Original Football Program Artwork?

For next month’s edition of GoBlueWolverine I interview Barb Cossman, director of publications over at the U-M athletic department.   She oversees the production of U-M athletic department materials like game programs and media guides and  U-M has received many national awards for her work.  (I don’t believe the awards for this past school year are out yet but they’ll certainly win something for the 2011 Notre Dame program that included the Moeller headset audio and some original content from John Kryk and yrs truly). 

Anyway…in our interview we discussed some recent history of programs & media guides, trends and talk a bit about the future.  

Near the end of the interview I asked this:

At the beginning of the last century many of the programs were more like artwork—have you considered have original artwork on programs?

Cossman: A lot of the older programs had original artwork and yes, we have thought about having original artwork on the programs.  We’re definitely open to ideas.  I’ve had people email me with art samples, offering to design covers.

You probably know where I stand on this.      Some of my favorite programs over the years were hand drawn:

I think the photos of players with suits and ties are nice for their respective families, but I think there’s a big segment of the fanbase that would flock to see the new designs each week.  And for $5, the regular program price, it is a steal.

There are many talented U-M artists out there – maybe they could have a special series with a different artist? 

What to you think?

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