SportsDesigner.com

The $12,000 logo

The LA Times' Bill Plaschke tells the story of two Southern California designers who created the Patriots logo 15 years ago.

The initial doodling took about 30 minutes.
The total payment was $12,000.
Fifteen years later, it has become the drawing of a lifetime, a symbol that has made millions, a logo that could soon be imprinted in the history books.

Said designer Stan Evenson of the old Pats' Minuteman:

"It was the ugliest logo around. I figured we could do something more streamlined."

Quite a bargain for the Pats, using these two design rookies. The going rate for such logos seems to be $100,000 and up.

"The woman in the wedding dress"

A commercial for the French sports newspaper L'Equipe.

Tom Brady. We love Tom Brady.

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If you're interested, The Seattle Times seeks an ASE for Presentation. The Tampa Tribune has an opening as well.

Eli's got an etch

Dude has some skillz.

SportsDesigner, the network

UPDATE: Nearly 30 members in two days! Get in here!

Is this a good idea?

Here's what I did: I created a site through ning.com for us to build a social network (or whatever you younguns call it). There's a forum, you can upload your latest pages as photos and you can basically create yourself a little profile.

Blogs are so 2004.

Design police

Honor your word-centric friends and critique yourself with a set of clips from design-police.org.
You can download the "kit" as a PDF.

The site is registered to graphic designer Karl Goldstraw of Britain.
(Thanks to Josh Jackson for the news tip).

On the move: McTyre

Sad news for the newspaper design world, and myself, as Mark McTyre, ASE for Presentation at The Seattle Times, has a new job. Mark will be a Senior Editor-Sports at msnbc.com, which is based here in Redmond, Wash.

McTyre is a multiple SND award winner in his eight years in Seattle.
The Times sports section, with his work, has been a Top 10 APSE winner for umpteen years. It goes without saying that he will be missed and cannot be replaced.

Another loss to the web ...

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Also in job news, I read a rumor that Jon Boho is heading to the Indianapolis Star. Maybe someone in the comments will confirm that, cause Jon's email account is toast. It's true.

Jon had left the South Florida Sun-Sentinel not long ago.

Golfweek's shocker

Huge flap this week over the cover of Golfweek.

The magazine's editor has been replaced.
The PGA Tour put the screws on the publication after the graphic cover left many in shock.

Reaction at sj.com.

Make your own news

The New York Post hired Jessica Simpson look-a-like Lynsey Nordstrom to attend Sunday's NFC divisional playoff game and "distract" Cowboys QB Tony Romo.

NY Post gallery

Nordstrom, a nanny from Bothell, Wash., is also an aspiring makeup artist (at the Tammy Faye school?)

Not to be outdone, Tuesday's Daily News had a cover photo of Eli Manning carrying their paper under the headline, "Great Call, Eli!"

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Speaking of NFC playoff games, check out Seattle Times photog Rod Mar's blog post on the snowy Seahawks-Packers game. We also produced a cool online feature using Google Maps.

Mistletoe on the Jumbotron?

Naturally, there's an uproar over this photo from the Louisville Courier-Journal.

The cutline: Juan Palacios, left, and Jerry Smith led U of L with 17 points apiece, but the Cardinals' defense was the real key to the victory. "We knew we were going to stump them," Smith said after Louisville ended a three-game skid in the series. (By Sam Upshaw Jr., The Courier-Journal)

Writes the Courier-Journal's ombudsman, Pam Platt: Some of the comments registered by angry, offended and/or baffled readers: "Awful," "an embarrassment," "horrible decision," "poor judgment," "distasteful," "a mystery" and "shame on you." Read the column here.

Could it be worse?

Oops.
The Ohio State paper brought back memories it didn't intend.

Bring out yer dead (trees)

Got those SND 2007 entries ready to go?

You need to get your pages to Syracuse by Jan. 16.
Pick wisely. Last year's wow factor went to Mexico's Excelsior:

I'll be in Syracuse again this year helping out. If you're joining the crew, I'd be interested to know.

Here we geaux again

Both the New Orleans Times-Picayune and Baton Rouge Advocate are producing championship books for LSU. The T-P's is 128 full-color pages ($23) while the Advocate is sprouting a 208-page book ($30).

Here are a couple of interesting graphics from the T-P's preview section, which ran Saturday.

Up at The Columbus Dispatch, the design was pretty cool from the art department.

• Title-game preview wrap
• Tuesday game cover

Part of the Geaux Network

Some online presentations from immediately following LSU's 38-24 win over Ohio State in the BCS Championship game Monday night.

Nola.com (Times-Picayune):

2theadvocate.com (Baton Rouge Advocate):

ESPN.com:

Yahoo Sports:

Sportsline:

"Your medium is dying"

Online Videos by Veoh.com

Thanks so much, Simpsons.

Frogger is next

The Seattle P.I. published an eight-page special section previewing Saturday's NFC playoff game between the Seahawks and Redskins.

Fisch and I (Nintendo generation) thought the Super Mario-inspired cover was cool. Everyone else thought ... we were on drugs.

Love/hate reactions also from gamers.

The Washington Post, above, came up with a clever treatment for its Saturday cover to show QB Todd Collins' NFL experience.

NHL's Winter Classic

The NHL's first outdoor game in the U.S. was a smashing success at Buffalo on New Year's Day.

The News' preview section front features an illustration by Dan Zakroczemski. The game cover's photo is by Mark Mulville, headline by Greg Connors.

Both pages designed by Vince Chiaramonte, who writes:

I had the good fortune of viewing the game from the pressbox and went outside for the 2nd period. The atmosphere was truly remarkable and at times it felt like we were inside a snow globe that somebody just shook up.

PDFs are below if you want a closer look.

Download wcgame.pdf

Download wclassic.pdf

The Buffalo News also produced a multimedia site on the event.