 | Wiffle Logos in Words | |
| The Wicked Aces won National Team Logo of the Year; we had to pick the brain of the designer. |
Wiffle Logos: First of all, Joel, congratulations on winning the National Team Logo of the Year Wiffy! Where does this award rank with all of your Wiffle achievements this season: All-Star, WSEM Champion, NWLA Tournament final four?
That's Joel up to bat. Say, "hi." Joel Crozier: Thank you! Hmmm... as proud as I am of this award, I am more proud of how our team stepped up in the playoffs and took our play to the next level. I wish we could have played the championship series; I think we could have given Manchester a run for it despite the general thinking that they would have dispatched us easily. That this gained our team enough recognition to make a NWLA Final Four run is awesome and has to take second. My all-star selection probably comes third, but this is right behind all of them. I love doing all the background stuff that relates to Wiffle and it's nice to get recognition for doing it well.
WL: The Whiteford Wiffleball Association has actually existed for longer than WSEM, so when joining the league this year you guys wanted to keep the 'WWA' abbreviation intact while adding a bit of team identity. Can you take us through the process of ultimately ending up at Whiteford Wicked Aces and the poker/playing cards identity? Were there any other names that almost beat Wicked Aces out?
JC: Haha, yeah it actually took us a while before deciding to make a change... Austin (Bischoff) really loves tradition and there was a lot of good times stored in that name. When the league started putting a little pressure on us, though, I talked to him and we came up with a list of possible names, including the Whiteford Wiffling A's, Walking Anacondas, and Wild Aftershock. We did a poll in our Facebook group and the Aces came out on top. It was my favorite; I liked that it represented our team (multiple dominant pitchers) and also the unpredictability of Wiffleball (cards).
WL: When you were designing the Aces' set did you ever think winning "National Team Logo of the Year" was a possibility... or that it was even a thing?
JC: I knew that the NWLA gave away an award, but the thought never actually crossed my mind!
WL: You went all out on the team's jerseys - league patch on the left sleeve, Aces primary on the right, names and numbers on the back, and (my favorite thing) putting the number inside the club on the front. Was going all out like that a conscious effort to completely dominate WSEM in the vein of "when you look good, you play good"?
JC: Yeah, we spent awhile trying to determine what to do for the front, and when I put the numbers in the club it was like, "That's it." The "all-out" approach wasn't so much an attempt to affect our play; it was more about just having fun with it. We also hoped that it would inspire other teams to step up their jerseys, which would improve our league's image.
WL: You also went the extra mile getting hats made with their own variant of the club and WWA design. Were those something your guys asked for, or just something you wanted to do to see this project all the way through?
JC: The hats were something that I personally wanted, so I asked around for interest and we had enough guys that wanted one to make it worthwhile.
WL: The infamous whooping crane. This thing showed up once or twice last offseason on the WSEM site and you guys hated it, but can you appreciate it a bit now, since without it you likely wouldn't have gone to the lengths to win this Wiffy?
JC: Hahahaha, yeah Austin and I did not like the crane much... but the positive side was that it kind of pushed us towards getting a new identity, which was definitely a good thing looking back. The Whiteford Wiffleball Association is not a very good team name, haha.
WL: Something tells me this Wicked Aces look will be sticking around and since the the NWLA tends not to double up on these types of Wiffy picks, what are the next Wiffys you Aces have in your sites for the 2013 season?
JC: Well, I think if Austin can turn in another stellar year with the rule changes then he might find himself in consideration for pitcher of the year. I would like to think that Poolside Park might go on the radar for Field of the Year; we are planning several improvements for next season. Obviously, it would be awesome to win the NWLA Large Team Championship, but that is a very tall order indeed.
Thanks to Joel for taking the time to answer some questions, and congratulations again on the Wiffy! Good luck on following it up with future awards in 2013. Can you imagine if 'Walking Anacondas' had won their poll? Safe bet this interview would still have been called for in that case!
That's Joel up to bat. Say, "hi." Joel Crozier: Thank you! Hmmm... as proud as I am of this award, I am more proud of how our team stepped up in the playoffs and took our play to the next level. I wish we could have played the championship series; I think we could have given Manchester a run for it despite the general thinking that they would have dispatched us easily. That this gained our team enough recognition to make a NWLA Final Four run is awesome and has to take second. My all-star selection probably comes third, but this is right behind all of them. I love doing all the background stuff that relates to Wiffle and it's nice to get recognition for doing it well.
WL: The Whiteford Wiffleball Association has actually existed for longer than WSEM, so when joining the league this year you guys wanted to keep the 'WWA' abbreviation intact while adding a bit of team identity. Can you take us through the process of ultimately ending up at Whiteford Wicked Aces and the poker/playing cards identity? Were there any other names that almost beat Wicked Aces out?
JC: Haha, yeah it actually took us a while before deciding to make a change... Austin (Bischoff) really loves tradition and there was a lot of good times stored in that name. When the league started putting a little pressure on us, though, I talked to him and we came up with a list of possible names, including the Whiteford Wiffling A's, Walking Anacondas, and Wild Aftershock. We did a poll in our Facebook group and the Aces came out on top. It was my favorite; I liked that it represented our team (multiple dominant pitchers) and also the unpredictability of Wiffleball (cards).
WL: When you were designing the Aces' set did you ever think winning "National Team Logo of the Year" was a possibility... or that it was even a thing?
JC: I knew that the NWLA gave away an award, but the thought never actually crossed my mind!
WL: You went all out on the team's jerseys - league patch on the left sleeve, Aces primary on the right, names and numbers on the back, and (my favorite thing) putting the number inside the club on the front. Was going all out like that a conscious effort to completely dominate WSEM in the vein of "when you look good, you play good"?
JC: Yeah, we spent awhile trying to determine what to do for the front, and when I put the numbers in the club it was like, "That's it." The "all-out" approach wasn't so much an attempt to affect our play; it was more about just having fun with it. We also hoped that it would inspire other teams to step up their jerseys, which would improve our league's image.WL: You also went the extra mile getting hats made with their own variant of the club and WWA design. Were those something your guys asked for, or just something you wanted to do to see this project all the way through?
JC: The hats were something that I personally wanted, so I asked around for interest and we had enough guys that wanted one to make it worthwhile.
WL: The infamous whooping crane. This thing showed up once or twice last offseason on the WSEM site and you guys hated it, but can you appreciate it a bit now, since without it you likely wouldn't have gone to the lengths to win this Wiffy?
JC: Hahahaha, yeah Austin and I did not like the crane much... but the positive side was that it kind of pushed us towards getting a new identity, which was definitely a good thing looking back. The Whiteford Wiffleball Association is not a very good team name, haha.
WL: Something tells me this Wicked Aces look will be sticking around and since the the NWLA tends not to double up on these types of Wiffy picks, what are the next Wiffys you Aces have in your sites for the 2013 season?
JC: Well, I think if Austin can turn in another stellar year with the rule changes then he might find himself in consideration for pitcher of the year. I would like to think that Poolside Park might go on the radar for Field of the Year; we are planning several improvements for next season. Obviously, it would be awesome to win the NWLA Large Team Championship, but that is a very tall order indeed.
Thanks to Joel for taking the time to answer some questions, and congratulations again on the Wiffy! Good luck on following it up with future awards in 2013. Can you imagine if 'Walking Anacondas' had won their poll? Safe bet this interview would still have been called for in that case!
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