Mascot Face

[Gabelo Camphire]

Facewas the mascot of Nick Jr. from September 1994 up to October 2004 when Piper replaced Face as the new host from 2004 up to 2007. He would often sing songs and announce what TV show was coming on next. On occasion, he would even interact with a character from a Nick Jr. show or short (usually from the one he's announcing), such as Blue and Periwinkle from Blue's Clues, the titular character from Little Bill, Bob from Bob the Builder (from offscreen), and even Philomena Fly from What's the Buzz with Philomena Fly. His signature phrase was not a sentence, but was actually his imitation trumpet noises, which he often made after mentioning the programming block's name ("Too too toot") (sometimes misspelled as "brr brr brr" on a subtitle caption, and by fans) usually followed by a giggle. He also appeared in the UK version of the block from 1995 until September 2005, Germany (as Gesicht), Australia until 2006, Mexico (as Cara), and France (as Visage). In the UK, he was voiced by David Holt; his Australian voice is currently unknown.

On October 11, 2004, Face was replaced by Piper Possum as the Nick Jr. mascot. Before that, in September 2003, Face was redesigned with a new mouth, new eyes, eyebrows, and a new voice actor. The redesign was not well-received and he returned to his old design a few months later. He is the only Nick Jr. mascot to exist on the block for more than three years, and actually still appears on a few of the Nick Jr. website's games. He also made a few appearances on a special New Year's-themed broadcast of The '90s Are All That with Stick Stickly on December 31st, 2011. He also attempted to find the Easter Bunny during Easter 2016.

Why am I bringing this up? Because the other day I was looking at NHL team logos while researching another article, and something I'd never noticed before suddenly jumped out at me: Eight NHL team logos face to the left.

Again, much like in MLB, there are a few lefties (Celtics, Heat) and righties (Hawks, Timberwolves, Magic, Suns). But what really strikes me is how many of the NBA logos feature either mascot characters that are depicted staring right at us (Hornets, Bulls, Grizzlies, Bucks, Pelicans) or static type/image designs that are completely foursquare and symmetrical (Nuggets, Pistons, Rockets, Clippers, Knicks, Wizards). If the NFL is the league of silhouetted profiles, the NBA is the league of bilateral symmetry.

So is the Steelers' unique mono-logoed helmet the reason so many NFL logos face to the right (and, in turn, the reason so many people email me each NFL season)? Moreover, if the Steelers had chosen to put the logo on the other side of their helmet, would NFL helmet depictions routinely face to the left, and would most NFL logos also face to the left as a result?

Every NFL season, like clockwork, two things happen. First, some people email me to ask, \u201CWhy does the Eagles\u2019 logo face to the left when all other NFL mascot logos face to the right?\u201D (Sometimes they add that the Eagles\u2019 inconsistency is driving them nuts, or \u201Ctriggering my OCD,\u201D or whatever.) Here's the full set of NFL team logos, so you can see what they mean:

I usually respond with something like this: \u201CWell, our culture reads from left to right, so we\u2019re generally comfortable with rightward-facing graphics, which probably explains why most of the NFL logos are oriented that way. I don\u2019t know why the Eagles chose to have their logo facing leftward (some people say it's because the logo\u2019s feathers form an \u2018E,\u2019 although I\u2019ve always found that to be a bit of a reach, plus their previous primary logo also faced left), but they don\u2019t even use that logo very much \u2014 or at least it\u2019s not on their helmets \u2014 so it doesn\u2019t seem like a big deal either way.\u201D

The second thing that always happens is that some people (maybe the same ones?) email me to ask, \u201CWhy does the Cardinals\u2019 head coach wear a logo that faces to the left when the team\u2019s logo faces to the right? He\u2019s wearing it backwards!\u201D If you\u2019re not familiar with this Cards quirk, it\u2019s been going on for many years, spanning multiple coaching regimes:

For these people, I usually respond by saying something like, \u201CWell, that\u2019s the way the logo is oriented on the left side of every Arizona player\u2019s helmet, so it\u2019s not like we\u2019ve never seen it facing that way. And since small chest logos on shirts or jackets are usually worn on the left side, I think they prefer to have the cardinal facing inward, instead of \u2018sniffing the armpit,\u2019 so to speak.\u201D

The TLDR version: Most NFL logos face to the right, which makes sense, but occasionally you\u2019ll see one facing to the left for whatever reason, and that inconsistency really bugs some people, although it\u2019s never bothered me. And although I never bothered to investigate the matter further, I intuitively assumed that the same was true throughout the uni-verse.

As you can see, four NHL teams have logos featuring animals facing to the left (the Sabres, Penguins, Panthers, and Wild) and Chicago has a left-facing human, plus I think we have to count the Blue Jackets\u2019 flag and the Red Wings\u2019 spoked tire as leftward-facing as well, and maybe even the Lightning\u2019s left-striking lightning bolt. None of that qualifies as breaking news, of course \u2014 these are familiar designs that we\u2019ve all seen for years \u2014 but for some reason it never occurred to me that NHL logo orientations are so radically different from those in the NFL.

To be sure, there are also plenty of rightward-facing NHL logos too (Predators, Senators, Canucks, Sharks, Coyotes, Flyers, etc.), but the left/right split on the ice is fairly balanced, whereas on the gridiron it\u2019s a right-facing rout.

It\u2019s pretty clear now that I was wrong when I told people that we\u2019re all more culturally comfortable with rightward-facing graphics, because the left-facing NHL logos look perfectly fine. I mean, really, can you even imagine the Penguins\u2019 penguin skating in the other direction? The very notion is absurd, or maybe even upsetting!

As for the NBA, their team logos are even less directionally oriented than MLB\u2019s. In another interesting trope that hadn\u2019t fully registered with me until now, most of them just face head-on:

So it turns out that, contrary to my earlier assumption, the NFL is the only major sports league that has mostly right-facing team logos. Why is that? I\u2019m thinking it\u2019s probably because NFL helmet depictions \u2014 which are arguably even more visually iconic than the team logos themselves \u2014 always show the helmets facing to the right.

That rightward-facing orientation for NFL helmet illustrations has been the standard look for decades, going back to the days of single-bar facemasks. And if you\u2019re routinely going to show your helmets facing to the right, it makes sense that you\u2019d also have your logos facing to the right, since they appear on the helmets.

Ah, but why do the helmets face to the right in the first place? At first I defaulted to my usual thought about our cultural comfort with things that flow from left to right. But then Uni Watch proofreader Jerry Wolper pointed out that they don't have much choice but to show the helmets facing rightward because the Pittsburgh Steelers (Jerry\u2019s favorite team, as it happens) have their logo on only one side of their helmet. If they showed the helmets facing to the left, it would look like the Steelers helmet was blank. (Wondering why the Steelers have the logo on only one side? Look here.)

Meanwhile: In case you\u2019re not already a regular reader of my daily Uni Watch Blog, we had lots of really great content this week, including a deep dive on a 1971 NFL merchandise catalog; a great story about a 1990 goodwill tour of America by the Soviet Union\u2019s national baseball team; some rare NFL prototype jerseys discovered at a factory sale; and my take on Cleveland\u2019s big uni weekend (which featured the unveiling of the new \u201CCleveland Guardians\u201D identity and the release of the Cleveland Browns\u2019 new throwback uniforms).

Finally, it\u2019s come to my attention that in order to post a comment here on Bulletin, you need to be a subscriber. Frankly, that doesn't make much sense to me, since subscribers receive these articles via email, and there\u2019s no way to comment on an email anyway.

I think it would make more sense to make commenting available to anyone with a Facebook account. I\u2019ve passed that feedback along to the Bulletin honchos, who say they\u2019ll consider it. Thanks for your patience while we work out the growing pains with this new platform.

Paul Lukas has been writing about uniforms for over 20 years. If you like his Bulletin articles, you\u2019ll probably like his daily Uni Watch Blog, plus you can follow him on Twitter and Facebook, and check out his podcast. Want to learn about his Uni Watch Membership Program, check out his Uni Watch merchandise, or just ask him a question? Contact him here.

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