It’s the dream of nearly every design studio: a national
sports identity project. But what happens
when you finally do land that high-profile job? After
you pop open the champagne, it’s time to get down
to business. Ideas may be coming fast and furious,
but before you rush into the future, you should consider
the past. Where might you find inspiration?
Todd Radom is an artist who has a knack for
bringing the past into the present. You may not have
heard of him, but there’s little doubt you’ve seen his
work. After all, he has designed such high-profile
identities as the 2004 Super Bowl logo and Major
League Baseball’s Washington Nationals.
Radom is one of the lucky few who have managed
to fuse passion with work. A graduate of the
School of Visual Arts, Radom had aspirations of
designing logos for sports teams as far back as age
13. He even remembers doodling logos on scorecards
during Yankee games.
“A hand-lettering guy”
“I graduated from college a few years before the Mac
revolution,” Radom says. “Technology has sort of
leveled out the playing field. Especially for designers
who are just breaking in, it’s harder to get noticed
now than when I first started. You had hand skills
then that aren’t as valued now. As a result of technology
being as accessible as it is today, I always talk
about being a hand-lettering guy. I think if you can
find a niche, you are going to break through the
crowd, get yourself noticed, and have staying power
in what is a difficult industry right now.”
After a few years designing book covers at a
publishing company, Radom began to notice a trend
developing in his work. He was designing primarily
sports-related books, particularly those with baseball
themes. Determined to extend his niche in sports
graphics, Radom sent his work to Major League
Baseball and won his first job designing logos for a
few minor-league teams. Pleased with his work, the
big leagues hired him to redesign the Milwaukee
Brewers logo in 1993.
“Like any other small niche segment in our
design industry, people sort of gravitate to what
they are interested in,” Radom says. “There are
people who are gaga over music and eventually they
are going to find their niche there if they are good
enough and aggressive enough.”
Inspiration quest
Radom says the first part of his creative process is
looking for inspiration from past logos and ephemera.
He has collected a large reference library over
the years.
“Since I’m a lover of typography, part of my
process right at the outset is to look at old logos of all
kinds, such as luggage labels, travel stickers, postage
stamps, road signs. I soak all this stuff in and if I get
a project that needs to speak to a certain era—and I
do get a lot of nostalgia jobs—I have a great library
of stuff to look to for inspiration. Sometimes inspiration
evolves from strange and diverse sources.”
Sports branding issues
After years of getting his name on book covers,
Radom says accepting a more behind-the-scenes role
was an adjustment at first, but it’s a small price to
pay for the kinds of projects he gets to work on. He
says the key to designing a logo for a high-profile
organization such as a professional sports team is
understanding it as an identity for a brand.
“Doing logos for professional sports especially,
you generally don’t get your name attached to these
things for a multitude of reasons,” Radom says. “I’ve
designed a couple of major league logos and I’ve
done a Super Bowl logo. A logo for a Super Bowl is
out there for one year—and yes, it is part of history
and it will always be out there—but it has a limited
shelf life. Designing for the Washington Nationals to
me was a branding assignment that was no different
than designing a corporate mark. A sports logo needs
to have legs and it’s subject to the whims of the marketplace
in a different sort of way than doing a logo
for IBM or UPS, but it still needs to be practical and
it needs to be out in the marketplace for years.”
Radom says creating memories and associations
for fans provides another unique challenge in his
work. “Designing a logo for a sports franchise is not
like designing a logo for anything else because of the
scrutiny put upon it and because of the brand loyalty
attached to it. I like to say that people will paint their
faces with the identity of their favorite football team,
but they’re never going to do it for FedEx.”
1. Genesis of a Super
Bowl logo, phase one
The brief for the 2004
Houston Super Bowl
Host Committee logo
was to use the colors
of the Houston
Texans, the host
club for Super Bowl
XXXVIII, and to visually
reflect the community
and the sport.
(The Host Committee
serves as liaison
between the NFL and
the Houston community,
coordinating
efforts leading up to
Super Bowl Sunday.)
In phase one of the
process, Radom submitted
six directions
for refinement. Several
elements made it into
the final design—see if
you can identify them.
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2. The direction after
phase one was to be
more specific with
regard to the city of
Houston, which has a
distinctive skyline. The
Texas flags are also a
natural fit. “I always
know that no matter
what I’m working on,
there’s going to be a
second round of the
design process with
mixing and matching,”
Radom says.
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3. Radom was asked
to use only one
flag, not two, and to
remove the football.
In hindsight, removing
the football might
have been a mistake,
he says. “I think one of
the most frustrating
aspects of what we do
for a living is revisions,
but that’s part of the
design process.”
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4. Uh-oh, let’s get the
football back in somehow!
Radom says the
trick was to provide a
sense of movement,
especially given the
static nature of the
skyline, which he
thought looked good
and didn’t need fixing. |
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5. As with most logos
of this nature, a compromise
was made,
and it was for the
best. The football is
back in, leaving no
doubt of the nature of
the event. The lines on
either side of the ball
fill up the space visually,
and complement
the curvature of the
bottom of the word
Houston. Radom feels
he achieved symmetry
and came up with a
mark that is complex
but not chaotic. This
design was very user
friendly and translated
well across a variety
of platforms.
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