Nashville Sounds | MiLB Brand Identity

The Nashville Sounds - MiLB affiliate of the Texas Rangers - approached Rare Design in 2018 with the aim of creating a new brand identity for their club, fitting of a major league ball club and reflective of the team's rich history and Nashville's vibrant personality.

Without being too heavy-handed, the new identity had to authentically connect to Nashville and resonate with its community. Ultimately, we combined historic baseball lettering, classic scripts, wood-block typography, and musical motifs with local icons to strike a cord that was in tune with the team and their town.

My contribution to the rebrand was in the development of the visual identity, and most prominently, the team’s primary ‘N’ lettermark. However, just like the ball club, the design work was a full team effort led by Rodney Richardson and executed by the entire Rare team. Info & links below.

Project Credits

Agency_ Rare Design

CD_ Rodney Richardson

PM_ Marie Siegfried

Designer_ Cody Bass

Designer_ Brian Bollig

Designer_ Ben Barnes

Designer_ Jeremy Nelson

Links

Full Case Study:  Nashville Sounds Rebrand

jeremynelsondesign@gmail.com

JN

For the Sounds, it was a priority that the new identity captured the spirit of Nashville & embrace their heritage of baseball.

To ensure our proposed solutions would meet these goals, we relied on the iconic work of Hatch Show Print, classic and decorative baseball lettering, and the sights of Nashville's music scene (Shown above) to inform our exploration and concept development (Below).

Though subtle, and visually similar to decorative spurs seen in display type and classic sports lettering, incorporating the form of a guitar's F-Hole into the diagonal stroke of the 'N' connected baseball with Music City naturally in both concept and execution.