Long before music and design (and almost everything else), there was ... baseball.

In the eighties it was our hometown pride and joy - The Bend Bucks - who would later become the Portland Rockies. The Bucks were a single A farm club for the (now) Anaheim Angels. We'd love to hit the games with Dad and grab autographs from the retired major leaguers who were acting coaches for the team. $5 tickets and cheap popcorn didn't hurt either.

Between Bucks games, the best movie ever created, our own little league games (where I told all my teammates that I was related to this guy), watching the Braves (lose) every waking moment on TBS and our unhealthy addiction to baseball cards (wish we still had this), there was time for little else. In 1989, our family moved to Sacramento and our love of the game got even stronger - thanks to the Giants and these guys across the bay. RIP Candlestick Park.

Fast forward 25 years later. After visiting the beautiful new Ebbets Field Flannels storefront in Seattle a few months back, we came up with a crazy idea to fuse a few of our old passions into one: Baseball, art and ... people. People who are making really cool things in the world of baseball - and beyond. We even commissioned our Humble Beast bros in Portland to create some knickerbocker-era music to bring it all together. After coming up with a dream team list (and it was hard to stop at 6), we had our roster.

Enter: Invisible Creature Farm League.

We've partnered with Ebbets Field Flannels from Seattle, Mitchell Bat Co. from Nashville, Leather Head Sports from New Jersey, Oxford Pennant from New York, Curtis Clark Woodworks (or, Dad) from California and the uber-talented and undisputed aesthetic king of baseball himself, Jon Contino from New York to bring you IC inspired game gear for your closet, wall, shelf, desk ... and even the field.

Have a look around our rookie season and click some stuff. A HUGE thanks to all of our collaborators for an amazing experience. We hope you enjoy ...

US folks: Place your holiday orders by Wednesday, December 18th to insure delivery before Christmas. We won't be shipping between Dec. 19th-January 6th.

We are excited to announce the launch of a fun new project we just finished up with the kind folks at Deutsch NY. Deutsch commissioned IC to create 12 unique character toy designs based on the classic song "The Twelve Days Of Christmas" for PNC's infamous annual PNC Christmas Price Index. Beyond the task of creating 12 original characters based on the song, we also designed multiple interchangeable parts for each character - over 100 pieces in total. Partridge In A Pear Tree, Turtledove, French Hen, Calling Birds, Golden Rings, Geese-a-Laying, Swans-a-Swimming, Maids-a-Milking, Ladies Dancing, Lords-a-Leaping, Pipers Piping and Drummers Drumming.

The PNC Christmas Price Index site is loads of fun and allows you to create your own toy by selecting various heads, legs, arms, bodies and accessories. When you are done creating your character, PNC calculates the total cost of what your selection would be in 2013, as well as how much it has gone up or down since 2012.

But the coolest part? For 12 days, PNC is selecting 24 lucky winners per day to receive a 3D-printed gift in time for the holidays! Using Makerbot desktop printers, winners will be chosen randomly and selected each day. The more gifts you build, the more chances you have to win. Read more about that here.

We had so much fun with this project, now it's your turn!

More about PNC Bank's Christmas Price Index:

The PNC Christmas Price Index® shows the current cost for one set of each of the gifts given in the song “The Twelve Days of Christmas.”

It began 30 years ago when the chief economist at PNC Bank decided to figure out how much it would cost to buy each of the gifts. Little did he know, he was starting a holiday tradition that continues to this day.

The PNC Christmas Price Index® is similar to the Consumer Price Index, which measures changes in prices of goods and services like housing, food, clothing, transportation and more that reflect the spending habits of the average American.

The goods and services in the PNC Christmas Price Index® are far more whimsical. And most years, the price changes closely mirror those in the Consumer Price Index. It’s a fun way to measure consumer spending and trends in the economy. So even if “pipers piping” or “geese-a-laying” didn’t make your gift list, you can still learn a lot by checking out how their prices have gone up and down over the years.

Deutsch Credits:

Partner/ Chief Creative Officer: Kerry Keenan SVP, Group Creative Director: Jeremy Bernstein Senior Copywriter: Matt Moyer VP, Creative Director: Qian Qian EVP/Director of Integrated Production:  Joe Calabrese SVP/Director of Digital Production: Suzanne Molinaro VP/Executive Digital Producer: Jennifer McBride Senior Art Producer: Hillary Jackson Producer: Jillian Cornette

Production Companies:

MediaMonks (creative digital production) Invisible Creature (toy design & packaging) 3D Printer Experience (3D printing the toys) ShootersNYC (intro/outro video production) Director/DP: Craig Needleman Executive Producer: Jim Huie Senior Editor: Anthony Marinelli Account Director: Amy Sweeney

To commemorate Demon Hunter's ten years, we've created a silkscreen poster featuring imagery from all six studio albums. This is a limited pressing of 100, signed by Ryan Clark (me), and is available in the store now. Order by December 20th for holiday arrival! (orders for this poster do NOT include IC Holiday Giveaway print)

As we celebrate IC's 6 year anniversary, we are thankful for 2012 (our bestest year yet!) and the amazing projects we've had the pleasure of working on. So we thought we'd spread the joy a little by creating "The Lookout", a sequel (of sorts) to 2010's Snowballer print. With every purchase over $25, we'll be sending out a signed 11" x 14" giclee print until December 20th, which also happens to be our last day of shipping before Christmas.

Special note - International orders: Due to shipping costs, we are only able to send "The Lookout" with poster and print orders. Offer doesn't apply to T-shirt or toy orders. Sorry!

We'll have the set of 2 available to purchase after the holidays. Go in peace!

Mark your calendars. This Friday from 6AM-Midnight PST. Use code BLKFRI at checkout.

This past week, my wife and I had the pleasure of celebrating our 10 year anniversary in the land of the rising sun. We visited Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka, did lots of shopping, lots of walking, took lots of trains, drank a lot of coffee, learned the correct way to say "thank you," and got tattooed. This was also Leroy's first trip back to his birthplace.

Wow, we're 5. Officially out of the toddler bed but still able to pee in the yard. Not bad. It's been an incredible journey thus far ... thanks to our amazing clients and you (of course). To celebrate the holidays as well as our half-decade, we're offering free shipping on all US orders through December as well as a new 5" x 5" mini-print (with any Leroy C. figure purchase) to hang next to the awkward family photo of that one acquaintance from high school that still sends you Christmas cards. You know the one I'm talking about.

Thank you so much. And seriously, we can't wait to see what happens in the next five ...

Ahhhh, our favorite time of year is back. The two Frank's (Sinatra & Capra), Yuletide logs, eggnogs, and Lord Of The Rings DVD extras in our pajamas. And of course, the great seasonal goodies at Target. We were lucky enough to work on two fun stocking stuffers this Holiday season. Last year, the LEGO Build A Bullseye set was such a hit, we were asked to come back for round two. And to make the kids (and us) even more ecstatic, you can create a polar bear and snowman in addition to Bullseye dog. It all folds up into a gift-able size for that special someone. Sequels are supposed to be better, right?

And the gifts keep coming ... We were also asked to design and illustrate a super-fun (and addicting) interactive game featuring our favorite pooch. The big idea: Can you pat the dogs as quickly as they light up without losing your cool? Oh, and each level gets more and more insane as you continue to play. Lights, barking, action. Find them both in-store or online now.

Art direction: Brian Holt, Rob Weaver and Ted Halbur. Once again, extra special thanks to the team at Target.