During its more than 80-year history, the Cotton Bowl Classic has gone through numerous logos.
The palette of the current Cotton Bowl Classic logo combines a dark and saturated shade of blue with a sunny shade of yellow, white, and a lighter shade of blue.
What is Cotton Bowl Classic?
Cotton Bowl Classic is the name of the annual college football tournament, which takes place in the United States and was established in 1937. The home arena of the football bowl game is the AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, which has a capacity of 80 thousand people.
The original Cotton Bowl Classic badge was created in 1995 and stayed in use for four years. It was a quite simple composition with the blue “Southwestern Bell” inscription in a slightly narrowed Sans-serif font placed above the “Cotton Bowl” in enlarged red capital. The two parts of the logo were separated from each other by a thin yellow horizontal line. The words in the upper line had a stylized cotton flower image in red and white between them, and the bottom part was underlined by a small blue “Classic” with lots of air between the letters.
The redesign of 2000 made the Cotton Bowl logo bolder and stronger, keeping the original blue and red color palette, but enlarging the letters and writing them in a more distinct font, this time serif one. The red lettering of the main wordmark was set in red and outline in black, with the letter “O” in “Bowl” replaced by a stylized blue and white image of a cotton flower. The upper part of the badge contained a logo of the bowl’s sponsor, SBC, and the red logotype was underlined by a red uppercase “Classic” in sans-serif.
The new era of the Cotton Bowl Classic visual identity started in 2006, with the introduction of a modern and stylish blue crest logo. The body of the crest was executed in three shades of blue, coming from the darkest to the lightest, right to left. In the center of the crest, there was a white horizontally stretched banner with the red “Cotton” lettering in an outlined geometric sans-serif with rounded angles. Under the banner, the red “Bowl” in the same font but the smaller size was set, having its letter “O” replaced by the iconic flower. The upper part of the crest was given to the new sponsor’s logo, AT&T, which was executed in white and blue. As for the “Classic” part of the logotype, it was set on the very bottom of the shield, in thin white capitals of a neat and simple sans-serif typeface.
The color palette of the logo was intensified in 2007 and the contours of all elements were cleaned in the same year. The badge started looking stronger and more professional, evoking a sense of reliability and confidence. Due to the darkened colors, the contrast became brighter, which made the whole badge more recognizable and memorable. The contours and angles of the letters became bolder too and more distinct, with a more masculine and powerful mood.
The blue and red color palette of the Cotton Bowl Classic logo was changed to orange and light blue in 2008. The body of the crest now featured a slightly gradient orange shade, which looked delightful and was evoking a sense of happiness and energy. As for the wordmark banner, it was still white, but the lettering on it changed its color to light blue, as well as the “Bowl” written under it. The only element, which stayed in its original state was the “Classic” inscription which was still white and used the same thin and clean sans-serif typeface for its uppercase letters.
The 2015 logo features a white cotton flower with blue piping. The name of the bowl and its sponsor prevail in the emblem.
The bold stylized lettering from a sleek and confident badge of the Cotton Bowl Classic game is executed in a custom heavy font with some square details on the ends of the thick bars in the characters. The closest fonts to the one, used in this insignia, are, probably, Verismo Bold, or Addressotype Slab Solid, but with significant modifications of the contours.
As for the color palette of the Cotton Bowl Classic, it is set in a combination of blue, white, and yellow, with the deep shade of blue prevailing orange on the crest. These colors stand for action, confidence, professionalism, and excrescences, and create a super-balanced composition, which is modern and strong.