Ever wonder what an Abraham Lincoln or JFK rookie card would look like? With a combination of AI tools and a bit of Photoshop wizardry, we can now look back and see how a full set of U.S. presidential baseball cards would look. The results were as diverse as the men who’ve held the office.

AI. The two letters both excite and terrify all of us, especially designers. So with pitchers and catchers already reporting, and on the day set aside to honor the 46 U.S. commanders-in-chief, SBJ proudly unveils a set of vintage presidential baseball cards. They range from super cool to downright spooky, and every card even includes a good old fashioned easter egg — a hidden number corresponding to each presidential numeric (for example, Abe Lincoln being number 16 and JFK number 35). So start the scroll and pick out your favorites. The process was, to say the least, educational…

B-AI-seball Cards

What sports branding enthusiast didn’t start out with a baseball card collection? For me, it was my childhood passion — collecting, trading, savoring the intoxicating smell of the bubble gum, and always being on the lookout for those elusive superstar gems to complete my favorite player sets. So when thinking about the few remaining cards I managed to save from my childhood, my designer imagination wondered whether the AI genies could help me create a complete set of a different kind of baseball cards — a set for the United States presidents.

Taming the AI-Beast

Having played a bit with the powerful, but still somewhat flawed Midjourney AI web tool (through a mandatory Discord account with a small monthly fee), I set out to train the other half of my virtual partnership to help me generate the graphic elements I would need to create the set of cards. Based on some of the completely freaky results that can come from this interface, it took a while to hone the prompts (written descriptions telling the ghost in the AI machine exactly what I was looking for), and to achieve the results I was happy with. However, AI was never able to give me a complete card design, and at times it returned some pretty bizarre results (more on that later).

So instead, I saved the various raw illustration pieces as separate images that I imported into Photoshop layered files to bring each American president to AI-card life. It was also able to provide me with interesting vintage card borders and designs that I could pick and choose appropriately for each president. Then, using a series of vintage and old style fonts to add historical tones, I created a unique card for each U.S. head honcho, from George Washington to Joe Biden (and every hero and scoundrel in between). Inserting the numerical easter eggs made for a tricky exercise, but added a fun element of engagement to each of the cards. For educational purposes (myself included) I also added the years that each president served in office, and any relevant special notes, such as if the president died, resigned, or was killed in office.

Who’s On First?

First of all, I decided to work in chronological order. This revealed some unexpected results as the early images started out in a definite illustrative style. Since the AI “engine brain” uses the universe of digital information and imagery to draw from, it makes sense that images and portraits of the first 15 or so presidents were extracted from historical artworks as opposed to actual photographs.

The early presidents sported mostly formal uniforms, but featured a range of interesting and peculiar ball cap styles. The card border designs were ornate and intricate, adding to the historical feel of the cards.

For most of the cards, the portraits and the borders were taken from completely different AI-generated results. Subsequently, I used good old-fashioned Photoshop layering and retouching to create the full baseball card designs. This required enhancing and aging the card edges, and removing the ever-present gibberish text elements that are part of almost every generative result. I also decided to focus mostly on tighter-cropped portrait images since Midjourney has yet to master the art of extremities and support image elements, constantly providing results with too many or deformed fingers, and upside-down or oddly-shaped baseball bats.

The hidden presidential numerics are purposely subtle, so I sent test proofs of each version to others who offered their feedback on how long it took to find the easter eggs (like this #5 on the James Monroe card).

The Middle Innings

From about the Abraham Lincoln card (16th) to Benjamin Harrison (23rd), there was a definite transition from pure illustration to a semi-photographic style of portraits and card designs, as more photo reference came into existence beginning in the mid-1800s. The baseball uniforms and caps also took on styles appropriate to the time period (note the half-Civil War/half-baseball U.S. Grant cap). I was gratified to find that these cards actually started to look like they could have been created at the time of each president. In this series, the results also started to show variations in the age of the presidents, such as the youthful Abe Lincoln and an almost baby-faced James Garfield.

The transition from illustrative to semi-photographic images took place as photo reference became more available to the Midjourney brain.

The 19th century presidential cards also include some of the most interesting borders, scroll elements and colorations that were all AI-generated and fun to work with.

Sluggers Row

The range of presidents from numbers 26-33 include some of the most well-known and consequential names, from Teddy Roosevelt to Woodrow Wilson, to FDR, to Harry Truman. These were American leaders that guided the country through global imperialism and two world wars. They make up the hard-hitting middle of the White House lineup. With more widespread virtual photo reference available, Midjourney’s prompted results became more realistic, and probably more accurate. It also required an adjustment to my input prompts to achieve the right combination of portraits and cards appropriate for the era.

The age ranges for each of the presidents seemed to be chosen randomly by the Midjourney calculations. As seen above, Teddy Roosevelt seems about the age he was during his presidency, while Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman are much younger, and hence a bit less recognizable. The uniforms varied widely as well, sometimes including odd buttons, collars and tailoring.

The Late Innings

After the WWII-era presidents, the portraits became consistently more photographic in nature, aside from an odd treatment for Richard Nixon. Again, the age ranges for the featured portraits varied widely, from a more managerial Lyndon Johnson, to a veteran Ronald Reagan, to a rookie Barack Obama (definitely depicting him as the youngest of the 46 presidents). Along with the modernization of the portraits, the card designs also adapted to the times. The borders became simpler, with fewer ornamental corner scroll elements, and appear similar in style to the cards I remember collecting as a kid. This was an unexpected, but subtle adjustment injected by my Artificial Intelligence creative partner.

Manager LBJ, veteran Ronald Reagan and rookie Barack Obama show the wide and seemingly arbitrary age range of the more recent presidential portraits.

Strikeouts and Errors

One of the funniest parts of this design project was seeing some of the goofy, creepy and sometimes head-scratching curveball results that Midjourney threw at me. They ranged from a multi-seam, surgical scar softball, to a grotesque Herbert Hoover baseball bat chest growth. There was also a strange Jimmy Carter honey-dipper slash baseball glove slash baseball bat, and a set of baseball mitt gloves for Dwight Eisenhower that were actually pretty cool. This provided plenty of evidence highlighting the sandlot league-quality of current AI image generation. The examples below also show the strange text elements and insignias that were a consistent part of the generative results.

Bizarre results reveal the still maturing AI image generation capabilities.

Pitcher’s Duel

With the upcoming hotly-contested presidential election, the frontrunners will be taking the mound in November to throw their best pitches. Which one will be able to throw down a trump card? (Sorry, I couldn’t resist…)

Like them or lump them, the November 2024 presidential election candidates promise to deliver more than a few curveballs along the way.

The Presidential Roster

The entire design process took almost a full year since the inception of the project back in early 2023. The on-and-off production timing created a few unexpected challenges, I assume due to the evolving nature of the Midjourney AI tool. But overall, the entire collection results in a curious depiction of all the U.S. presidents. I have a few favorites, but I expect there are enough styles and designs to satisfy even the pickiest of history buffs. So can I name all the presidents in order after completing this hefty creative challenge? I doubt it. But at least I might be better at recognizing some of the more obscure ones.

In viewing the entire series, the difficulties that Midjourney had dressing the earlier presidents in vintage baseball uniforms becomes apparent. From George Washington to Grover Cleveland, it’s mainly baseball caps, card frames and borders that add the flavor of America’s Pastime. From the early 20th century until the present day, results with more representative baseball uniforms were easier to achieve.

So, are there back sides to the cards you ask? Not at the moment. But stay tuned next Presidents’ Day. If I get a second wind, a full set of presidential electoral collectibles might just be in the offing.

– SBJ

Sports Brand Jury welcomes your opinions, comments, and suggestions for future cases. SBJ attempts to verify and acknowledge all photos and images used in our blog posts. Any oversight or mistaken attribution is unintended.

All presidential baseball card designs are ©2024 Dave Kottler. All rights reserved.