Awesome Sports Logos Blog

Nothing Normal About the CornBelters and That's Awesome

The Normal CornBelters are a baseball team in the independent Frontier League. An independent, or, "indy" league, is an unaffiliated form of minor league baseball not regular by Major League Baseball's governing body. Thus, players on these teams are free agents and not tied to any MLB parent club.

The CornBelters were founded in 2009 and play their games in Normal, Illinois at their park, creatively named, The Corn Crib.

A fan vote determined the team's nickname. CornBelters, a play on the Illinois location in the Corn Belt and "belt," a term for a hard hit ball, beat out three other finalists: Nutz, NightHawks, and Coal Bears.

The logo for Normal is anything but, and that's part of why I like it.

First and foremost, while the name was determined by a fan vote, it does have cultural significance due to the location as previously mentioned. That remains an important element to help tie a logo together for me.

My favorite part of the logo is the simple detail of the gray hairs atop the humanized cob of corn. Those hairs are similar to the string like silk in the husk, so they aren't just all out of place. The whole shape of the corn creates a personified look which is endearing and helps connect to listeners.

Simple detail remains a part of this logo in many ways. The black shadow in between each corn kernel as well as the shading of the husk help give the image some creative life. The angling of the eyebrows adds to its schtick as a humorously old cob of corn and the green eyes blend in nicely with the color scheme.

One of the neatest elements is the font of "CornBelters." The font of "Normal" is appropriately normal, but look at its attached nickname. You could say that the lettering has a halloween style to it, ridged and cut around the letters. I don't think great logos require such intricacy, but it certainly adds to its appeal.

The color scheme is obvious and appropriate, unless they wanted to go for that crazy-colored corn that resembles fallen leaves from an autumn tree. I'm glad they didn't.

Overall, I like this logo because it has personality. It makes you laugh. I mean, how many teams opt for a graying man--let alone, cob of corn--to represent their team? This sports logo fits the personality of independent league baseball. Even more so than minor league hijinks, the independent league goes full throttle to create a buzz, generate a smile, or garner some attention. That is so much more than just a logo, but a good one like this doesn't hurt.

Speaking of baseball, we get asked all of the time if our baseball sports logos are real? That’s the ultimate compliment to our design team. Many do look like independent league logos. Check out the Idaho Taters, The Decorah Trolls, The Boca Raton Cougars, Houston Gushers or the Boston Accents. You can get them all as part of our t-shirt of the month club. Awesome savings plus free shipping.You’ll feel like a big time VIP every month when your new super soft t-shirt arrives in the mail.

Keep being awesome. We can’t wait for baseball season!

Jared Sandler

Awesome Sports Logos Columnist

Posted in independent league baseball by Gavin on 2/26/2015 at 9:51:34 pm.

Awesome Sports Logos Blog

Nothing Normal About the CornBelters and That's Awesome

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