs lightyears ahead of mine. You're like my frenemy. (oh G-d, did i actually just use that word?)

EDIT: just noticed all the cardinal highlights. I'd remove that color entirely. Not very noticeable and when it is, it doesn't really fit well. Also, put the Swinging Friar as the sleeve patch for ALL jerseys. That's where he belongs.

[Telemundo219]

Damn you, Buc! I've been working on a updated script similar to this but yours kicks mine's ass so there's no point in me even continuing with it.

Few quips:

- Make the friar's smock or whatever it is, brown.

- I wouldn't use the Thunder's number font either.

- And a personal preference, I don't care for the alt. I'd go all brown. I'm also not find of the gold bell cap either, but again a personal preference.

Other than those, this is awesome. And again I hate you for always being just a step ahead of me and your designs lightyears ahead of mine. You're like my frenemy. (oh G-d, did i actually just use that word?)

EDIT: just noticed all the cardinal highlights. I'd remove that color entirely. Not very noticeable and when it is, it doesn't really fit well. Also, put the Swinging Friar as the sleeve patch for ALL jerseys. That's where he belongs.

Agreed (x1). Also, maybe incorporating a baseball in the logo (half roundrel) w/ the cathederal appearing on top of the ball.

[sportstar1212]

This is fantastic! I love that primary logo. Much better than their current crap.

[tBBP]

Lots of good historical chatter going on over here about the Padres, the timing of which is pretty good considering what I was trying to do with my set here. I'm pretty sure I'll tinker around with this some more at some point, taking the opinions in this thread and that other one into account.

Early this morning I mocked two quick color flips just to gauge the temperature of the masses...one which directly reflects the San Diego city flag (and in its own right presents a definite unique MLB colorway), the other reflective of the '90s squad, which bosrs1 made some good points about.

For y'alls perusal...

How y'all feeling about these?

[Silver Shamrock]

Love the bell tower logo in any color Partial to brown, but if the caps you created with contrasting front panels were more of a bell shape instead of the entire two front panels, I would really like that, in blue/orange, or maroon/gold.

Looks great overall, and nice that you put a lot of thought into the history of the missions into your designs. Really like that.

Great job.

[tBBP]

Looks like I may have to explore a bell-panel alternate cap idea. I'll try that out sometime in the future. May look at lightening the brown some, but I don't wanna do that too much, else it might end up losing some contrast.

Any other thoughts on the script tail, yay/nay? It came from the PCL days but some have suggested losing it.

[DL Watt]

I was always a fan of the brown/ yellow, but have to tell you that the red/ yellow looks sharp!

I would like to see the Padres script without the tail off of the s, just to compare the two. Is your "P" a nod to the Padres old Portland AAA team? Looks similar, but could just be a coincedence.

Great work!

[Statfreak101]

Wow. This is amazing.

There is so much cool stuff on this board.

[Raysfan12]

As much as I like the yellow/brown look, the red/yellow combo is just plain gorgeous!

[sportstar1212]

The red and yellow looks good conceptually, but it wouldn't work in real life since it's essentially the same red the D-Backs use.

[ThePeam]

Like the navy and orange best. But the red is worse than the poop brown and pee yellow.

[chrysleraspen08]

Amazing! If they were to switch to these uniforms ever, saying that it was a major upgrade would be an understatement. Good work.

[Chromatic]

Gorgeous. I really really like the burgundy and gold especially. Its such a beautiful colour scheme, and I think it would work perfectly for the padres.