Courtesy of Josh Fleisher (2)
Graphic designer Jerry Dior long claimed he did not turn to images of Harmon Killebrew for inspiration when he created the now-iconic Major League Baseball logo — the white silhouette of a batter flanked by blocks of navy and deep red — in a single afternoon back in 1968. Similarly, brand consultant Alan Siegel, who oversaw Dior’s work and sketched the NBA logo the next year, adhered for years to the company line that Jerry West was not the player in that organization’s logo.
There are no such protests at Addison Reserve Country Club in Delray Beach, Florida, where director of golf course maintenance — and burgeoning designer? — Josh Fleisher will tell you all about the logo he designed earlier this year for his maintenance team.
Yes, the design is directly inspired by Dior’s MLB logo. Yes, he started the process with ChatGPT. And yes, that is Carlos, a longtime team member who goes by one name, like Prince or Cher, behind the walk mower.
“I wanted something that was simple but also catchy,” says Fleisher, who arrived at Addison Reserve in September 2017 after four seasons as the first assistant superintendent at nearby Frenchman’s Reserve Country Club and was promoted from superintendent to his current position in June 2022. He loaded the photo of Carlos into ChatGPT and, “after several months of different prompts and coaching, this is the closest we could get. I am very happy with it.”
Turning to Dior — and what Major League Baseball has always said is an anonymous player — was a natural fit for Fleisher, a Virginia native who grew up a fan of the star-filled 1990s Seattle Mariners. Ken Griffey, Jr. Randy Johnson. Jay Buhner. Edgar Martinez. Alex Rodriguez. “They were easily the best team to never win a World Series,” Fleisher says. He visited family in the Pacific Northwest and caught a game in the Kingdome before it was demolished in 2000.
Fleisher hasn’t printed the logo on team swag just yet, but he does have some ideas.
“Next round of hats we get, I am planning on using the logo for the team and having our traditional AR logo on the side,” he says, adding that the headwear could serve as a sort of test run. “We do jackets or hoodies every winter, so we will see about (the logo) on those also. … We’ll see how the hats turn out before moving larger.”
How many turf pros have designed their team’s logo? Probably more than one, but Fleisher is certainly part of a very small group. Perhaps a second career awaits him in the nonexistent Florida offseason.
Matt LaWell is Golf Course Industry’s managing editor.
