One and Done

When the Seattle Pilots joined the American League as an expansion team in 1969, little did they know that their new brand identity would have but a one-year shelf life. Due to poor attendance, anxious creditors and lawsuits delaying construction of a new stadium, a group led by current Major League Baseball commissioner Bud Selig purchased the team and moved it to Milwaukee, where they were renamed the Brewers for the 1970 season.

Flash forward to 2010, when professional baseball will once again see a new brand identity quickly come and go—but this time the short life span of the logos and uniforms is a matter of planned obsolescence.

The last-minute nature of the Oneonta Tigers’ relocation to Norwich, Connecticut—a move that was only officially approved last Friday—did not leave the New York-Penn League club the necessary time to properly explore comprehensive re-branding options and include their new fans in the process. So the decision was made to go with a temporary identity for 2010 only, conduct a name-the-team contest during the season and unveil a new, original moniker and look for the 2011 campaign.

For the Connecticut Tigers’ interim identity, the team asked Studio Simon to develop a monogram that would tie into the classic look of the parent Detroit Tigers ball club. But other teams have previously run into trademark-usage roadblocks when attempting to use letterforms that were too similar to the Cincinnati Reds-owned Cooperstown Collection insignias shown above, so employing a standard Old English font was out of the question. Instead, we developed a custom C, stylistically culled from the distinctive shapes and forms of the time-honored Detroit marks.

So this season, you will see the C-Cats players pursue their goal of one day playing in the major leagues at Comerica Park while sporting attire that mirrors the traditional Tiger togs that have remained largely unchanged from the Ty Cobb era to the present day—just don’t get used to it!