Scott McCarthy objects to a bat that fails to conform to Express’ color scheme.
After some confusion arose about which uniforms the 20-Minutemen will be sporting this weekend, we decided to sit down with Express Art Director Scott McCarthy to talk about the origin of Timekiller, the 20-MM logo.
With a name like 20-Minutemen, what was the design process in coming up with a clock? The “minutemen” mascot/logo is relatively popular in sports, so why did you move away from that?
We definitely wanted to come up with something unique, and the typical minuteman logo is pretty tired. Plus, I have a bit of an aversion to the minuteman, since it is the logo of UMass, and back when I went to school in Boston, those students would infiltrate the Boston bars on the weekends. They were jerks. They’d start fights. They’d woo our women with their thick Boston accents. We called them Massholes. And let’s be honest: guy in a hat on a horse? Pretty weak. Also, we also wanted no association with the Tea Party movement. But all in all, it was what we came up with in the five minutes after Holly’s “I have five minutes to order T-shirts” ultimatum.
In addition to sporting a rather obvious “sun-like” appearance, Timekiller also seems to have the worst teeth of any mascot in history. What is the meaning of this?
Well, I really wanted to capture the “just rolled out of bed and didn’t floss or brush or shower” look. Along with the sun, I think it really captures the essence of rolling out of bed hungover early on a Saturday morning to stand in an outfield surrounded by bugs.
Was there every any discussion of making the logo (ahem) cyan?
I don’t recall.
If there ever were to be a personification of the logo, what kind of costume do you think it would be?
Probably a man with a revolutionary hat on a horse, carrying an alarm clock instead of a musket, and throwing out Express editions. His horse would have a thick cyan mane and would be named “Lightning.”
Of all the MMSL logos, where would you rank Timekiller?
He’s up there with the best of them. Do other teams even have logos?
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