Take me out to the ballgame

Seattle Mariners

Restaurant, Brewery and Event Hall Branding & Signage

With the MLB All-Star game coming to Seattle in summer 2023, the Seattle Mariners began renovating a well-loved dining and socializing destination adjacent to the stadium — the former Pyramid Alehouse. As part of a master plan to redevelop the entire block, they started with a bar & grill with adjoining brewery and beer garden.

Turnstyle helped the Mariners determine the branding and naming strategy for the whole development, and then developed names for the overall project and several of its constituent parts. This development — now known as The Boxyard — contains Hatback Bar & Grille, the Victory Hall event venue, an expansive outdoor beer garden, and — arguably the most unique and interesting component of the development — the Steelheads Alley brewery that was conceived as an homage to Seattle's eponymous Negro league team.

Client

Seattle Mariners

Disciplines

Strategy,

Identity,

Print,

Environments

Entrance to Steelheads Alley Brewery with people outside under umbrellas on a sunny day.

Steelheads Alley

The Steelheads were a Negro League baseball team that played briefly in Seattle in the 1940s, and the Mariners built this facility as a nod to that heritage. It’s also an homage to under-represented and under-appreciated sports leagues, players and teams of all stripes. While very little documentation of the Seattle Steelheads’ graphic identity persists, the diamond-S ballcap treatment shown here is one of the rare exceptions. Turnstyle’s graphic identity for the brewery drew inspiration from this classic symbol, as well as other typography and imagery from the era.

Historic Steelheads logo
Collage of old newspaper clippings featuring the Steelheads baseball team
Steelheads Alley logo
Collection of three Steelheads Alley logos
Brand style guide showing typography samples for Good Pro font alongside a color palette of cream and orange
Collection of Steelheads coasters with logos
A Steelheads black ball cap sitting on a shelf
Collage of Steelheads swag including a white hoodie and a pint glass
A spread of Steelheads brand guidelines document pages covering identity system, primary and secondary logos, colors and typography
A bartender working behind the bar at Steelheads Alley in Seattle, Washington

Spotlight on Black-Owned Businesses

The Steelheads Alley taproom features beer brewed by Seattle-based, Black-owned Metiér Brewing. Hung on the walls are images and memorabilia related to the Seattle Steelheads Negro league team, and also other local BIPOC teams and players. One wall is covered by a beautiful mural by local artist (and friend of Turnstyle!) Damon Brown.

Collage of images including a large mural on the wall and customers eating and drinking at the Hatback Bar & Grille

Hatback Bar & Grille

The main restaurant at the Boxyard is Hatback Bar & Grille, a sports bar loaded with big-screen TVs and serving wood-fired pizza and traditional pub fare. The name, logo and visual system are inspired by the 80’s-era Mariners, with their signature yellow & blue color palette, plus the backwards hat of legendary Mariner Ken Griffey, Jr.

The entrances to the Steelheads Alley brewer and the Hatback Bar & Grille on a sunny day in Seattle
Hatback Bar & Grille logo on a blue background
A collection of two Hatback Bar & Grille secondary logos on a cream background.
Hatback Bar & Grille color palette of gold, blue, light blue and cream
Brand style guide showing typography samples for Termina and Aktiv Grotesk fonts
Three Hatback Bar & Grille Instagram post mockups featuring a watch party invite, trivia night invite, and an appetizer with a beer
Website design mockup for the Hatback Bar & Grille homepage featuring a picture of their interior dining room.
A spread of Hatback Bar & Grille brand guidelines document pages covering identity system, primary and secondary logos, colors and typography
Four photos of the Hatback Bar & Grille featuring their menu, a cocktail, an entree, and an employee preparing pizza dough
The cover and an interior spread of the Town Hall Seattle Writers Festival 2022 program, "Humble Beginnings Volume 01," featuring author profiles for Oscar Hokeah and A.M. Homes with their respective book covers.

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