As we anticipate the upcoming Super Bowl XLIX matchup between the New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks, we can take a moment to debate the merits of the current, standardized Super Bowl logo. Or, better yet, we can celebrate the rich aesthetic heritage that helped elevate the event to the unofficial American holiday that it is today.
Under the leadership of visionary creative director David Boss, the artwork that was commissioned to help sell and celebrate the Super Bowl broke new ground. The NFL’s commitment to art, branding, and illustration at this time helped solidify the Super Bowl as the “biggest one-day sporting event on the face the earth.”
I remember seeing some of this original art at the NFL’s (now shuttered) Los Angeles offices in the early 2000s and remembering how influential it was in developing my own sensibilities about what a big sports event should look like.
Unique and powerful, each logo and illustration makes a brash statement. They are full of color and highly evocative of the local imagery surrounding the big game. Boss and the NFL commissioned top talent to help amplify the Super Bowl brand in those days. The artwork for Super Bowl XVII was done by legendary illustrator Charles White III (who I had the pleasure of visiting at his Venice Beach, California studio some years ago.) His airbrushed art screams late 1970s California cool, a singular moment in time—created at the epicenter of American popular culture, when commercial illustration was at its peak.
Vibrant Super Bowl logos and posters continued to be produced in the years following Boss’ retirement from the League in 1990, most notably during the tenure of his successor, Brad Jansen. It’s somewhat hard to imagine, but there was a time that the Super Bowl needed selling.
The methods by which design and illustration are created have, of course, evolved since then. Perhaps inevitably, the warmth and evidence of human hand and mind behind each of these highly crafted pieces of art has given way to something slicker and far more corporate, safer, more bland. There is no sense of time or place conveyed in the standardized Super Bowl logo. Time will tell if the Seahawks’ back-to-back appearances in the big game coagulate in our collective minds as one amorphous visual memory.
Is it even possible for any imagery to stand out in an era in which consumers are bombarded by an unceasing parade of visual impressions? There is, after all, a huge segment of the Super Bowl audience that only pays attention to the commercials. This has, over the course of the past few decades, become an intrinsically critical piece of the Super Bowl experience for many of us.
Once upon a time the Cowboys played the Steelers in the Super Bowl, smack in the middle of America’s bicentennial celebration. The official program and poster art reflect this very individual moment in American history. Super Bowl XXI was played at Pasadena’s Rose Bowl in January of 1987—in fact, the official logo contained the image of a rose (the Giants defeated the Denver Broncos.) The passage of time undoubtedly helps bind the official look of each Super Bowl game to the events that took place on the field. The character, impact, and quality of the artwork attached to the Super Bowls of this era continue to resonate today.
The rest of the Major Leagues began their slow march toward a more colorful world the following season when the Chicago White Sox adopted powder blue road uniforms. Starting in 1970, the switch from flannel to double-knit material helped usher in a vivid technicolor era in MLB. By 1973 every Major League club was wearing polyester—the Expos, Royals, and Yankees were the last holdouts. The 1971 Baltimore Orioles saw action in bright orange jerseys and pants, Atlanta started wearing blue road jerseys in 1972, and San Diego wore yellow/gold uniforms both at home and on the road the same season. The revolution reached its zenith in 1975 when Houston introduced their rainbow uniforms. 25 of the 30 MLB clubs have an alternate colored uniform as part of their ensemble in 2014.
Boasting aside, the really important thing about the Giants’ 1906 uniforms is the fact that these were the first jerseys in MLB history that did not have collars, a look that various news articles cited as looking like “pajamas.” (Just imagine their opinions on the baggy look of today.)
Just as the charm became the basis for the White Sox’ sleeve patch, it also served as the foundation for the club’s official logo for the next quarter century. The charm design was featured on invitations to the raising of the championship flag on May 14, 1907. (The purple and gold flag was raised with appropriate pomp and circumstance, in the middle of a driving rain. In what could only be described as a truly bad omen, the flagpole literally snapped in half before the pennant could be completely raised, accompanied by what was described as “a loud snap.” Plan B went into effect as the flag was then “mounted over one of the liquor stores in right-center.”)
Finally, in 1984, the Baltimore Orioles decided to combine two noteworthy events into one celebratory sleeve patch. Their World Series victory of the previous season was featured, along with a nod to the club’s 30th anniversary. This would mark the last time that a defending champion would acknowledge their bragging rights on their uniforms for another 20 years.
The Cubs, en route to winning the first of their back-to-back World Series championships, opted to wear special uniforms for Game 1 of the World Series at home against the Detroit Tigers. They featured pinstripes—a World Series first—and, even more noteworthy, they were gray. For a home game. Against a road team with similarly gray uniforms.
The first official logo for the World Series was created for the 1978 edition, part of a major marketing push in connection with the 75th anniversary celebration of the Fall Classic. The logo was utilized on game tickets and in the official program, and was incorporated into a range of souvenirs. The “75th” was changed to “76th” the following year and was then replaced by an entirely new logo, which was used from 1980-86.