The Simplification of NFL Team Logos
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Detroit Lions
Different in design from either the Bears or the Giants, the Detroit Lions
logo transforms from detailed representation of a lion with a forward-leaning
football player behind it (1952-1960), to increasingly simpler and bolder
representations of a lion, with no alphanumeric abbreviations as in the previous
two examples. The 1961 to 1969 logo of the outline of the prowling lion against
vertical bars of blue and silver may not have been the best logo for a television
viewing audience, but as the lion transforms into the blue, silhouetted later
versions, a more simplified, bolder logo emerges. Blue is a color used
consistently throughout the years, although the most recent logo has a black
border around the Lion. Unlike the Bears and the Giants, the Lions logo went
from iconic to indexical imagery. Still, however, the move is to a simpler logo
style.
1952-1960
1970-2002
1961-1969
2003-2008
Figure 2: Detroit Lions, 1952-present (representative example o f logo changes over time)
Pittsburgh Steelers
In the 1930s, when they were still the Pittsburgh Pirates, the team used a
logo that looked like a family crest with an image of the castle representing Fort
Pitt. It was highly detailed and complex. By the 1950s, the logo had an oval
shape and contained three scenes involving steel factories. The fine detail made
the logo barely recognizable. The simplification process began in 1960 with the
image of a steelworker kicking a rivet off an I-beam. The logo was short-lived.
The circular logo, based on the Steelmark design belonging to the American
Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) replaced the rivet-kicking steelworker in 1962.