And here’s the final family of marks. We got a little carried away with the theme elements, as you can see. But isn’t that what makes life fun? I’ve been getting carried away with more projects lately and it’s fun to see how deep you can go with something. Sleeve patches, alternate versions, 2 versions of our pin-up girl and of course the hat mark and jersey script.

Here are some of the “medals” that we created. As well as custom kill marks, palm frond “scrambled eggs” for the manager hat, and jersey numbers.

Hitting the sketch book for this brand was fun. I always like knowing exactly what a family of marks should communicate. Our job is simple, just make it look cool.
Tomorrow, we show you the final family of marks. Thursday the hat goes on sale!

Lets launch a new Official On-Field! The Lakeland Flying Tigers, Single-A Affiliate of the Detroit Tigers, is one of the coolest brands we’ve developed. The concept is solid as Sears. Minor League but not cheesy, I really dig this brand. Here are some of the images that we used for inspiration. When you go to Tigertown, it’s like you’re back in time. WWII in full effect, lush Florida vegetation, steamy weather, tiny hand held radios playing big band music. But instead of dudes in khaki it’s dudes in stir-ups. The stadium sits on the old home of Lodwick Airfield, which trained more than 2,000 American and British flying aces for WWII. The runway, hangers and mess hall are all still there.

Tomorrow, sketches. Wednesday, the full family of marks. Thursday morning, show the hat. Thursday night, it’ll be available in the online store.

Friday, we being the Shadow League vote! Here’s a sneak of a few upcoming Clink Room swag. 5 new hat styles in the hopper. Including our first snapback, 2 new patches, our first denim hat and Reject League and Night League designs up the wazoo. It’s gunna to be fun!

Strictly Fitteds has Part 2 of its feature on us becoming Brandiose. I was in NYC a couple months back and the Strictly Fitteds guys shot an interview with me jabbering on about our new name, Brandiose. Hope you guys dig it! Go to StrictlyFitteds.com to see the feature.

Efra’s Base Stealers coming at you with spikes up! Lets kick-off our next drop as we always do with our favorite, a behind-the-scenes look at Efra’s process. The cap will be sneak-peaked Friday and of course, available Sunday!

When Efra sent over his inspiration and sketches he had this to say…

“I spent a lot time thinking about the concept then when I had a good idea it went pretty fast so these sketches aren’t as polished as others you’ve featured on the site. Looking back I really like the 4th sketch, way more simple, but I was dead set on a Mr. Red inspired logo, haha!”

I love that, a man who has a vision. If I remember correctly, I think Efra’s Base Stealers was a one-n-done. Which is always a coup. Check out all these great influences.

Tomorrow, Efra hits the sketchbook.

DONE-IN-PHOTOSHOP. DONE-IN-PHOTOSHOP. My god T.J., you know that the style you’re getting in Photoshop with these is emulating Illustrator? It’s like your building a house and I asked what you used to dig your foundation and you pulled a spoon out of your back pocket. More utensil metaphors, weird.

We already have Shadow League Entries rolling in and they are great! Just what I was hoping for. I was a little worried that I was getting too art school on everyone with this challenge, but I think we’re going to get some great teams from this collaboration.

Oh, and have you seen how fast Chris’ Sea Devils have dipped into the “Only 25 Left” territory? Amazing. Amazing for Chris, amazing for Clink Room, amazing that all you guys are supporting what we’re doing here. Amazing.

Speaking of collaboration! Lets get down with our next Reject League Team. T.J. Monteiro’s Shams. One of my personal favorites from the Clink Room collaborations. T.J. not only gets our sense of whimsy that we love to see, but he’s a fun story teller and a kick-ass designer to boot. If only we could get him to use Illustrator he’d be unstoppable. But even with his use of the vastly inferior Photoshop (Can you tell I have a bias towards Illustrator?) he spins gold. It’s like a chef using a spork to cook you the greatest meal you’ve ever had.

T.J. started with some great influences. I especially like his inspiration of “Black Sheep”, one of my favorite albums from the 90s. If you don’t know their album “A Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing” get to know it. If you like Tribe or De La you’ll love these guys.

T.J. is also an amazing draftsman. Look at these guys. I love the little Wolf holding a fork. Why the fork T.J.? Is he about to eat Goldilocks? Grandma? Wolf chow?

Tomorrow, T.J. finalizes his designs. Friday we preview the cap. Sunday, Shams is available.

PS. Why no patches? I know, it was a fun part of the launches but it got too complicated. Patches were missing from orders, wrong patches with wrong orders. The Clink Room is still kinda a hobby for us so I have to simplify. We’ll have new patches more regularly though. They just won’t be specific to the caps. But that will also mean more caps faster!

Now, Chris’ version was great. It won a spot in the contest right? But we had a few concerns. One, the thinness of the pitchfork. The design is a simple silhouette and we wanted to be free to raise the embroidery where we needed to raise the embroidery. So we thickened that up. Two, Chris’ original was a little tall and narrow for a cap application. On paper it’s hard to see this as a problem, but the “canvas” of a fitted baseball cap is much more wide than it is tall. When you see a logo that’s too tall and narrow, unless you’re the Fightin’ Bean Poles, it can look like the logo is off. So we widened the proportions. Chris is a passionate man, and we love that. So it took a little convincing. But after a few back-and-forths he trusted us , with one concession, that we put his original eye back in. Done.

One more thing. How good does the Walbats colorway look? Great, right? It’s the Yankee colorway so there’s got to be something to it. But this is a Sea Devil. The obvious, last minute change…

Tomorrow, we preview the cap. Sunday, available.

Are you ready for some football!? A Monday Night party!? Of course you are. But, are you ready for Chris Cox’s super badass Sea Devils cap? Available Sunday, this is the next Reject team to be drafted into the Reject League. Now you might be saying “,Wasn’t this design submitted with a different name? Don’t we have a team name in the Night League called the Sea Devils?” Yes and yes, but this design fits the name better than Jesse’s great submission, and calling it the Sea Devils puts it in the pantheon of other great team names. The Sun Devils, the Blue Devils, much more sporty. Get it? Got it.

Chris started with a great concept. Simple, clean, and classic was his mission and as you can see from his variations that he went through, he stuck to the script. That always impresses me. Man, I love these behind-the-scenes.