The Rockford IceHogs and Rockford Area Arts Council are proud to bring back the Local Artists Hat Series, presented by BMO, for an encore after a very successful debut last season.

A call to local artists went out over the summer seeking unique designs for an IceHogs hat for three giveaway games for the 2024-25 season. Over 30 local artists submitted hat designs this year and a selection committee made up of IceHogs and Rockford Area Arts Council staff, as well as local artists, has selected the three winning artists and their designs for this season’s hat series: Abigail Pixler, Kayo Martinez, and Chris Geebus. Each artist will have their hat produced and handed out to the first 1,500 fans at a select IceHogs game.

Kayo Martinez is a self-taught artist who grew up in Rockford. Starting from childhood, he began drawing by copying illustrations from comic books, cartoon shows and skate magazines. In his twenties he began dabbling with acrylic paints on canvas as well as other mediums like spray paint and mural work. He went on to get his degree in Graphic Design and has more recently started dabbling in the world of 3D sculpting with most of his artistic time dedicated to creating his own designer toys. Professionally, he works as a freelancer, relying on social media and word-of-mouth to land freelance jobs.

For his hat design, Kayo decided to deconstruct Hammy into a typography font style by taking elements from the current IceHogs logo and Hammy to spell out IceHogs. As fans look deeper at the design, they should be able to start picking out familiar pieces in each letter to see various parts of Hammy and the IceHogs logo hidden in plain sight.

“What an amazing feeling to be able to say I got to design a piece for Rockford IceHogs fans to wear”, said Kayo. “I am so grateful and excited for this opportunity, and I appreciate everyone involved.”

The first 1,500 fans will receive Kayo’s designed hat on Saturday, March 8 on Salute to the Arts Night.

Chris Geebus is also a self-taught artist who grew up in Rockford surrounded by a very creative family, including his artistic parents and grandmother who herself was a self-taught artist. Chris grew into a professional artist over many years of trial and error, starting by creating pieces live at local fairs and festivals. He later began to curate his own music and art shows in Rockford and soon after self-published his own comic books and began traveling the country combining his love for comics, artwork, and music at various conventions. It all led to his eventual work with murals. Chris now has multiple published comic books, as well as murals that can be found in places like Target and Goodwill.

His hat design was inspired by an old folktale he heard about Rockford when he was young. As the tale went, before the bridge over the Rock River was built, they used to have to cross by using rope-pulled ferry boats. One year the winter weather came early so the farmers that needed to cross were rushing to get their livestock across before the river froze. During that process, a pig farmer’s ferry ride didn’t go as planned and his whole ferry of hogs tipped over. The hogs that didn’t make shore were found frozen. This was the event that led to the first bridge in Rockford being built.

“So, all I could picture in my head [after hearing that tale] were ice cube hogs”, said Chris. “I’m extremely proud to be a part of this series. It has been a bucket list objective of mine to leave something at home for my family to be proud of.”

The first 1,500 fans will receive Chris’s folktale-inspired hat on Friday, April 18, the final home game of the IceHogs 2024-25 regular season.