Someone asked me the other day why my Baseball Collection of pennants doesn’t feature the actual Major League Baseball team names on them.
Why Amazin’s, and not Mets? Why Brew Crew, and not Brewers? Why Bronx Bombers, and not Yankees?
There are a few reasons—the big one being I'm super keen on hearing from MLB’s lawyers. The others have more to do with creativity, authenticity and appealing to the diehards of each fanbase.
When I first started planning the collection, I took to Reddit and polled team communities to land on the most popular nicknames. Some were obvious, like the Fightins (Phillies), O’s (Orioles) and Sox (Red Sox), and I was looking for confirmation. But others, like the Friars (Padres), Twinkies (Twins), and Motor City Kitties (Tigers), were news to me. A handful of teams, like the A’s, Rays, Rangers, Royals were just the A’s, Rays, Rangers, Royals. Womp womp.
The nicknames opened up a lot of creative opportunities for design. When I dove deep into each team’s history, I drew inspiration from the logos and uniform lettering styles from their golden eras. By coupling the nicknames with design cues from the past, I figured hardcore fans would appreciate that I’d done my homework. As for the casuals, well, they'd just think the pennants look cool. In either case, the finished product felt more unique and real—made for the fan, by a fan.
