October 28, 2009
Who Designed the MLB logo?
By: Christina Smith
I’ll admit it. I have an unhealthy obsession with the Phillies. As a child, I was surrounded by baseball. Every year, during baseball season, at least one, if not two TVs in the house were playing the Phillies game. Over the years, I’ve watched the team go from being the cellar dwellers (my dad’s favorite expression) to the defending World Series Champions.
Last week, when I was at the Phillies vs. Dodgers NLCS game at Citizen’s bank park, I noticed the MLB logo on a sign across the stadium. I’ve seen the logo many times, but never actually studied or appreciated it. Why would I? It’s a logo, I’ve seen for years. Hell, I grew up with the logo well before I became a graphic designer. However, as I was sitting there, waiting for Game 3 to begin, I realized the MLB logo is almost as iconic as the AT&T logo or the UPS logo. The only difference is that I know the designers who created these logos. But who designed the MLB logo?? I vowed I’d find the designer. Being a designer and a baseball fanatic, I felt I should know the person who designed the infamous logo!
In my search, I found a very interesting article in the Wall Street Journal entitled “The Man Behind the MLB Logo”. Come to find out, the creator of the MLB logo, Jerry Dior, lives in Edison, New Jersey. Who knew! The designer of the iconic MLB logo is a fellow Jerseyan. Forty years ago, Dior worked for an agency in New York City called Sandgren & Murtha. They were commissioned by Major League baseball to design a timeless logo to commemorate the upcoming centennial. Dior says, "I did the rough sketch and cleaned it up a bit, and that was that. I never thought anything about it until I turned on the television and saw it on the New York Mets' uniforms during the 1969 World Series.” At the time, the cost of the logo was between $10,000 and $25,000. However, today the logo can be seen on everything from uniforms to billboards and merchandise that brings in over $3.3 billion in revenue.
Unfortunately, as the article states, neither the logo, nor the designer who created it has gotten the respect it deserves. In addition, even though multiple people can attest to the fact Dior designed the logo, he does not have any visual evidence to prove he is the original creator. Thankfully, Major League baseball is delving more deeply into this issue and hopefully one day Mr. Dior will be recognized as the sole creator of the ubiquitous MLB logo.
- Advertising (35)
- Art (8)
- Branding (34)
- Business (62)
- Cascading Style Sheets CSS (3)
- Cats (4)
- Cocktail Recipes (2)
- Color Theory (6)
- Direct Mail (1)
- Going Green (9)
- Graphic Design (66)
- Illustration (4)
- Interior Design (2)
- jldcreative (19)
- Logos (6)
- Marketing (38)
- Miscellaneous Thoughts (113)
- Packaging Design (13)
- Photography (5)
- Sales (5)
- Search Engine Optimization (4)
- Social Networking (9)
- Technology (23)
- Typography (6)
- Viral Marketing (8)
- Web Design (20)
Comment Now
