By Phil Hecken
The moment you’ve all been waiting here has finally arrived — the Uni Watch Super Bowl XLVIII Logo Contest!
When I announced this contest last Sunday, I honestly thought I might get about 15 entries — well, 30 of you fine folks submitted and we’re about to take a look at each one individually — if you didn’t start the “slideshow” that serves as the splash photo, do so now — it’ll whet your whistle for what you’re about to see. And what you’re about to see is, quite frankly, most impressive.
Each of the entries was original, and several themes emerged — a torch (or the Statue of Liberty), the NYC skyline, snow/ice, colors/themes of the various New York/New Jersey teams (sometimes in several sports) — and riffs on all those. Great use of colors, iconography, typography all! Really, just outstanding. Most entrants provided a brief (as I had requested) explanation of their logo, but a few let their work speak for itself.
We’re going to look at all the entries today, and following the entries, there will be a poll. You’ll be asked to select up to FIVE submissions to move on to the finals. The poll will remain open all week and then the top 5 vote getters will move on to the finals (with one last round of voting). Huge thanks as always go to James T. Huening for setting up the poll.
I want to thank each and every participant for their efforts, and wish them all good luck. Readers, aside from voting, lets hear your thoughts as well — what was great (or not so great), what really stood out, etc. Lobby for a favorite if you like. But whatever you do, remember the efforts of each and every submitter and thank them for their logo. If you want to give a creative critique, I’m sure they’d love to hear it, but lets all please be civil. (Yes, a few submitters made *mistakes*, like the wrong day, the wrong month, even the wrong year, or a few too many Roman numerals. If you want to “deduct points” for that in your voting, fine. But everyone deserves praise for their efforts.) OK? OK!
And now…in alphabetical order, here are your Super Bowl XLVIII Logo Contest entries (with voting to follow immediately after the reveal). Click on each image to view full-size:
The NFL had a good idea when they decided that the stadium in which the game is to be played should be included in the logo. For that reason, I included the facade of MetLife Stadium in the logo.
Background shape is birds eye view of Metlife stadium. Toyed with placing football atop empire state building to resemble Lombardi trophy, but decided against it.
Conceptually I wanted the design to leap out as New York. First I placed Lady Liberty carrying a football on the Lombardi trophy pedestal.Then the logo was wrapped in an outline to echo the landmark Chrysler building and finished with New York appropriate colors and a snow filled skyline.
My logo concept has a stylized Meadowlands Stadium in the stadium tenants’ colors representing East Rutherford with “XLV” rendered as a generic suspension bridge connecting NJ and NY and “III” rendered as a skyline in the colors of NYC flag.
I took an element from all of the NY/NJ teams. Grey triangle (Knicks), Crest outline (Rangers), I stretched out the font of the Nets, NY logo (Yankees), Reworked less devilish NJ logo (Devils), City outline (Mets), Jets green, Giants blue and 4 orange stripes (Islanders).
I incorporated both Giants and Jets colors. The top part was inspired by NYC subway/street signs. The blue shape behind the XLVIII mimics MetLife Stadium and the grid inside the shape mimics NYC’s gridded streets.
Focus away from the winter theme and towards the city/venue… This is an interpretation of the Radio City Music Hall facade and MetLife Stadium logo. The ‘Super Bowl’ call out was created to feel like the NYC-Subway signs and removed any green to keep the more common red, white, & blue.
This depicts a stylized GW Bridge representing the connection of both locales with field hashmarks spanning the bridge (with red/blue snowflakes…AFC/NFC thingy) and an football inspired apple at the top in honor of NYC. I went with winter-esque colors for the feel for wintertime football!!
This logo pays homage to the first game in cold weather with the roman numeral x doubling as a snow flake. It offers hints to NY with the i as the Empire State Building and “Gotham” typography used throughout. Stars fit into the skyline, and represent the NFC and AFC.
Super-retro, minimalist design. My idea was to create something that would have been minimalist in a “futuristic” manner in the late-middle decades of the previous century. New York is going to have enough ‘hoop-la’, the logo does not need to be “in-your-face”.
[No Description]
[No Description]
My rough concept, as you can see execution is not my thing. I decided to use red as reference to the Big Apple without actually using an apple.
My design features the arm and torch of the Statue of Liberty with the flame of the torch replaced with a football.
The letters (in Broadway font) denote the last Super Bowl won by the Giants and Jets in the team colors. The green line above represents the GW Bridge, the blue lines below the Holland and Lincoln Tunnels that link NYC to NJ. Art deco font for the time/date/place.
I got no skills, man. Forgive the crudeness of the drawing. I cheated: it’s a variation on the NFL standard logo, but I think in more skilled hands, it could look pretty snappy. The toque and scarf are Giants colors; I had a limited array of markers in my desk at work.
[No Description]
For my design, I tried to make a realistic cross between between the current Super Bowl logo model and the MetLife Stadium logo.
My entry started as a riff on the statue of liberty giving the signal for a touchdown. But when I added rearranged elements from the metlife stadium logo, it ended up evolving into a retro art deco, poster-like illustration. Didn’t have time to colorize it. Thanks.
Is this less than 50 words? Yep. Was this done in less than 50 minutes? Yep.
I decided that the NYC skyline was too obvious, so I went with (what I hope is) a classic Broadway-esque image.
The Lombardi Trophy is front and center, joining a skyline of the Empire State Building and Citigroup Center, with the GW Bridge leading to MetLife Stadium in Jersey. Blue and green color scheme for the Jets/Giants, but unique shades of each to give the game it’s own identity.
It’s simply the NFL logo football casting a shadow from the rays of a 48 point sun for the 1st Groundhog Day Super Bowl.
Hey, here’s my logo for the first outdoor, cold-weather Super Bowl! I’ll just let the logo speak for itself :)
My design for the logo for Super Bowl XLVIII. The only explanation for my logo is an easy one. It’s going to be a cold one…
Here is my stab at the XLVIII Super Bowl logo. It’s a pretty straight-forward design. I incorporated Giants and Jets colors along with the Statue of Liberty and the football from the Lombardi trophy. I think it works well.
My design is a minimalist concept with only text, straight lines, the outlines of New York and New Jersey, and a simple color scheme.
[No Description]
The only thing that sparked me was the three vertical strokes (III) being the strokes in NY and NJ. Sadly, the negative space in the III could be the towers of the World Trade Center. The buildings would be on the left, looking at Manhattan from New Jersey.
I liked the logos that looked like badges (1990 & 1999). My shield is from the City of New Jersey seal and a NY Police Badge which are naturally blue. The crescents are from the stadium’s design and logo. I brought in the Jets colors on the numerals.
OK folks, there you have it — quite a great effort from everyone.
And now it’s your turn — time to cast your vote for your FIVE favorite designs. Here’s the poll (click on each name for another look at the logo):
OK, Uni Watchers. You know what to do.
“Benchies” first appeared at U-W in 2008, and has been a Saturday & Sunday feature here for the past two years.
More from the Wayback Machine way back before the Interwebs…
Click to enlarge
Tennis…Down Undah
The Australian Open starts this evening, so I’m pleased to present my doubles partner, Brinke Guthrie, who give you the rundown on all the uniforms fashion from Oz.
Here’s =bg=
Here’s a rundown on some of the new season’s looks at the Australian Open.
The last slam was the 2012 US Open, and its winner Andy Murray will sport this kit (gratuitous British expression) from Adidas.
Don’t know who this dude is, but Milos Raonic is #15 in the world and the first top pro signed to New Balance for clothing/shoes.
Here’s Fed’s Nike look, and he let his FB fans decide the color trim for his shoes.
Serena’s going purple with her Nike line, which will please…someone. Woz going for the Adidas/Stella McCartney yellow look.
And then……there’s Ana and that Djokovic guy.
Thanks, Brinke!
Uni Tweaks Concepts
We have another new set of tweaks, er…concepts today. After discussion with a number of readers, it’s probably more apropos to call most of the reader submissions “concepts” rather than tweaks. So that’s that.
So if you’ve concept for any sport, or just a tweak or wholesale revision, send them my way.
Please do try to keep your descriptions to ~50 words (give or take) per image — if you have three uniform concepts in one image, then obviously, you can go a little over, but no novels, OK? OK!. You guys have usually been good with keeping the descriptions pretty short, and I thank you for that.
Like the colorizations, I’m going to run these as inline pics — click on each one to enlarge.
And so, lets begin:
First up is David Robertson with some swooshie-love for the Brownies:
Phil,
What the hell? Why not? Thanks Nike.
Sincerely,
Dave Robertson
Next up is Kevin J. Leahy with a Ravens concept:
Hi Phil,
Here is my uni concept for the Baltimore Ravens. I incorporated the patterns and colors from the City of Baltimore Flag into the uni. Hope you like it!
Thanks,
Kevin
And closing down the tweak show today is Paul Lee with two possible new looks for Sparty:
Phil
Two Michigan State University logo tweaks.
Paul Lee
And that’s it for today. Back with more next time.
Whew — lots of great stuff today. Thanks to all the contestants in the Super Bowl Logo Contest, and of course to JTH for setting up the poll. Two more big games on the gridiron today: Seabirds fly to hot ‘lanta to take on the Dirty Birds at 1:00 ET (FOX) and then the Texans go to war with the Pats at 4:30 ET (CBS). ‘murica. Yesterday the Harbaugh brothers each moved their teams one step closer to an All-Harbaugh Super Bowl. This kid Kaepernick is pretty good.
Make sure you cast your votes in the poll, and have a great Sunday. I’ll catch you fine folks next Saturday.
Peace.
“The name ‘Cajun’ was derived from the French-Canadian pronunciation of ‘Acadian,’ the lands in Acadia (predominately the Canadian Maritimes) where they came from. The English can’t be blamed for this one.”
— Terry Proctor
I’m afraid Tim’s logo is actually for Super Bowl 43 preceded by a porno flick.
Man… I’m never going to win one of these things if you people keep submitting so many great designs.
A great crop of entries. I voted for Mason Fiske’s design, but there were at least 8 others that I would have voted for but for one or two minor “flaws”, mainly with regard to things like color choice and use of negative space. And out of 30ish designs, only one or two that I wouldn’t choose over the actual Super Bowl logo. Great work everybody!
“I voted for Mason Fiske’s design…”
~~~
Scotty, you do know you were allowed to vote for up to 5, yes?
Strategery! If one has a clear favorite on a ballot with multiple votes allowed, only vote for the one.
You got one of my votes, The. I think your design is fantastic.
May be too soon to say, but does anyone else think it would have been more of a fair fight if the names were left off the designs til later? Just using Gary as an example (his design is fantastic, was one of my 5), but some may see his name (or T.E.O’b, etc.) and vote them on prior works and accolades alone..
On the one hand, all contests should be judged blind as a matter of principle. If this were a competition to choose the actual, real-life Super Bowl logo, I’d agre with you completely. But on the other hand, this is more about celebrating and showing off fun amateur designs than it is a contest. It’s like an art show, and credit needs to be given. And on the third hand, the number of people who actually comment and thus known the names of other commenters is pretty small compared to the number of people who will see the contest and vote, and even among us I have to assume that the number who would vote based on personal bias rather than an honest opinion of the work is vanishingly small.
Any reader who votes for my design will receive a cashier’s check for $200.00. Thank you.
Andrew Goulian – Why did you use a Philly skyscraper (link) for a New York/New Jersey logo?
Reese hands down my fave of the bunch.
I liked it too, except the colors reminded me of the Seahawks, rather than either NY team.
This is kind of OCD, but the entries are alpha by last name and the voting options alpha by first name.
Glad to see Messrs. Reese, Fiske and O’Brien designs so popular. Too bad that Goulian’s and Mason’s aren’t more popular.
It drops deep as it does in my breath
I never sleep, cause sleep is the cousin of death
Beyond the walls of intelligence, life is defined
I think of crime when I’m in the New York state of mind
The 4 greatest bars in hip hop history.
Some great stuff in those designs.
A creative director would have a helluva time winnowing the list down to two or three to present to the client.
Am I the only person annoyed ESPN mixes the old (blue bar on bottom) and new (silver bar on bottom) Seattle Seahawk logos in on-screen graphics?
I’m more annoyed that the “correct” version is such an obviously lighter blue than what the team actually wears on the field.
Love the designs, the Statue of Liberty signalling a touch down made me laugh.
Paul Lee – that’s the best tweak I’ve seen yet. I thought it was the actual logo at first but now I realize exactly how much better yours is than the original. Especially the one on the right. Great work.
AMAZING concepts!!! I don’t even think I can narrow it down. The whole time I was scrolling down the page, all I kept thinking was, ‘Man, I’m glad I didn’t enter anything and embarrass myself.’
Great work all!
Chanko’s is my favorite, hands-down, because (perhaps without even realizing it; it wasn’t mentioned in his description) his double skyline quite accurately represents the view of NYC from northern NJ. From the stadium area, the view shows a ridge of buildings (mostly apartments) in the foreground, then the NYC skyline beyond it. The blue skyline portion of his logo looks like those NJ buildings; the gold is NYC.
As a born-and-bred Jersey guy living 15 minutes from the stadium, I just couldn’t vote for any logos that mentioned New York in the text but not New Jersey. Those that showed only NYC images (the Statue of Liberty, Empire State Building, etc.) were fine, though.
For me as a New Yorker any entry with any reference to NJ automatically gets eliminated :)
Isn’t the Statue of Liberty technically in New Jersey?
No, but a portion of Ellis Island is.
I suppose I should probably point out that the full sized version of my logo is animated. The flashing lights around the border really work better when they’re actually flashing.
This is true. If anyone clicks on your design (either in the article or in the voting) they’ll see it full-size and animated. When it’s reduced in size, it stays static.
That is awesome.
Which is a great part of its brilliance.
If you could make the jersey patches or field logo flash, that would be awesome.
Gary Chanko’s design reminds me of a snow globe, which is brilliant, because every family who’s ever visited NYC has come home with a snow globe.
Love Daniel Gold’s concept (especially the snowflake-X). Simple, clean look, has both winter and NY theme, and kept green out of the equation. Great stuff everyone!
David Robertson – what the hell, indeed. I like the shoulder stripes but they need to wrap around more & I’d drop the truncated collar stripes.
This just isn’t a logo contest without HHH’s sour grapes critique. It just isn’t.
“This just isn’t a logo contest without HHH’s sour grapes critique. It just isn’t.”
~~~
Now, now. The day is still young.
Early in his career, Springsteen used to let a couple of his friends sit at card table onstage, playing Monopoly, so they could tell girls, “I play in the band.”
That’s me in the contest. I’m just playing Monopoly.
You guys…you guys are talented!
I really like your idea, and voted for it, and the other “New Yorker” and Art Deco influenced ideas, less “logo-ey”
Thank you!
I love weekend UW – the tweaks, the colorizations, the contests, the Benchies – it’s inspiring to see so much talent and creativity on display!
Cort, wasn’t that when Bruce was part of Dr. Zoom and The Sonic Boom?
Yep. After The Castiles and Steel Mill, and before The E Street Band.
Great concepts everyone. We have some great artists on this site. I’ll get my butt kicked in this one, but loved seeing the great logos. Oh and for today, GO SEAHAWKS!!
You got one of my votes. I would’ve toned down the Roman numeral font, but I really dig the look and tone of your design.
Thanks man!!
Uh, that Ravens concept is good, except I thought it was a Steelers concept. The jersey is black right? If it was purple and you kept that design, it’ll work much butter.
True, a good looking concept, but the black and yellow color would not play well in either Pittsburgh or Balmer.
Everyone in the contest gets a “Wow!”
Fiske, Gold, Obermaier, Villanti and Woods get a “WOW!!”
No year-end best-of 5&1 list this year?
Next to my own design — who else was genius enough to use graph paper and colored pencils? — I have to say that Gary Chanko submitted a real beaut. I hereby release all my delegates and creditors.
Near as I can tell, you’re on the hook for forty-four hundy.
I’ll settle for half of that in cash. Or perhaps a trillion-dollar coin.
I really hope someone at Under Armour saw the Ravens Tweaks. It’s amazing how good the Maryland flag elements can look when you focus on only one of them.
I think Mr. Leahy has created a nice concept. That helmet logo is perfect.
Didn’t deduct in my voting for wrong date or roman numeral or any minor flaws. Being the most finished or professional looking necessarily get my vote either; as long as you could convey your idea reasonable well and I liked it, it got my vote.
Here here!
Surprised no one used link as the inspiration for a Super Bowl logo.
Goddell’s recurring nightmare.
New, fancier logo for the Florida Lottery:
link
At least Florida gets a lottery. My state’s selling it out to England.
…and I thought the outsourcing craze ended in like 2006.
cough cough Corbett cough cough…
‘scuse me.
I like that they kept the sunny circle, but the mascot isn’t wearing a helmet and it doesn’t look anything like a Dolphin.
Wait, what?
Goulian’s skyscraper looks like a syringe.
Great logos, nice job contestants.
Great to see everybody’s work. Love the site, glad I could make a small contribution. Honored to be part of the contest. Good luck to all.
There HAS TO to be a better voting format. There’s so many entries that I couldn’t keep track of who I wanted to vote for or which one of my top 5 I wanted to eliminate when I found one I liked. I think this could be avoided if the names were added to the logos when you click the person’s name on the poll and the logo comes up. Add the name to that so I know who made that logo when I click the link. Maybe it’s just me but I had a horrible time with this.
When you click the person’s name, his logo comes up. I’m not sure how that could be any simpler. If you can’t remember the name of the person on whose logo you just clicked, maybe you should write them down beforehand.
Seriously, if this poll is too difficult for you, maybe you shouldn’t be voting.
I’m not trying to be a dick with this comment — I’m pretty sure the poll is really NOT that difficult.
yeah, I just remembered 5 last names. Not that hard…
Tim Donovan, “sanitizing” the Devils logo is unnecessary and strange.
good to see the Texans go with the white pants. Navy would be ok as long as they were wearing res socks.
Phenomenal entry today. There were some great entries from the contestants in the logo design, a hidden gem in the uni-tweaks section (MSU logo is an amazing tweak) and the Benchies brought me some good laughs. Finishing it off with that Colin Kaepernick bit from 4th grade (bowl fade and all) was nice too, very heartwarming.
“Phenomenal entry today.”
~~~
Thanks!
Give my regards to Molly as well.
For Tim Donovan’s logo I would have wanted him to incorporate pinstripes rather than just straight up throw the Yankees logo on it.
I love the MIchigan State Sparty Logo Concept, which technically is more of an actual tweak. I think it is a subtle way of putting in the Abbreviation of the School into the logo. When I first saw it I thought the left one was the actual one and the right was the tweak. I lean towards the right one between the two. The nice thing is if an MSU executive comes across this it could easily be implemented and eased in as the new logo. Great Job Paul Lee!
Wanted to participate in Stirrup Friday, but could not find any on eBay or anywhere on-line except from Robert Marshall and that was more than I wanted to pay. I eventually emailed the few companies that still make them. After a few rejections, I found a guy who sold me his over-runs. The best part was they only charged me $2/pair. They arrived this weekend. Very excited to show them off at work on Friday.
link
I voted for the designs that translate well in grayscale, and looked more “Tri-state.”
My choices in alphabetical order:
Easley
Fiske
Gipson
O’Brein
Suereth
Looks like four of my choices are in the Top 5. I was impressed by just how solid the choices as a whole. I liked Brian Papa’s description.
Pretty big turn late in the day at the top. Reese had held a (marginal) lead early on, Villanti’s come on strong, though. Those were my 1, 2; glad to see them pulling away. Chanko and Stuber, in the 3 and 4 slots also got my vote. Gold got “snubbed” on my ballot as #6, but have since come to really like his design: love the snowflake ‘X’ and the single red & blue star straddling the building. So, glad to see him represented in the top 5 as day one draws to a close.
A lot of great work and concepts brought out here. Even with some of the designs I wasn’t “all about”, I really liked an idea they were going after.
I loved so many but Stuber is easily my favorite. My problem with some of the other great designs was a lack of the cold factor. There should be something pertaining to the novelty of this particular game.
The building in Mike Gray’s design is One Liberty Place in Philadelphia.
WOW! These are some talented folks I’m up against! (I’m grateful to get votes!)….I think that UniWatch should send us each a copy of this years’ SBXLVII Game Program for our efforts!!!…WHO”S WITH ME?:)