The funny thing about American Football is that the major league (NFL) has much less history than baseball does. The modern Superbowl era (where the two competing leagues joined together) happened in the 1970s so that means even though they have been around since the 1920s — their branding and marketing never had a real silver age like baseball.

However, there are some fascinating decisions teams made and of course some cities made some genius moves. In this article you expect to see a retrospective of classic NFL logos augmented by some interesting alternate logos and recent logos for comparison.

Arizona Cardinals

Atlanta Falcons

Buffalo Bills

Baltimore Ravens

Carolina Panthers

Chicago Bears

Cincinnati Bengals

Cleveland Browns

Denver Broncos

Detroit Lions

The Kitty Cats actually just revamped this logo into the one below this year!

Green Bay Packers

Kansas City Chiefs

Jacksonville Jaguars

Louisiana Saints

Miami Dolphins

new England Patriots

New York Giants

If I found gear for this logo, I’d snatch it up in a heartbeat. It’s one of those “it’s so bad it’s good” deals for me.

It looks dated for sure but this logo is actually used on occasion to this day.

The great organization that is the New York Giants revived this logo from their past sometime in the 1990s. Even though it has not been updated much since the 50s-60s, it stands up very well.

New York Jets

This looks like a dolphin if you squint a little.

Philadelphia Eagles

Pittsburg Steelers

San Diego Chargers

San Francisco 49ers

Seattle Seahawks

St. Louis Rams

Tampa bay Buccaneers

Washington Redskins

Tennessee Titans / Houston Oilers

The Oilers were moved to Tennessee and left this awesome oil tower behind as well as the fanbase.

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Did I leave your team out? Superbowl predictions? Let me know in comments!

Here is a curated retrospective of some of the top retired baseball logos of the past separated by American and National Leagues respectively and concluding with the current logo at the end for contrast:

AMERICAN LEAGUE

Baltimore Orioles

Current:

Boston Red Sox

Current:

Chicago White Sox

Current:

Cleveland Indians

Current:

Detroit Tigers

Current:

Kansas City Royals

Current:

Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim

Current:

Minnesota Twins

Current:

New York Yankees

Current:

Oakland Athletics

Current:

Seattle Mariners

Current:

Tampa Bay Rays

Current:

Texas Rangers

Current:

Toronto Blue Jays

Current:

NATIONAL LEAGUE

Arizona Diamondbacks

Current:

Atlanta Braves

Current:

Chicago Cubs

Current:

Cincinnati Reds

Current:

Florida Marlins

Current:

Houston Astros

Current:

Milwaukee Brewers

Current:

Philadelphia Phillies

Pittsburgh Pirates

Current:

San Diego Padres

Current:

San Francisco Giants

Current:

St. Louis Cardinals

Current:

Washington Nationals

The Nationals were formerly known as the Montreal Expos and I desperately wanted to show the great retro Expos logos.

Current:

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Which Retired Logo Is Your Favorite?! Comment!

This is NOT a in-depth design review of the websites. Judging based on usability, creativity and overall impression based actual task performance on the websites — I choose a “victor”.

Adidas vs. Nike

Usability: Nike.
Both cutting edge — but Nike is more organized and is more consistent moving between their content.
Creativity: Nike.
Adidas’s website may be more “innovative” but Nike is actually doing more with sports community like with their “Ballers Network” social network. To me, that’s being more creative than fancy Flash graphics.
Overall: Nike.
Adidas’s website would actually annoy me if I had to visit it on a regular basis.

Fender vs. Gibson

Usability: Gibson.
Their website utilizes white space better. Scanning the content is easier when there are contrasting sections of positive and negative space.
Creativity: Gibson.
They both show their beautiful guitars well but Gibson is more web savvy in attempting to build a community behind their products by allowing a ranking system and comments for the products.
Overall: Gibson.
Fender’s website feels like it’s on the cusp of being out dated especially compared to their rival.

Apple vs. Microsoft

Usability: Apple.
Microsoft just completely overloads you with options and is overwhelming. Apple does a better job of moving you closer to where you want to be.
Creativity: Apple.
Apple is superior aesthetically in a functional way but also makes you feel excited about the products they sell.
Overall: Apple.
Microsoft is a bigger company and serves a bigger market and my impression is that they do a good job trying to figure out how to serve their viewers. However, no excuses — the Apple experience extends to the website.

Canon vs. Nikon

Usability: Nikon.
Nikon is much easier to use, find products and to surf in general. Canon is confusing, glitch-ey and unimpressive.
Creativity: Nikon.
Your first impression of Canon is that it’s not that dated but the more you use it, the more it feels like they are a website generation behind Nikon.
Overall: Nikon.
Canon is a international brand and although it must be difficult and expensive for them to operate, much less update — your competition is blowing you out of the water.

Google vs. Yahoo

Usability: Google.
My personal preference for a utility website that I frequently visit is for it to be as singularly focused on that specific function as possible without the fluff. When I’m doing a search at work it just doesn’t feel professional to perform that task on a homepage with cheesy Yahoo Travel images of beach goers holding hands.
Creativity: Google.
Neither could be accused of being “creative” in a aesthetic sense but Google did pioneer the sparse, minimalistic look we often see in other websites. Yahoo appears almost… dated.
Overall: Google.
You can argue whether who has better search results but I personally prefer Google.

What can we take away from this?

A website user’s impression of usability, creativity and overall impression is not mutually exclusive. They are factors that come together as a package deal in a good website. I’ve never heard of this in a usability test but if your company is hiring impartial volunteers in a blind test — set up a test for your competition’s website as well. Then you will know how you stack up in a direct website to website comparison.

Which websites did you prefer? Give me your picks in the comments!

One of the most famous examples of a brand’s identity being forever tied with a illustration is Morton Salt’s Umbrella Girl. They adopted it originally in 1914 because of their tag line; “When it Rains, It Pours“. For those of you who don’t know, the table salt we use today has a chemical in it that keeps it from clumping. Back in the day before they pioneered that solution, salt used to clump up all the time. That’s where Morton Salt came in with this innovative idea and clever marketing scheme.

Timeline — They Grow Up So Fast

Early versions looked similar to Shirley Temple — although in reality, the Morton Salt creation preceded Shirley Temple’s birth by almost a decade. The golden age of the Umbrella Girl (1914-1940) does not stand out to me and looks dated even though it built the company’s image for a quarter of a decade. They lack the personality that I have come to love in the newer versions.

The 1941 revamp brought a significant change that would lead to the Umbrella Girl we know today. The improved printing techniques allowed them to use a bright yellow to offset that deep indigo. Also, the Umbrella Girl now has longer hair in pig-tails and is literally glowingly happy in her expression.

Lucia Lerner

Leif Peng from Today’s Inspiration Blog writes that Lucia, who was an artist for a art studio in Chicago was responsible for the redesign. She transcended the 1941 illustration and brought the simple elegance of what I feel is the best Umbrella Girl. The Umbrella Girl needed to exist in a simpler line-art/outline style for the packaging first and that’s what Lucia probably was hired to do for them as Lucia excelled at that type of illustration. Once that was established, Morton Salt could hire any ad agency (and any art studio they chose) to provide appropriate advertising illustrations for the media requested.

Leif suspects this ad came out of the same studio as the “Coppertone Tone Girl”.

This is a style that any number of art studios at that time could have provided. This is probably my single most favorite image of the Umbrella Girl.

Still Fresh

The present day Umbrella Girl that was created in 1968. Even though I love love love 1950s era version, the newest iteration has massive visual appeal as well. It needed to be updated because the look that 1950s style quickly went out of style as the fifties and sixties came and went. Think of the shiny and happy Beatles when they first came on the scene in the mid-1950s versus the eternally mod and hip Beatles of the late 1960s.

The Morton Salt Umbrella Girl is a fine example of how branding transcends itself through the years. We better enjoy the packaging while we can because the next version will probably have her in Crocs, talking on a iPhone with a Chihuahua.

Like the flavor of this article? We savor comments, so please serve up your thoughts!

And yes, I’d appreciate it if you’d build in as many food puns into your comment as humanly possible.

Major thanks to Leif Peng from today’s inspiration blog! Go check it out!

Air Force

This website is first class. It’s a recruiting center meant and it does it’s job perfectly for the demographic it’s aimed at.

USA Service

Obama has been harping about taking our country’s problems into our own hands. This was launched recently to support that initiative.

Smithsonian

The Smithsonian Institute is a Government administered and funded organization that includes research centers, museums and magazines.

White House

The now famous re-designed website home of the President.

United States Postal Service

From personal experience I can tell you all the major delivery companies have streamlined websites that cater to user experience. I… *holds breath* …prefer it over both the FEDEX and UPS websites on a aesthetic basis.

Change.gov

Obama’s website during the transition.

Army

Army recruitment website is pretty clean and cool. Doesn’t give off any hint of being Stop Gapped for 3 years.

Recovery.gov

Obama’s website to disseminate information on the road to recovering from the economic crisis.

Whitehouse YouTube Page

This is important because the Government is reaching out to people where they are.

Barack Obama

This website arguably won the election for Barack Obama.

Honorable Mentions:

These websites were more impressive than what one would think of as the classically horrible government website but showed some promise. They had something about them the led me to believe that some Government monkey that knew nothing of user experience didn’t ruin them completely. I also included some I liked but wasn’t exactly sure how/where I could get them in to show you mofos:

Central Intelligence Agency – C.I.A.

This is a little circa 2002 but that’s a compliment considering some of it’s brethren.

Department of Homeland Security

I included this one because you can see it’s trying really really hard.

Go Army

This is the ROTC Army website.

Change.gov YouTube Page

Once again, nice treatment for the YouTube page. Had to include because that’s Mary J herself Obama’s getting some sugar from!

Air Force – Learn More

This is a interior page of the Air Force website. I just wanted to end on a BEE-YOO-TEE -FULL note. That’s all folks!

Did I Miss Anything?

Let me know in the comments below so I can add it into the article! Thanks!

It’s All About Change

A comment that some made was that Bush’s whitehouse.org was absolutely perfect. It was perfect because it kept people disinterested in what he was doing! I can see the creative brief now: lull and bore the dissenters into a coma. It uses a traditional three column layout with nav on left, content in center and some call-outs on the sidebar. It’s competant but I think most people would agree it is not inspiring — which it should be as we found out this past election.

Obama on the other hand, is about change and his web team was not afraid to defy convention of what we think of as a government website. He uses many common website layout features such as:

• “Hero” graphic — is the single most important visual element on page. Typically communicates the single most important message.
• Blog — frequently updated content in a very accessible format.
• Newsletter — keepin’ the old citizens informed.
• Usability — trafficking people to where they want to go.

The Worldwide Leader in Sports Websites

Moving on to websites I’ve been visiting daily… ESPN has always been the big dog in sports websites in terms of everything. Technology-wise, they were first to move out of table based layout. Content-wise, they were the first to have staff writers for online reporting (I only have testimonial proof as I am a big sports fan but SI re-purposed writers, whereas ESPN had online only writers). New media-wise, they were doing video, fantasy and podcasting right before the other guys were doing it wrong. Even ESPN though was able to make some great moves:

• New Media — they killed the stupid auto-play and just built the videos right into the main story area.
• Headline Thumbnails — with sports, I think it benefits the user to visually browse the main stories.
• Big Ass Scoreboard — nobody likes to scroll.
• Big Ass Front Image — they have always had a good photography department. Nothing captures the emotion of sport like photography.
• Simplified Navigation — trying to find anything on the ridiculous sport orgy they called a nav bar was “ridonkulous”.

9.2

Pitchfork, to those of you who don’t know are a Chicago based website that reviews indie music and publishes news of that genre. They are known for their ridiculously precise reviews (9.2 for instance) and clever writing styles (as well as their sage-like music knowledge). I liked the overall look of the former website but as someone who used it everyday… it drove me crazy after awhile. I found it hard to scan because some parts of the homepage was updated frequently, like the news and reviews but other parts remained static like the best new music header (contingent on an album coming out being better than what was previously there). Another problem was that I was getting eyestrain scanning the entire page trying to figure out what changed from yesterday. The main improvements:

• Scan-ability — now it makes sense from going left to right. News > Reviews > New Media (Same as before you say? Yes, but now they share equal weight and the nav doesn’t get in the way.)
• Equal Opportunity For Reviews — in the past they featured two thumbnails and left the other review crying in a corner. Now at least they show the cover and I can roll-over it to learn more.
• Simplified Content Buckets — bigger text with more metro-sexual white space. It takes a real man to manscape his website.
• Improved Search — the former search technology they were using sucked ass to the 100th degree. Now it works.

OMG WTF

Unless you’ve been in a cave for the last few months, you’ve probably heard of the Tropicana rebrand controversy. It all started when PepsiCo, the parent company of Tropicana decided to go through with a brand overhaul for their Tropicana property. There are many legitimate reasons for doing so, most of the ROI-based ones probably are rooted in generating excitement for the product.

Features of the new brand:
• New cap that you can squeeze off (like an orange!)
• Beautiful photography of the juice (yay?)
• San-serif typography including new logo type treatment
• New advertising campaign to go with it that includes black and white typography and non-traditional family groupings (like father and daughter)

The Audacity of Freshness

Doing advertising for a iconic, trusted and established brand can be tricky. Think of Smucker’s Jam commercials as a good example. The iconic image for most people is — the jar topped with the picnic table-cloth plaid lid that invokes images of farm, small-town life (and freshness by extension). Their commercials with the Smucker’s kid in it reinforces that image with sentimental concepts of trust, loyalty and values. The basic premise of the commercial I’m referring to is the kid’s name is Smucker’s so that means he can really grow up to be one thing… working in his family’s business. It’s a decent commercial because it reinforces their basic public image. You can imagine it would be very difficult for them to decide to leave that comfort zone.

Squeezed

So that was the dilemma that Tropicana faced. They probably saw orange juice as a product with high potential with the current trendy green/oragnic infatuation. Growing this sudden trend and branching out to more diverse and varied demographics requires a more modern and flexible (if not generic) language they can speak in to hopefully reach those segments. Their new “Squeeze” campaign brainchild featuring dads hugging their daughters imagery is indicative of that. It allows much more flexibility in marketing communications. We’ve seen very little so far but I can easily see the campaign grow in 5 years to imagery of an adopted child in a traditional atomic family set to appeal to a certain liberal population and nobody would bat an eye at it.

FTW

What they didn’t bargain for however was how iconic the old Tropicana brand was (is). Not only that, from a design standpoint — the design was very functional and had been grocery store battle tested for decades. Consumers were vocal, spoke out on the internet and PepsiCo decided to revert back to the old with the exception of the cap. My personal opinion is it worked out for the best. Tropicana was probably not respected for being an iconic brand the way Coca-Cola, Ford, FedEx and IBM are. NOW IT IS. Consumers made that argument and came to that conclusion by themselves, so it’s a very pure form of loyalty and love they showed for Tropicana. That’s a victory in my book.

Can’t Help Looking When You Drive By Accidents

• Stuart Elliott of the New York Times writes that the internet had a lot to do with fueling the outrage as Facebook and Twitter users sounded off.
• I first saw Peter Arnell defend the Tropicana rebrand via the fine and dandy folks at logo design love.
• The talented Matt Brown sounds off with his coverage as well — I agree with him on how critical other creatives often are.