The Missoula Osprey, a Minor league baseball team, announced on the 4th of November its rebranding as the Missoula PaddleHeads. The team changes its identity for the first time since 1999.
To develop the new logo the team invited Jason Klein and Casey White, Brandiose founders, a famous San Diego-based design studio. Brandiose is a design firm, that pushes minor league baseball branding into new frontiers. Cooperating with nearly a half Minor league clubs from the continental United States, which approximate number counts ten dozens, they have devoted most of their lives to helping teams build new storylines. The same is true with the Missoula Osprey.
In the PaddleHeads’s logos warm and vivid orange and green hues prevail. As the main character for the suite of the team logos is chosen a moose, because these strong beautiful animals inhabit Montana state and they are numerous here. The green hue is used to symbolize rich wildlife of the region.
Activities connected with a river, such as paddleboarding, kayaking or fishing are common for Missoula, that’s why the new logo features a grimacing moose with a baseball in his antler who spends a lot of time in or around the river. Moreover, the team’s home stadium is situated on the riverfront so they can’t but use the river theme in its marks. It all is paying homage to the outdoor culture of Montana.
Another significant geographical trait also founds its reflection in the logo design — five picturesque mountain ranges are located near Missoula, so we can see peaks drawn in the moose’s eye too.
Among the reasons that made the Osprey make rebranding was that the existing logos were not refreshed for rather a long time and looked a bit dated. Besides the team wanted to have an identity that would be more recognizable among baseball fans, Osprey, a fish-eating bird, depicted at the old logo, is well known in the region but outside of the state it’s not much familiar. One of the players saw a moose walking downtown and he came up with the idea of using it as the concept for the new logo. A moose looks pleasant and appealing and the team welcomed that choice.
