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.

The second hat in this year’s series, designed by Rockford native Mario Kayo Martinez, will be handed out to the first 1,500 fans to the BMO Center Saturday Night for the IceHogs 7 p.m. game against the Texas Stars!

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.”

Kayo will be set up on the concourse Saturday night prior to the game to visit with fans and sign hats. You can also visit the Rockford Area Arts Council table as we pay tribute to Rockford’s robust art scene on “Salute to the Arts Night.”

The Local Artists Hat Series is presented by BMO with media partners WTVO/WQRF and B103.