Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Spreading the Word

The folks over at Brew Crew Ball are currently running a series of articles highlighting fan redesigns of the Brewers' uniforms. I'm honored to have my designs featured in the conversation.

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

Here's a review of 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.



The folks at Brew Crew Ball also included a uniform re-design I created several years ago, which was also influenced by the Brews right down to the color scheme.



I hope you'll join the conversation at Brew Crew Ball and let us know what you think about my designs and the others.

3 comments:

  1. You can thank BrewCrewBall for a new reader.
    I love the first uniform design, especially the script, and the barrelman sleeve patch.

    It would be great to see the Brewers playing in those uniforms some day!

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  2. I was lukewarm to these at first, but the more I see them, the more they grow on me. The only thing I'd change now is the road script... I get the reason for the art deco font, but it doesn't look nearly as Saloonkeeper would; and Milwaukee is just one of those cities whose name just looks better in a true script.

    I SO wish those caps were real.

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  3. Thanks for the feedback. If the Brewers ever do another "YOU-niform" contest, I'm submitting that cap!

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