I
n art school, MLB design chief Anne Occi thought she was going to be an illustrator. During her senior year portfolio review, a professor told her flatly, “You’re a designer: Your imagination exceeds your talent.”
After subsequent stops at an ad agency and at Adidas, Occi joined MLB, and she’s been designing the way the league looks on the field for almost 25 years. Whether it’s a new team logo, or branding for special events like the All-Star Game or World Series, Occi is managing a team of eight designers as a league vice president. “The opportunity to build a design team for a league was really unique when I started,” she said. “To have been able to build so much of the game that baseball fans identify with has been gratifying.’’
New team logos can take anywhere from six weeks to 2 1/2 years to develop. Occi said the process behind any design is determining its rationale and translating that into a graphic. The Cincinnati Reds, for example, want next year’s MLB All-Star Game to celebrate the team’s heritage as the first professional baseball team — so the logo drips with nostalgia, including the handlebar-mustached Mr. Redlegs mascot.
“I love the idea that baseball’s visual identity is so well-orchestrated now,” Occi said. “As for what’s really surprised me: As an art school graduate who’s almost 5-1, I spent my entire career as a designer in sports. I really never would have expected that.”
— Terry Lefton
