Updated Bowling Green Hot Rods identity evokes classic car, Rays affiliation

The High-A Bowling Green Hot Rods just moments ago unveiled two new logos created by Brandon Lamarche of 3-2 Designs. Most of the team’s existing marks, which have been use since 2016, will remain intact, but the two new ones will replace parallel logos in that suite.

The first new mark features a classic hot rod vehicle that evokes the one pictured in the team’s first logo, which was used from 2009 to 2015, and replaces the 2016–21 car logo the team had been using.

“We really wanted to get back to that classic Hot Rods feel, somewhat similar to the original car,” said Hot Rods General Manager and 2019 Midwest League GM of the Year Eric Leach. “Both [team owner Jack Blackstock] and I felt that the modern Hot Rod didn’t fit what our brand was really about.”

The new car logo has one particularly nifty detail: Hidden the right front hubcap, sharp-eyed viewers will notice the interlocking BG logo of the 1940s-era Bowling Green Barons.

The team also introduced a new wordmark (top), not just for aesthetic reasons but also because it had pragmatic advantages over the old one (below).

“The wordmark, one of the reasons we wanted to update it, it had an upward trajectory,” Leach said. “It really didn’t look good on a lot of printed material, so we wanted to get back to a flat and have it be more Hot Rod script.”

The final adjustment to the Hot Rods brand is an update to the team’s color palette. The team augmented their existing navy and orange colors with a third that’s a wink and a nod to their long-term MLB parent club, with whom Bowling Green has a 10-year agreement.

“You’re seeing this across minor league baseball, incorporating some of your parent club’s colors,” Leach said. “That Rays blue, the baby blue really fit our motif. You see it in the car and you see it in the uniforms and the hats and really bringing that color scheme into the logos.”

Surviving elements of the Hot Rods’ existing suite of logos include those pictured above.

The Hot Rods unveiled their new logos at an event the team held tonight in appreciation of game day and concession staff, who endured one canceled season and one particularly difficult season in the wake of the COVID pandemic.