Monday, August 10, 2020

2021 Topps redux

For some reason Topps thinks it's a good idea to unveil their upcoming flagship design in early August. But any hype it generates is gone by the time the thing actually comes out the following year.

Their prototype for 2021 was met with mixed reviews. Some like it, others don't. (I don't. Too busy and feels like Bowman.)

There's a blog bat-around for us creative-type bloggers to make an improved version without straying too far from the original spirit of the design, and I went ahead and gave it a shot.


Yeah, I just kept it simple, stupid. Sure, it looks like it's from 1994, but I don't care.. I like it better than this...



Ugh! Why all the razor blades and jagged edges? And this card has apparently been run over by a truck at some point! I get that the past few months on Earth have been rough, but why must our baseball cards reflect that pain??

The "70" logo just makes me think of Bowman inserts and buybacks from 2017 that used a very similar logo. And that tiny name is going to be a real pain in the ass to read when you're busting a box after the sun's gone down.



Here's my horizontal mock-up. I figure a team logo can go on the cards without a RC logo. (see old-school Rated Rookies that were either/or.. Looks better than cluttering the card with too many logos) Had to shrink the name down a bit because Tatis has a long one, but it's still way more readable than the real thing.


How about seeing how these look as Chrome refractors?.........


Oh man, I'd probably have to pre-order me up a hobby box of this!.. if only it were real.

Thanks for coming to my ted talk.

7 comments:

  1. I was originally gonna write a blogpost about it but the effort it'd take to bring my vision to life isn't worth it so I'm just gonna blurt out my pitch here. Make every card in the set autographed. No unsigned base cards and no facsimile stuff either. All 330+ cards in the base set, every insert, every relic, every manu-relic, all signed. But still keep the price at $3.99 + tax for 12 cards. That should fix it.

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  2. So true, seems like Topps outsourced design to a 2nd grader this year. Yours are much better.

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  3. Yours reminds me very much of 1996 Topps, but I like it better than what we're really going to get.

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  4. Yep, 2021 Baseball Card Breakdown > 2021 Topps

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  5. So far every BBA version done so far is better than the actual design. Simple isn't the worst thing in the world, but a team logo would have been cool. Regardless... I have a deep appreciation for the zoomed out photo that didn't chop off his bat or left foot. Plus you capture this special season with the guy in the back wearing the mask. Thumbs up!

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  6. The 2021 design is awful. It has a border and that's about its only redeeming feature. Big League will look better.

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