Death of the Modern Logo

When I was younger, I was a huge sports fan. I played sports, of course, but the creative side of me also did stuff that maybe the other kids weren’t doing. I remember using a geography book to find out 20 or so cities that I could use to create my very own basketball league. Of course, I drew every single logo and mapped them to their respective cities. So it’s no wonder that I was a huge fan of whenever a brand new logo would be revealed for a team or the All-Star game. I love that.

When taken by itself, I’m a fan of this year’s Super Bowl logo. I mean, look at it. It’s pretty nifty.

The only thing is… I said “while taken by itself.” The issue isn’t the logo itself, but rather, the modern branding of what exactly a Super Bowl logo should be. I’m a child of the 90s - when graphic design reaching brand new heights. Teams were experimenting with crazy logos very different from their traditional ones (see Detroit Pistons, Philadelphia Eagles, Milwaukee Brewers, etc.) and color schemes were going nuts (notice how many teams were experimenting with the color teal.

This lasted for a bit until quite recently where sports leagues then opted to return to tradition. The Philadelphia 76ers ditched their black uniforms to return to their traditional simple red, white, and blue logo. The same went for the Brewers and Pistons. Only here’s the thing. The same went for logos that represented events, like All-Star Games and playoff-related events. This includes the Super Bowl.

Take a look at the designs below.

In 2011, Super Bowl XLV first created the logo that would be set the format for what these would look like for the following 14 (and counting) years. There’s no longer a creativity that gives a specific year character. Now, the logo is just “the” Super Bowl logo.

This isn’t just for American football. Take a look at the NBA All-Star Game logos.

As you can see, now, these events are templates that lack any sort of creativity. Looking at the NBA ones, this is unfortunate, because past logos had the personality that allowed someone to look at the logo and understand where the game was taking place. It was all conveyed within the logo (especially during the 1990s).

Will this change? I really don’t know. I think that templatizing events makes things easy, but it is a bit of a shame. My hope is that there may be another shift, like the one from the 90s, that sends this back to the other direction and allows for the creativity that may not be as safe, but is sure, much more fun.

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Hi, I’m Jon, a UX and Product Designer from Brooklyn, New York. I write the Design Breadcrumbs newsletter to express my own thoughts on the design world, freelancing, and career advancement. Subscribe to get this news delivered to your inbox every week.