Super Bowl XLIII

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• United Football League
• FedExField
• Naming a sports team
• More sports cases

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Overview

The Super Bowl, with a viewership of nearly 100 million, is one of the most-watched sporting events in the world. The National Football League (NFL) needed an identity that served two primary purposes: to communicate the theme of Super Bowl XLIII, Believe in Now, and to reflect the natural elements of Tampa Bay, the host city. Historically, Super Bowl logos have been very diverse: They were initially about the event itself, and slowly became more thematic and descriptive of the host city.

Challenge

The new logo needed to strike a balance between branding the annual event and supporting Tampa Bay. Furthermore, as with any event logo, it needed to maintain a true sense of commemoration since the design would be implemented on hundreds of different mediums. For many fans the Super Bowl is the ultimate sporting event, and merchandise emblazoned with the logo is a lifelong keepsake. The simple but powerful phrase Believe in Now served as Landor’s inspiration for the visual identity.

Solution

The Super Bowl XLIII logo expresses a colossal, bigger-than-life event and makes a strong connection to the NFL. The perspective of the lines leading up to the letters creates a dramatic stadium effect. The colors blue and red are important because they represent the two divisions—the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC)—and tie to the NFL brand. The green represents more than a field; it symbolizes the meeting of land and sea in Tampa Bay. In 2009 the Super Bowl earned a spot on Landor's top 10 Breakaway Brands list. Breakaway Brands is a study which acknowledges brands that experience sustained, three year growth.