Watching the game last night got me thinking about how much design there is and has been in Major League Baseball since the beginning. A lot has changed since the first pitch was thrown in the late 1800′s.

Baseball teams have been wearing uniforms since the beginning of the sport. The New York Knickerbockers were the first baseball team to wear uniforms, taking the field on April 4, 1849 in pants made of blue wool, white flannel shirts and straw hats. I don’t know about you, but doesn’t that sound miserable? Flannel shirts in the middle of the summer?

The practice of wearing a uniform soon spread, and by 1900, all Major League Baseball teams had adopted them. By 1882 most uniforms included stockings, which covered the leg from foot to knee, and were used to differentiate one club from another. The uniforms themselves had different colors and patterns that reflected the different baseball positions. In the late 1880s, the Detroit Wolverines and Washington Nationals of the National League and the Brooklyn Bridegrooms of the American Association were the first to wear striped uniforms.

Early striped patterns developed into long stripes along the length of the uniforms, called “pinstriping”. This was first worn on some major league baseball team’s uniforms in 1907, and the pinstripes were then widened in 1912, so that the crowd could see them more clearly. There were rumors that the Yankees wore pinstripes to make Babe Ruth look thinner. But since the Yankees had already been wearing pinstripes a few years before Ruth played for them in 1920, the legend was found to be a myth. The Yankees’ pinstripes on their home uniforms soon became a team symbol.

From the 1840s to the 1870s, baseball players wore various types of hats, or even no cap at all, since there was no official rule regarding headgear. Examples included full-brimmed straw hats such as boating caps, jockey caps, cycling caps, and flat-topped caps.

The fashion trends of the 1960s had started taking root in baseball. Long hair, facial hair and loud colors were starting to appear on teams uniforms.

Today’s uniforms are little more streamlined and much more comfortable. The double knit polyester material is way better than the flannel the players used to wear. Different players wear their uniforms in different ways. Some players, like Manny Ramirez, wear their uniforms very baggy with the bottoms of their pants almost dragging the ground. And some players, such as Chicago Cubs outfielder, Alfonso Soriano, wear the traditional short pants and high socks. And others where their uniforms more tighter fitting with the bottoms of their pants touching the tops of their shoes.

The design of baseball uniforms have come a very long way since the late 1800′s. Not only in style but in comfort as well. I’m somewhat of a purist when it comes to baseball. I prefer the more traditional uniforms with the high socks.

Photo credits: Wharton Mayor William Chegwidden, John McNab, The Urban Gentleman, New Miami Marlins Jersey. Source: Wikipedia

As a designer, I have to stay inspired. Otherwise, my work will suffer. It’s easy for me to gravitate towards only looking at other website designs to gain inspiration for an upcoming or current project. But there are so many other places that spark ideas that generates new ideas.

For me, Pinterest is an excellent source for me to curate all the things that I find on the web that inspire me. I’m highly inspired by photography. To be more specific, photography of interior design. My wife and I watch a lot of HGTV. Dear Genevieve is probably our favorite show on the network. A lot of the things she describes and principles she uses applies to all design…not just interior design.

I love looking at illustrations. The colors that are used inspire me. Since most of my work is done on the computer using Photoshop, I love seeing how someone did a piece of art by hand. Whether it’s a logo, book cover or a poster. I love it. It inspires me to do more custom illustrations.

I’m inspired by forward thinkers. In my opinion, Steve Jobs was the most forward thinker of present time. I’m currently reading his biography by Walter Isaacson. The things that he was able to pull off with very limited resources is amazing to me.

Dribbble asks the question, “What are you working on?” It’s a community of designers answering that question each day. Web designers, graphic designers, illustrators, icon artists, typographers, logo designers, and other creative types share small snippets that show their work, process, and current projects.

I visit Dribbble often to find new artists. I usually end up on their personal websites and blogs. It’s a great place to get to know others in the world wide design community.

Another great source of inspiration is Designers.MX. Three of my friends from Nashville created this website about a year ago. Users create a 10 song playlist and design the cover for that playlist. It’s another great resource to find other designers. The website is full of amazing design and music that I probably wouldn’t have found otherwise.

I’m inspired by typography and logo design. Since I’m a web designer, I don’t get many opportunities to design logos. There is so much work that goes into a great logo. A logo is more than just the company name typed out in a font. There is a lot of great type on typeverything.com.

What inspires you?
Let us know in the comments section below.

Photo credits:
Wall of Books , Illustration by Rich Gemmell , Steve Jobs photo by Albert Watson , Dribbble t-shirt, Barney Black illustration by Jon Contino

About the site:

We wanted to really focus on showcasing the work. We didn’t want to over do it and make a site that only appealed to our fellow design community. We wanted to focus on our clients. After all, they help us keep the lights on. With the big, easy to see images our work is front and center.

Home Page:

The home page has selected work that you can view from a slideshow or choose to click through using the left and right arrows. And if you are on the iPad, you can flick through the images.

Work:

The work section is categorized by client rather than by type of work. Scout does a lot of different things for each client. So we wanted to show off all that we have done for each particular client. Each client page has the option to share via Twitter or Facebook. Feel free to go through and share our work on your favorite social network.

Who:

This is probably my favorite page of the site. Not surprising since I run a website called BestAboutPages.com. Each Scout peep has their own profile with a list of their favorite things and a way to connect with them via Twitter, Linkedin, Facebook, email etc. Below everyone’s bio, we showcase our office space and our neighborhood located in historic Pepper Place. Below that, we have our most recent Instagrams and photos from Twitter being fed into the site.

Our Mobile Site:

Fun fact: In 2008, for the first time ever, mobile access to the Internet exceeded desktop computer-based access (source: International Telecommunications Union, Oct 2009). Since the birth of the iPhone and other mobile devices, people browse the web in a new way…from their smart phones. We didn’t want to ignore the Mobile web. We wanted to make sure that we took mobile into consideration. When you pull up scoutbrand.com on your iPhone or other smartphones, you will experience our mobile website. We added  selected client list and way to get in touch with us.

Let us know what you think about our new website. Tweet, Facebook, Google+ about it. We’d love to hear your feedback.

After throwing out a lot of ideas, we decided to donate the space to our client, Children’s of Alabama, as they are celebrating their 100th Anniversary, a name change, and the building of a new state-of-the- art hospital that is transforming the southside skyline as we speak. In other words, it was the perfect storm for a campaign bringing more awareness to Children’s and their role in the community for the next 100 years.

If you live in the Birmingham area, I hope you enjoy seeing Scout’s work for Children’s in the Birmingham News, on outdoor, and in local media. You might even notice one of the children looks a little familiar. That would be my niece Bea, who looks a lot like yours truly.

On behalf of Scout, Happy Birthday Children’s!

Simplicity of Design

Christian & Small has close to 50 attorneys with several different practice areas. We designed a website where communicating their expertise is the focus. We organized everything simply and made information readily available and easy to digest, all while keeping the character and integrity of the brand.

Customized WordPress Content Management System

Because Christian & Small has so many attorneys and so much content, we decided that the best fit for them would be a custom tailored WordPress backend. This set up allows designated C&S staff members, with no coding skills to easily add attorneys, edit practice areas and add photos. This ability to edit and add content internally saves money and over time, reduces the total cost of ownership of the website.

We used custom post types to organize the admin as well as create custom meta boxes for special information. This makes adding content easy.

We also added the ability to connect Attorneys to their respective practice areas dynamically, as well as their associated resources. This bridging of content really makes WordPress a true CMS.
Check out the website for yourself: CSAttorneys.com

Greg is always on his iPad and iPhone and wanted a site that would display his content well, no matter what device he was using. We decided to give him the very best and build in automatic device adaptation into the heart of the code. Utilizing the technique called “Responsive Web Design”, no matter if he’s on an iPad in Landscape Mode to an Android or an iPhone in Portrait Mode, Greg’s content and brand is going to put its best foot forward.

Q: Did you really tweak his site on all the various devices and resolutions?
A: Yes.

Q: Doesn’t that take up a lot of time?
A: Yes, it does. But in the long run, it is worth it. Greg will now never have to worry about making a custom mobile site or if things are showing up right on the iPad. We’ve even built in touch swiping into the slide-show. Here at Scout, we want to make the future of good web design practices, a standard reality now.

Check Out The Website: HarpLawLLC.com

Every now and then, a project comes along with a message that so perfectly times with the news of the day that it makes us seem like we know what we are doing. In the past few weeks, economists have been all over the cable news networks saying that US manufacturing is THE key to our continued economic recovery. We agree. Everyone at Scout learned a lot through the making of this short film. We met a lot of talented people all over the country who get up before the sun comes up, pack lunches into personal-sized Igloo coolers and head off to work to make some really cool stuff right here in America. Let’s buy local! Let’s make some noise.

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