Once highly anticipated with each unique unveiling, the Super Bowl logo designs have sadly become controversial, forgettable, corporate cookie cutter executions.

When New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees took a knee to run out the clock and win Super Bowl XLIV in Miami on February 7, 2010, it was the end of a 39 year world championship drought for the team. But what none of us knew at the time, was that it would be the end of another significant era. Super Bowl XLIV would be the last game with a unique and distinctive event logo.

The Packers and the Chiefs met in what was called the World Championship Game AFL vs. NFL on January 15, 1967. Green Bay became the unaware first-ever champion of the big game. The next year, the name “Super Bowl” was born, and so began a long run of evolving logo designs for the event. We were introduced to a 44-year run of fun and unique designs that gradually matured and reflected the characteristics of the event and each host city.

The first 20 years were a slow development of designs that started out very simply, but showed more and more personality, and synchronicity as the styles of the times advanced. Many included splashy and trendy fonts, handcrafted letterforms and primitive but progressive visual statements concurrent with the rapid growth of graphic design during those years.

The creative evolution of the Super Bowl logos was slow but steady from 1966-1986, but in 1987, when the Denver Broncos and New York Giants met at the Rose Bowl in Super Bowl XXI, the logo design for the event really started to bloom, figuratively and literally. This game featured the first logo design that included graphic elements specific to the event location. And it started the Golden Years of Super Bowl logo design that ran up to and including Super Bowl XXXIX held in Jacksonville in 2005.

But something changed as the 40th Super Bowl came and went. No longer did the logos reflect the style and personality of the venues. And so started a downhill slide back into more generic designs. For the next five events, the logos were decent designs, but lacked any enthusiasm or character beyond 3-dimensional styles with graphic shadow blocking. But it would get worse.

The abrupt dive into the Super Bowl logo abyss accompanied another Green Bay Packer win, defeating their championship juggernaut opponent, the Pittsburgh Steelers 31-25 in Arlington, Texas. The game was an exciting one, as the Steelers mounted a comeback that fell just short. But we couldn’t know that no matter how exciting the games might be over the next eleven Super Bowls, the logo would become a monotonous parade of Lombardi Trophy clones. Logos that left designers yawning, rendered souvenir hunters unable to tell their successive t-shirts and swag items apart without close inspection. That might sound like an overstatement, but that same close inspection of these design automatons will prove me accurate in my description.

Without inside knowledge about the change in design direction, I can only surmise that there might have been a new brand manager in charge who talked the NFL powers that be into highlighting the Lombardi Trophy as the equivalent to the iconic image of the NHL’s Stanley Cup. (For a detailed review of that stellar rebrand, read my Hockey By Design blogpost here.)

Whatever the case, it was a massive misunderstanding of the provincial aspect of the Super Bowl experience. From 2010-2020 (Super Bowls XLV-LV), the logos were essentially the same, except for a small accent color change and the necessary Roman numeral adjustments. Even the landmark 50th event where the Peyton Manning-led Denver Broncos stymied Cam Newton and the 15-1 Carolina Panthers in a 24-10 smackdown in the Bay Area couldn’t muster more than a sub-par gold and silver, over-complicated, underwhelming, forgettable mess of a design. The five logo designs of the “clone years” were even blind to the fact that the vertical base of the trophy appeared as a Roman numeral “I” in the designs, further hindering the already brain-challenging readability of the Super Bowl number.

Enter the controversial era of the Super Bowl logo. Finally tiring of the logo multiplicity (or maybe being forced to change because of declining merchandise sales?), 2021 issued in a slightly altered design. It maintained the brand-cloning approach, but added some colorful although still ineffective design patterns nestled within the more modern numeral shapes. The Lombardi Trophy was maintained as the anchor element in the new series, in its usual chrome silver coloring.

I’ll spare you the deep dive into this controversy about the logo predicting not only the two teams who would be playing in each title game, but who would be the winner. But this recent Arizona Republic article with explain it in all its multicolor debating glory.

Whatever you think about the recent history of the Super Bowl logo designs, it’s difficult to argue that the corporatized, flavorless iterations that we’ve been subjected to for the last 15 years have lost more air than deflate-gate.

Looking back, I chose my three favorite Super Bowl logos. They are all from the Golden Years, of course. Each of these three stellar designs successfully incorporates the branding of the big game, as well as the character and personality of the venue. (Are you listening NFL branding experts?) The Miami-marquis of Super Bowl XXXIII, the spot-on Mardi Gras masterpiece of Super Bowl XXXI, and the queen of them all – the Prize-winning Roses of Super Bowl XXVII. Decades later, these designs still shine brighter than anything we’ve seen since. (I wonder if you can still get swag from any of these gems?)

No matter what the argument might be for the Super Bowl logo degeneration (in favor of, or against), the bloom is definitely off the rose. Come on NFL, get off your corporate branding high-horse and give us what we want next year. The Bay Area offers a multitude of creative venue design possibilities for the 2026 logo, and you’ve still got time to hit one out of the park (sorry, wrong sport). Please don’t let us down!

– Sports Brand Jury

Please chime in with your comments and your favorite Super Bowl logos. Are we being too harsh? I don’t think so. But if you disagree, we’ll let you be the judge in this case.