How the Women’s Pro Baseball League designed itself from the ground up

Major League Baseball is facing a new competitor in the form of the Women's Pro Baseball League (WPBL), which is bringing women into professional baseball for the first time in 72 years. The WPBL launched its inaugural season on August 1st, following the unveiling of its first four teams named after pioneering women. These teams include the San Francisco Firebells, New York Heights, Los Angeles Queens, and Boston Hunters.

WPBL's chief marketing officer, Kelly Gianopoulos, explains that the league's team identities aim to represent something larger than baseball, emphasizing courage, resilience, and challenging expectations.

The WPBL's founders, Justine Siegal and Keith Stein, took a unique approach to the league's establishment by adopting a single ownership model. This decision provides the organizers with creative control over all aspects of the league, from market prioritization to initial naming conventions, uniform design, and overall brand identity. The decision to name the teams after pioneering women received some initial pushback but ultimately proved to be a successful strategy, inspiring people and paying homage to great icons.

To create the teams' unique identities, the WPBL enlisted the Canadian advertising agency Arrivals + Departures. The agency's creative director, Jeff MacEachern, acknowledges that designing the teams' visual identity was a monumental task but praised the league's innovative naming convention. Each team's visual identity was inspired by the colors of other sports teams in their respective cities, as well as baseball traditions and local aesthetics.

This resulted in distinct designs for each team, showcasing modern styles while paying tribute to their namesakes.