Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Paging Mr. Attanasio, Part II

I'm preparing this concept to send to the Milwaukee Brewers, for their consideration. I know the odds are long, but the Brewers do have a history of getting logo inspiration from fans.

The design is being refined from earlier versions. I'm nearing a final version soon.

I've made no secret that I am no fan of the current Brewers uniforms. They're sterile and plain, designed by committee, but worst of all they have no connection with Milwaukee's rich baseball history.

Here's my proposal to give the current bearers of the name the unique and modern look they deserve, while at the same time honoring the whole of that history, including (and especially) the American Association Brewers.

The details, in no particular order:

Sleeve patch
For me, it all starts with bringing back the one, the original, the Beer Barrel Man. Symbol of Milwaukee baseball since at least 1901. Time he finally made the sleeves.

Wordmarks
The script font on the home jersey is Saloonkeeper, based on the script used by Leinenkugel's. It's surprisingly similar to the script used by the Brewers in the 1940s. The road wordmark is based on a 1930s Pabst Blue Ribbon label - I'm terribly fond of that one.

Colors
The color scheme utilizes the blue and gold influenced by the current colors (the only thing I really flat-out love about the current scheme). I've moved the home uniform to a light cream to reflect Milwaukee's nickname as The Cream City, as well as the various historical baseball teams known as the "Creams" and "Cream Citys".

Accent Striping
I included the shoulder piping not only because it has an historical precedent, but would also create a pattern currently unique in the majors. Another way to instantly identify the team. The Brewers used a similar thick piping from 1996-1999, and it looked great.

Number font
The numbers are what I call a simple square block. Again, they could be as easily identifiable as the San Francisco Giants' numbers are, without either drawing too much attention or sacrificing legibility. FWIW, I'm basing these on a number font worn by the Packers in the 1940s.

The cap logo
I've always wanted to use a bottlecap in a Brewers concept. And the block "M" on the bottlecap clearly references the Milwaukee Braves and the American Association club.... okay, maybe I'm officially overthinking this one.

So there you go. Heavily influenced by the past while being distinctive and modern enough to work today.

I'm convinced. I hope Mr. Attanasio agrees.

3 comments:

  1. The bottle cap on the cap is fantastic! So simple, yet relevant. Nice job!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Very, very cool. The bottlecap is just terrific--as is the Leinie's-based script and the inspired use of cream. (On the latter though, I wonder if it might not get too close to the new Padres palette, which features a uniform set that looks like it's been soaked in urine.) (Second aside: Given the brewery's sponsorship and close ties to the club, though, you might get farther basing the road jersey on an old Miller script than Pabst.) The one part of your updated graphic array that I don't really care for is he new background rhombus--which just screams Schlitz. A little too clever, perhaps.

    The graphics are great work--as is the loving effort to keep aliv

    ReplyDelete
  3. I don't know if it's too close to the Padres' colors, though - it's essentially the same palette the Brewers are using now, with the addition of cream home uniforms (which the Padres don't have). Besides, given the Padres' rather fluid uniform history, I'm not sure that they'll keep their current set long enough for it to be an issue.

    Thanks for the feedback!

    ReplyDelete