A Behind the Scenes Look at “Peces Dorados”

On Friday, February 9, the Altoona Curve announced its newest rebranded identity for the 2024 season, “Peces Dorados.” The new brand will serve as the team’s first Copa de la Diversión identity and will be featured five times in the 2024 season. When deciding on an Altoona Curve Copa de la Diversión identity, “Peces Dorados” made the biggest splash! Translating to “Gold Fish,” this new colorful identity pays homage to a fan-favorite mascot in Curve, PA, Al Tuna.

Reid Pohland is the Assistant Director of Creative Services with the Curve and was tasked with the design of our newest team identity. We sat down with Reid to get a behind the scenes look at the creation process for “Peces Dorados.”

Q: What is Copa de la Diversión?

A: Copa de la Diversión, or “Fun Cup,” is a season-long event series that is specifically designed to highlight the culture and values that resonate most with Minor League Baseball teams’ local U.S. Hispanic communities. There are over 90 teams across MiLB that have specialized Copa identities. The initiative’s four key pillars include:

Increase awareness, authentic engagements and attendance with U.S. Hispanics in their local communities.:
Embrace a culture that is passionate about baseball, family and fun by updating the ballpark experience to match the values these fans cherish most.
Create and employ culturally relevant on-field personas that authentically connect teams with their local U.S. Hispanic communities.
Amplify MiLB’s continuous efforts including to diversify the game and business of baseball nationwide.

The original fish drawings that began the logo design for Peces Dorados.

Q: What was the design process of creating the logo like?

A: After looking over many of the existing Copa de la Diversión identities, we knew that we wanted to incorporate elements from Sugar Skulls, which are symbols that have become synonymous with the Mexican celebration of Dia de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead. We took inspiration from our fan-favorite mascot, Al Tuna. This new logo serves as a variation of the fish beyond the wall.

The original logo design was a fish leaping out of a wave that was shaped as a “C”. We moved away from this design in order to give the fish a full-face design, as opposed to just a side profile, to create a more intimidating look. From there, we gave the fish a full body and a baseball bat. This process began back in September of 2022 and took roughly six months to put together.

The first logo designs for Peces Dorados.

Q: Where there other names that were considered before landing on Peces Dorados?

A: Yes, some of the popular names within our staff were Fish Tacos, Train Robbers, Horseshoes, Skyliners, Railroaders, and Ghost Fish. At the end of the day, Gold Fish made the biggest splash!

The first front-facing logo design for Peces Dorados.

Q: Are there any hidden features within the logo for fans to look for?

A: The design is pretty unique to anything we have done in Altoona before, but one small feature would be our “Keystone A” logo being incorporated in the face pattern of the fish.

Q: How important was it to connect with the local Hispanic community throughout this process?

A: It was very important, because we wanted to make sure we accomplished this with a certain level of respect towards our local Hispanic community. Having members of the community come in to view early versions of our name and logo was just one way that we were able to keep them as a focal point throughout this process.

The baseball bat is added to the Peces Dorados design.

Q: How did you determine the color scheme for the brand?

A: We felt that this was an excellent opportunity to create a brand that was expressive with vibrant color schemes that would honor the artwork associated with Hispanic Culture. The yellow is meant to represent the color of a Gold Fish and connect us back to the Pittsburgh Pirates, while the blue represents the water that a fish would reside in. The bright green and magenta colors are used to tie in the overarching themes that Copa represents.

Q: What does it mean for you to finally release this brand?

A: It’s really exciting to finally reveal something that has taken a lot of work and time to create! Last season, I was able to work on our Altoona Pizzas rebrand, and although that will always be special to me because it was my first big uniform design, “Peces Dorados” will always be the first brand that I was the sole designer on, making it very fulfilling to me. It is rewarding to see the fans’ reactions to this exciting new identity that represents much more than just a gold fish.