Holiday Bowl is one of many American football bowl games, held between collegiate teams, and affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association. The first game of the bowl took place in San Diego, California, in 1978.
Since the day of its foundation, the Holiday Bowl has changed nearly a dozen of sponsors, hence having many different names. The very first sponsor of the game was SeaWorld, which came to the bowl in 1986, and stayed unlit until 1990. As for the most loyal sponsor of this Holiday Bowl, it was, definitely, Pacific Life Insurance Company, which started sponsoring the game in 2002 and left it in 2009.
The current sponsor of the Holiday Bowl, San Diego County Credit Union, joined the game in 2017 and stays it up to date.
What is Holiday Bowl?
Holiday Bowl is the intercollegiate football bowl game, which is affiliated with the first division of the National Collegiate Athletic Association. The first game of the Bowl was held in 1978; and since then the games are played annually at the Petco Park stadium in San Diego, California.
The very first Holiday Bowl logo was created at the end of the 1970s and featured a bold and intense graphical emblem, which was not accompanied by any lettering. The circular badge boasted a stylized flower-like image, which also looked like a crown of a palm tree. The badge was executed in the dark red, black, and white color palette, which is one of the most powerful and timeless combinations ever.
The redesign of 1986 made a logo more informative, placing an enlarged two-levels inscription on a horizontally oriented rectangular badge, with the seven-petal flower emblem in the bottom right corner. The badge was executed in a blue and red color palette, with some white details. The dark red lettering in the uppercase was written in a slanted serif typeface, outlined in white and complemented by a white title case “Sea World” logotype placed above it.
In 1993 the Holiday Jowl logo get redesigned again. This time the color palette used for the badge made white the main color, and switched the rectangular shape of the badge to the ellipsoid, also horizontally oriented. Sponsored by Plymouth, the bowl started using its circular logo near the iconic red flower medallion. Both emblems were enclosed into a wide frame, where the “Plymouth” in blue and “Holiday Bowl” in red was written around the perimeter in the uppercase of an elegant serif typeface.
The sponsor was changed, as well as the logo of the bowl, in 1998. The bright and intense blue “Culligan” logotype was now written in cursive above the capitalized serif “Holiday Bowl” inscription in red letters with a blue outline. Both wordmarks were set on a white background, above the blue waves, and enclosed into a thin blue ellipsoid frame. As for the red flower emblem, in this version, it was replacing the letter “O” in “Bowl”.
The redesign of 2002 was also connected with the sponsor’s change. The ellipsoid shape and the blue, white, and red color palette remained, though all elements of the badge were redrawn. Now the central part of the logo was taken by a drawing of a whale coming out of blue waters. The shape of the image was repeating the shape of a horizontally located rugby ball. As for the lettering, it was written around the wide frame’s perimeter, in red capital letters with a blue outline. The red seven-petal flower emblem was set on the right parts of the frame, while the left part was decorated by five strokes in red and blue, pointed to the left.
A completely new design concept was introduced by the bowl in 2010. It was a lighter shade of blue and white color combination adopted for a modern yet ornate crest logo. The bottom part of the badge was taken by a white rugby ball, placed slightly diagonally, and overlapped by a gray arched ribbon with the blue “San Diego” lettering on it. The main logotype was set in a custom serif typeface with elongated and curved lines of bold capitalized letters. It was executed in a dark blue and white palette, being covered with a gray rectangular banner, where the second line of the new sponsor, Bridgepoint Education, the logo was placed.
The logo, created for the bowl in 2014, featured a stricter and darker color palette, composed of navy blue, white, and red. The modern emboldened white logotype was written in a cool sans-serif font, and placed on a solid blue banner with the rugby ball at the bottom and two red flower emblems on the sides. The upper part of the badge was taken by a white rectangle with the blue “National University” inscription and a circular blue emblem in the middle. The white “San Diego” in small capitals was written under the main logotype, over the blue rugby ball.
In 2015 the badge was redesigned again. The typeface and style of the lettering remained untouched, but the upper white banner was removed, and now the inscription was written over a solid blue circle, with the shade of blue darkened up and intensified. The rugby ball patterns were also erased, so the white “San Diego” was set on a plain blue background. The red shade of the flower emblems was also elevated and intensified.
The logo concept of 2014 was brought back in 216, with the only difference — the inscription on the upper white banner. The “National University” was replaced by the “National Funding”, while the blue circular emblem was removed, but the new red rhombus was added to the left from the inscription.
It was only in 2017 that the flower on the Holiday Bowl logo was updated. You can still see a red flower with seven petals (even two flowers). Yet, the shape of the symbol has changed, and a white flower has been added.
In 2018 all the elements telling about the bowl’s anniversary were removed from the badge, keeping the style and color palette of the logo, introduced in 2017, with just a few differences. The crest got more square than rectangular, and the central element with the light blue lettering of a red flower was enlarged. The top part of the badge still featured the corporate “San Diego County Credit Union” logotype with the icon.
The Holiday Bowl logo, created in 2021 doesn’t differ much from the previous version. It is still the same white and light blue crest with arched sides and sharp angles. Still the same bold white geometric lettering with the rugby ball replacing the letter “O”, still the same red and one flower decoration. And even still the same turquoise blue logotype and emblem of the Bowl’s sponsor, are set along the top part of the crest. But now the whole composition is accompanied by a blue lowercase “At Petco Park” inscription in a smooth full-shaped sans-serif.