Toronto Maple Leafs Baseball Club
Comprehensive Brand Overhaul for Toronto’s Historic Baseball Team
The Toronto Maple Leafs Baseball Club, a historic institution dating back to 1895, underwent a significant transformation under new ownership. Facing the daunting task of a complete brand refresh, the team turned to Barking Frog Creative for access to a seasoned graphic designer at a fraction of the cost. Barking Frog provided the creative direction, art direction, and graphic design needed to revive and modernize the team’s image while offering the flexibility and cost-efficiency of a fractional design model.
The Challenge
When the new ownership group acquired the Toronto Maple Leafs Baseball Club in 2023, they encountered several challenges. The team required a complete brand refresh, including new uniforms, merchandise, and asset management, ready for the upcoming Spring 2024 season. The new owners had no existing relationships with printers or suppliers, and crucial marketing and brand assets were missing. Being primarily business-oriented, the owners needed to gain the knowledge to handle branding and design intricacies.
The Solution
Barking Frog Creative offered a comprehensive solution that effectively addressed each challenge.
Step One: Brand Re-Establishment
It started with developing a brand style guide outlining brand colours, tone, and usage rules. From there, we created or recreated essential logos to ensure the availability of usable files.
Step Two: Uniform Design
The next step required collaboration with the owners and manufacturers to develop four new uniforms adhering to the brand strategy.
Step Three: Merchandise Development
Barking Frog Creative worked directly with a manufacturer to design a line of merchandise for both the team and fans. This included touring the manufacturing facility to understand the capabilities and quality of the products offered.
Step Four: Membership Program
From there, a specialty team membership card was developed, which provided fans with discounts on merchandise and local venues and access to exclusive events.
Step Five: Print and Production Coordination
To bring the card to life, we established a relationship with a printing company in Toronto to produce the Club Member cards.
Step Six: Social Media Alignment
The final step was conducting brand discussions with the student social media team to ensure consistent brand messaging across platforms.
“Cameron was an absolute pleasure to work with. From the first meeting, it was clear that Cameron had spent considerable time immersing himself with the brand and he was ready to pitch innovative ideas. He executed these ideas flawlessly and they continue to pay dividends. Cameron is nothing short of exceptional.”
