See Part I of this series.
Super Bowl VI: After Super Bowl IV’s vaguely Old West styling, this logo goes all the way to looking like it belongs on the door of a saloon, so naturally it represents the Super Bowl’s return to New Orleans. For a Texas Super Bowl, I’d call this possibly the best logo yet. Instead, the saloon-style lettering is just distracting and confusing, maybe even trying too hard to be cute. This is supposed to be the Super Bowl, not a bar fight. Grade: C+.
Super Bowl VII: Oh dear Lord. I’m pining for the glory days of the Super Bowl V logo. It’s the same red and blue striped pattern (in the same font no less) as the Super Bowl V logo (though they did get rid of the awkward smoothed corners on the “E”), only darker and with no white, so it’s really hard on the eyes, and that big blue drop shadow only makes matters worse. The good news is that it looks solid purple from a distance, but then it still looks incredibly generic, like something out of “2001”, and you have to start wondering what the point was. Grade: D.
Super Bowl VIII: Ooh, they spruced it up a little! This is the most distinctive font we’ve had yet, and they fiddled with the presentation a little too! Now the “S” and the “VIII” are a bit bigger than the rest of the words “Super Bowl”. Very nice. Not a bad logo, and vaguely appropriate to this year’s Houston setting, though Tampa would be even more appropriate, since it looks like something a pirate would put up. If I had to nitpick, I’d probably mention the awkwardness of the whole thing, but it’s a minor point. Grade: B.
Super Bowl IX: The Super Bowl continues its quest for less generic logos, and this one I’m not feeling so much. It looks like the intro to a 70s TV show like Three’s Company or something. Because when I look at a Super Bowl logo, I want to be reminded of Three’s Company. And what’s with that little curly thing on the “X”? Is it even supposed to be an “X”, or is it saying horns won’t be allowed in the stadium? Is it some sort of musical notation? Is it a symbol of the Illuminati? Does it point to where the treasure is buried on the back of the Declaration of Independence? Throw me a bone here! Grade: C-.
Super Bowl X: A very serviceable logo with a modern-looking font, with the words “Super” and “Bowl” stacked on top of one another, letting the “X” to the side dominate. Considering this was the tenth edition, I would suggest that maybe more could have been done with the “X”, but it’s still early in the history of Super Bowl logos. Super Bowl IX was the most they’d done with the logo, and we all know how that turned out. But the real question I have is: Why does the leg of the “L” turn into one of the legs of the “X” like that? It’s the one off-putting thing about this logo. Grade: C+.