613 - The Logo Show with Dan Stiles and Billy Baumann

The Logo Show focuses its pinpoint laser gaze on baseball's National League and its history of sports team branding. With a reach extending back well before desktop publishing and a future evolving before our eyes, America's favorite past time can offer a unique insight into the lasting principles behind an effective design. Dan Stiles, Billy Baumann, and Mark Brickey explore everything from the central branding of each team, to vintage to programs, to alternate mascots that seem to come out of left field in relation to a team's look. As we explore each National League franchise the boys discuss the effect technology has on design, the difficulty in simplicity, and what is next in a future with fewer design limitations. Hot spots and intentional wonkiness lead the way through a vibrant visual history that can make you a better designer today with expert tips and tricks from the logomark masters we have on the show.  

Talking Points

  • The whipping boy of the design world. 
  • Journeys-esque logos and the phat era Phil won't back down from. 
  • Analyzing America's past time. 
  • Historic branding, finials, and the intentional wonk. 
  • The beauty in going for it in the age of refinement. 
  • Mixing and matching Cubs branding.
  • The "Can you draw this pirate?" Test that became a logo. 
  • Does your logo need to represent the industry it's in?
  • Simplify. Simplify. Simplify.
  • Essential typographic finesse that the computer lets a lot of people skip over. 
  • Put a circle on it.
  • That glove that does the heavy lifting. 
  • What are modern designers afraid of?
  • Searching for a unique shape that makes a killer die cut sticker. 

Circle Of Trust Talking Points

  • That baseball gray, Color Rush Football, and the rules of restrictions. 
  • Mr. Redlegs vs. Mr. Met, fashionable mustaches, and sleeveless uniforms that are anything but the look of baseball. 
  • Simplifying the National League logo and getting rid of its turkey feet topper. 
  • Distilling a logo down to its essence and determining how much information is necessary. 
  • How much should you dumb it down?
  • Negative space and the type you forgot about. 
  • Starting with one color before all the smoke and mirrors. 
  • Going to grayscale to value check your work. 
  • Deliberate complication to validate that your job as a designer and convey value. 
  • NASA begins measuring tree canopies, the team of engineers involved with design and the International Space Station. 
  • Bad guys with better designs. 
  • Do the old rules still apply today?
  • Aging out of design, new maximalism, and long lasting principles of design that transcend technology. 

In a Circle Of Trust Exclusive Release Dan and Billy spend some time together going over the evolution of the DC Comics logo and touch on some poignant themes found in today's episode as well.

Dan Stiles is the design mentor you wish you had. He's smart, talented, and knows how to handle clients. Mark and Dan take your calls and answer your questions in a Breaking News for the history books.

Need more sports logo and less Billy? We got you covered with the March Madness Edition of The Logo Show with Dan Stiles and Nathan Goldman. More hot spots, more mascots, and more strokes.

The Logo ShowDavid DefeoThe Logo Show, Dan Stiles, Billy Baumann, Sports, Logo Design, Design13 Comments