Looking at 2010 football designs

Design can be a problem with trading cards when it starts to get stale. The first time something is done, that‘s always fun. The second time can still be enjoyable. But after the third time, we start to look for something new.

Too often from set to set, the designs run similar. There’s no fresh blood in the industry and it seems creativity only goes so far, but then hits a wall. There are way too many custom designers on blogs to think we can’t find something new.

We have all seen them.

With football starting up last night, let’s look at a group of five Brett Favre cards.

2010 Classics

2010 Donruss Elite

2010 Panini Threads

2010 Playoff Prestige

2010 Rookies and Stars

2010 Topps

What did you see?

My favorite card of the group is the newest one 2010 Panini Threads. I actually like that card a lot. In that instance, the the picture is doing the talking. There isn't too much concern on design and what's going on in the background. It's a solid photo of a popular player right in the middle of the action.

The problem with the others is they are all too similar. Similar poses, similar designs - the aesthetics of the cards are pretty much the same even though they are from different sets.

The only was that was different was the Topps card. It wasn't the traditional quarterback dropback look.

Card companies have tried to do different things from time to time. Topps tried a different look for one of Stephen Strasburg’s cards and I think we all blasted them. I liked the attempt, just didn’t like the execution.

What sort of design variants do you want to see on cards? Is there any set this year, from any sport, that you really enjoyed from a design standpoint?