And we’re back! I promised sketches and here they is. One thing I had forgotten about this process is how close a lot of these sketches are to the final concepts. I think that’s kinda rare for our process, but I suppose because we had so many concepts to get through, that could be part of it. I also think there was a clear goal for the project. When we’re rebranding a team, often we have to answer the question, “What the hell do we want this identity to look like?” But for the Hat Club project, we knew the style and application for the designs, we just needed ideas and those are easy to get down in pencil once you’ve got the style figured out. Does that make sense? I don’t know.
So I broke the sketches into a few groups. Here is the San Diego set of concepts. I was worried about designing a hat for our hometown, maybe we were too close to it to come up with something fun. But that wasn’t the case. One of my favorites is the retro, Twins parody with the Mexican guy handing a taco across the boarder to the Uncle Sam. That might still be in the running for an upcoming collection but I think everyone’s a little nervous about it. What do you guys think?
Here is a concept that we tried really hard to get down but could never find the correct way to execute. It’s a take on the classic monogram lockups (NY, LA, SF). In order to figure out the lockups you have to say them out loud. Get it? Es Eff = SF? Eh?
The Bay and Phoenix stuff was fun. Very referential to classic logos so a lot of these didn’t make the cut for that reason. I think you’ll find less referential stuff in the next collection.
Here’s the Bay stuff. The top 2 are almost exact version of their final forms. Check out that “SF” streaks in it’s early form. NOT, close to it’s final form.
Tomorrow, even more sketches than we showed today!
The SD anchor is AH-MA-ZING! I love it. Definitely my favorite of the set.
Dope. LOL the Twins inspired one is sweet and I love the running bear, thats a sure fire hit!
Love that Twins-esque one. So Awesome. Dig the sailboats too.
The gold-digging bear is fantastic. That sketch tells you how good it was going to turn out.
I really don’t want to live in a world where the Padres don’t give you guys the chance to redo their whole brand.
Eh? Is there going to be a Canadian portion to this line?
The Twins homage is too awesome not to be made.
And Matt I could not agree more.
Quick question: Am I missing something with the “Boarder”. Is there a reason that it is spelled with an “a” in the middle instead of “Border”. You did it on one of the sketches and in this post so maybe it’s a San Diego thing?
It’s “The Boarder” because I’m a terrible speller!