"If you folks are enjoying these, maybe I’ll continue to periodically delve into my style guide collection in the months to come. Let me know if you’d like that!"
YES Tom Krish! That would be wonderful! Thank you Paul - brings back sooo many great uni memories. I especially enjoyed the front-on helmet views, the color information (Steelers and Rams have the same gold!!!) and the numerals. So nice to see the Seahawks in all their original color glory - makes me long for the days of Jim Zorn and Steve Largent. I enjoy being reminded how good the Titans looked before introducing their current emaciated numeral set. Thanks again!
As someone with an affinity for yellow, it strikes me as very interesting that every single team with yellow as an actual accent color used the exact same yellow. Green Bay, Kansas City, Minnesota, Pittsburgh, St Louis, San Diego, and Washington all used Pantone 1235 for their yellow. To me, it never felt as if all those teams used the exact same yellow, but the NFL says they did.
The AZ Cardinals (beak) and Baltimore Ravens (flag logo) have small flashes of yellow that were Pantone 116, which happened to match the yellow in the NFL Play Football swirl.
Please continue to post about your style guides. there is a dearth of info online about these. This was the push I needed to become a subscriber! Keep up the great work!
Great guide and great analysis Paul! Another drawback of only showing the front of the jerseys is that the fonts shown are only for front numbers. For example, teams like the Packers were still using the once dominant Sand Knit font. In that font, the front numbers had a different aspect ratio than the back numbers, which were more stretched vertically.
What a cool find, that style guide. I’m sure it was also a great tactile experience just to thumb through and open the foldouts. Nice article, Paul. Thank you!
What are the chances that someone in Kansas City simply invested in like a few thousand helmet decals with the "open C" version of the logo, and they're still working their way through that inventory?
As far as number layouts, I would hazard a guess that by starting with 2, the two rows of numbers line up in an even grid, placing the narrower 1 at the very end. However, look at the Eagles number layout! The bottom row goes 6 7 8 9 1 0 ! Somebody made a decision, and we may never know why.
I find it interesting all the uni numbers referencing the last revision only go back to 97 but then i remember that all the uniform suppliers switched around that time so i guess thats why every team has a "recent" tweak.
Of these, the Jags should obviously go back to that design, but now my controversial opinions: The late 90s Dolphins look was their best. The Lions unis then weren't great. 49ers drop shadow and red-gold-black stripes was my favorite.
Navy and Gold Rams was my favorite look for them, always disliked the 70-90s yellow and blue but actually think their current set is nice and could be perfect with a few tweaks.
Bengals flying tiger logo should still be the primary, the B is terrible.
I like the note on the Steelers’ one to only use the left-facing helmet with groupings of other left-facing helmets, and never on its own. It makes sense—they only have their logo on the right side, after all!
I could comment forever on this. Not sure everyone agrees, but I think the Ravens benefited greatly from the lawsuit that forced a uniform change. I love the raven head logo. Same for the Jaguars, maybe? I don’t know that they were taken to court, but I seem to remember part of the reason they abandoned the sprinting jaguar on a silver helmet look (which never saw the field) was because it resembled the Jaguar car logo. The result was a huge improvement. And speaking of the Jaguars (and Bengals, and Panthers, and Lions)... I’ve always thought “cat” teams faced a difficult challenge. It seems like every high school and college team is the wildcats, or tigers, or something. It’s really hard to have a logo that feels original. In that sense, the Bengals did a great job, at least until many others copied it. Much better than a dashing tiger on a helmet, in my opinion. The Jags looked less generic before they streamlined their logo. I miss the one we see here. And the Panthers...eh, they feel kind of like a generic cat head on a helmet to me. Sorry, I’m rambling now. But this is great, great, great stuff!
I recall that the Ravens were sued (or threatened with a suit) by a young man who claimed the original helmet logo was based on a design he had sent to the team before they unveiled their original uniforms, and that they used it without permission or compensation. Don’t know if they settled with him but they definitely wasted no time in changing to the bird head logo.
"If you folks are enjoying these, maybe I’ll continue to periodically delve into my style guide collection in the months to come. Let me know if you’d like that!"
YES.
YES Tom Krish! That would be wonderful! Thank you Paul - brings back sooo many great uni memories. I especially enjoyed the front-on helmet views, the color information (Steelers and Rams have the same gold!!!) and the numerals. So nice to see the Seahawks in all their original color glory - makes me long for the days of Jim Zorn and Steve Largent. I enjoy being reminded how good the Titans looked before introducing their current emaciated numeral set. Thanks again!
As someone with an affinity for yellow, it strikes me as very interesting that every single team with yellow as an actual accent color used the exact same yellow. Green Bay, Kansas City, Minnesota, Pittsburgh, St Louis, San Diego, and Washington all used Pantone 1235 for their yellow. To me, it never felt as if all those teams used the exact same yellow, but the NFL says they did.
The AZ Cardinals (beak) and Baltimore Ravens (flag logo) have small flashes of yellow that were Pantone 116, which happened to match the yellow in the NFL Play Football swirl.
Please continue to post about your style guides. there is a dearth of info online about these. This was the push I needed to become a subscriber! Keep up the great work!
Great guide and great analysis Paul! Another drawback of only showing the front of the jerseys is that the fonts shown are only for front numbers. For example, teams like the Packers were still using the once dominant Sand Knit font. In that font, the front numbers had a different aspect ratio than the back numbers, which were more stretched vertically.
These style guides are a great way to hear your thoughts on teams' uniform histories. Love it.
What a cool find, that style guide. I’m sure it was also a great tactile experience just to thumb through and open the foldouts. Nice article, Paul. Thank you!
Such a great column idea and always fascinating! Are there style guides for the NBA and NHL?
Yes, although they're not as detailed or interesting as MLB/NFL. I'll see what I can dig up!
Great stuff as always Paul!
I find it interesting that they don't specify the tone of white used, and yet they do for black despite every instance of it being Pantone Black 6.
The Saints’ white jerseys had gold numbers. That was the last year for them before Color Rush brought them back.
What are the chances that someone in Kansas City simply invested in like a few thousand helmet decals with the "open C" version of the logo, and they're still working their way through that inventory?
As far as number layouts, I would hazard a guess that by starting with 2, the two rows of numbers line up in an even grid, placing the narrower 1 at the very end. However, look at the Eagles number layout! The bottom row goes 6 7 8 9 1 0 ! Somebody made a decision, and we may never know why.
I find it interesting all the uni numbers referencing the last revision only go back to 97 but then i remember that all the uniform suppliers switched around that time so i guess thats why every team has a "recent" tweak.
Of these, the Jags should obviously go back to that design, but now my controversial opinions: The late 90s Dolphins look was their best. The Lions unis then weren't great. 49ers drop shadow and red-gold-black stripes was my favorite.
Navy and Gold Rams was my favorite look for them, always disliked the 70-90s yellow and blue but actually think their current set is nice and could be perfect with a few tweaks.
Bengals flying tiger logo should still be the primary, the B is terrible.
I like the note on the Steelers’ one to only use the left-facing helmet with groupings of other left-facing helmets, and never on its own. It makes sense—they only have their logo on the right side, after all!
I could comment forever on this. Not sure everyone agrees, but I think the Ravens benefited greatly from the lawsuit that forced a uniform change. I love the raven head logo. Same for the Jaguars, maybe? I don’t know that they were taken to court, but I seem to remember part of the reason they abandoned the sprinting jaguar on a silver helmet look (which never saw the field) was because it resembled the Jaguar car logo. The result was a huge improvement. And speaking of the Jaguars (and Bengals, and Panthers, and Lions)... I’ve always thought “cat” teams faced a difficult challenge. It seems like every high school and college team is the wildcats, or tigers, or something. It’s really hard to have a logo that feels original. In that sense, the Bengals did a great job, at least until many others copied it. Much better than a dashing tiger on a helmet, in my opinion. The Jags looked less generic before they streamlined their logo. I miss the one we see here. And the Panthers...eh, they feel kind of like a generic cat head on a helmet to me. Sorry, I’m rambling now. But this is great, great, great stuff!
I recall that the Ravens were sued (or threatened with a suit) by a young man who claimed the original helmet logo was based on a design he had sent to the team before they unveiled their original uniforms, and that they used it without permission or compensation. Don’t know if they settled with him but they definitely wasted no time in changing to the bird head logo.
The 1999 Bengals uni is not their original striped set. The uni changed to stripes in 1981, then changed again in 1997 to its 1999 form.