The Rocket City Trash Pandas are a Double-A affiliate of the Los Angeles Angels in the Southern League, based in Madison, Alabama. The team unveiled its space raccoon-themed logos on October 27, 2018, at a public celebration in Madison’s Dublin Park, ahead of the club’s planned 2020 debut season.[1]
Design and History
The logos were designed by Casey White and Jason Klein of Brandiose, a San Diego-based firm known for creating minor league baseball identities.[2] The primary logo features a raccoon in an engineered rocket made out of a trash can.[2] According to Klein, the primary logo tells “the story of a raccoon with ingenuity cobbling together all the elements he needs to launch a trash can into outer space.”[1]
The team selected six logos in total, including an extraterrestrial raccoon head cap logo, “RC” (Rocket City) marks, and patriotic emblems.[3] An alternate logo and a uniform patch portray a triumphant Trash Panda in space carrying the American flag.[1] The full suite of logos has a patriotic theme, tying the raccoon to the aerospace industry that is a large aspect of northern Alabama’s economy and culture.[4]
The “Rocket City” moniker references the longstanding nickname for Huntsville, Alabama, located just northeast of Madison. Huntsville is home to NASA’s George C. Marshall Flight Center and Cummings Research Park, making it a hub of aerospace and defense industry research and development.[1] “Trash Pandas” is a slang term for raccoons, popularized in the film Guardians of the Galaxy 2.[1]
The team name was selected through a three-phase “Name the Team” contest, with “Trash Pandas” dominating the competition in every demographic category.[1] The name and logo generated significant attention, with merchandise requests arriving from 30 countries around the world shortly after the unveiling.[5]
Meaning and Symbolism
The identity combines the region’s aerospace heritage with the raccoon’s scrappy character. Klein described the narrative: “A trash panda in Rocket City is going to figure out how to get a trash can launched into outer space. And when he gets there, he plants his flag on a planet. That’s pretty much the narrative.”[1] The raccoon uses a calculator as a control panel and a trash can lid for a helmet.[1]
Klein noted that such team names “represent an underdog mentality… They’re punching above their weight class.”[1]
Typography and Design
The team’s official colors are described as “Space Black, Rocket Red, Sky Blue and Trashcan Gray,” paying homage to the region’s space heritage.[6] The color scheme was confirmed in the team’s press release at the logo unveiling.[5]
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