Night Owl Cards

I was looking at the 1971 Topps football cards posted on A Penny Sleeve for your Thoughts yesterday and admiring just how fantastic the design was for those cards, when I remembered that I had meant to make a post about this some time ago. The '71 Topps football design is not my favorite of all the Topps football designs. I need to have an emotional connection to a design and I was too young to be collecting in '71. However, I do think the design is brilliant in its simplicity and in its ability to reach its target audience: kids. In fact, I think that all of the Topps designs for the big four sports that year -- football, baseball, basketball and hockey -- achieve the above goals. The cards issued in '71 across the board were: 1. Simplistic 2. Colorful 3. Fun 4. Got kids to notice That is why I think 1971 was the best design year Topps ever had. The football design is as enjoyable as opening the colored funnies on a Sunday. Each card displays a cartoon fig...