Hey, everyone! Today I decided to work on something that had been in my mind for while, a concept based on the idea that Charlotte was granted an MLB expansion team in the late '70s/early '80s and this is how they looked in modern times. I wanted to work on the classic Expos/North Stars/Atlanta Flames style of logos, clean, simple, and bold. Of course, this team would've been formed before the NBA's Hornets, meaning the teal revolution might not have been started in the 90s and possibly leading the entire sports world down a different aesthetic path. Either way, here's the logo sheet!



Like I said, the primary is clean and bold, a basic hornet shape in yellow and black. The secondary is the hornet in a roundel with "Charlotte Hornets" spelled around it in the vein of the Astros or Athletics. The throwback logo is from the 1957 Charlotte Hornets, who won the Southern League that year and featured a large hornet's nest on their jerseys. (The image I used to create the hornet's nest as well as excellent reference material comes from this site, my go-to for some fun facts about Charlotte baseball.) The primary shows up on the caps, while the wordmark is a simple rounded font I found fitting for the rounded logo. 



The home and road jerseys are pretty simple. As is Charlotte tradition, the home uses pinstripes, while the road forgoes them in favor of the "bee striping", a pattern that will be seen on every other modern jersey. It consists of a yellow block on the sleeve with three black stripes, just like the primary. The number font is a classic block, though I initially wanted a rounded number font to match everything else. On the sleeve of the home is the secondary, while the primary alone graces the road. The pants striping on the road is yellow/black/yellow, while the socks maintain the three black stripe motif. 



The two alts are essentially color swaps of the road, with some slight adjustments. The home alt is yellow and features a modified secondary for better legibility. This logo and the white striped pants are the only places where yellow touches white outside the MLB logo. The road alt is black with no outlines, mostly forgoing white except on the secondary. 



This is where it gets fun. The all-yellow is a fauxback/throwback/I haven't really decided yet, taking inspiration from the Rays' fauxback (which I adore, by the way). It features an entirely yellow jersey, from the hat to the socks. It's a pullover, and the three-stripe motif runs while here, found on the pants, "belt", sleeves, and collar. The socks this time are yellow with black stirrups, continuing the wild trendy look of the alt. The numbers are Futura Condensed ExtraBold, while the wordmark and NOB are Bauhaus 93. The wordmark features a "dropped" s with a hornet speeding out from it, leaving a white trail behind him. The throwback is a complete reaction of the 1957 SL champions Charlotte Hornets, at least, as close as I could get. It's a bit difficult to determine colors when every picture is in black and white. The Ebbets Field Flannels 1956 replica helped a bit, but I wanted to throw back to the champs, so I needed to do a bit more digging. As far as I could tell, the team (who was a Senators farm team at the time) used navy and red, though the red wasn't what Washington used. The cap was a Tuscan-style C, I believe outlined in white, while the jersey forgoes a wordmark for a massive hornet's nest, plastered right over the heart. The socks were hard to place, but I settled on plain navy. The belt I also assumed was navy, as well as the pinstripes. In what was a bit of a lucky break, it seems the number font matched what I was already using. The #3 is in honor of Harmon Killebrew, a Hall of Fame who played for the Hornets in '56 en route to a Hall of Fame career with the Senators/Twins. 

So, what do you think? C&C Appreciated!