Old School Design: Costacos Brothers Posters

Today's Old School Design takes a look at some really great sports poster designs from the late 1980's/early 1990's. In that time period, the Costacos Brothers poster company created some really classic sports themed posters. The premise behind these posters was to take an attribute or a nickname of the featured athlete and then put them in a pre-designed theme that tells a story about them. Many of these posters were outrageously funny and filled with little details that made them fun to look at. These posters are true design classics for that era.

This poster is called "The Land of Boz". The poster featured Brian "The Boz" Bosworth in a Wizard of Oz themed design. Bozworth was one of the most over-rated, over-hyped athletes of all-time. Upon his arrival in Seattle, the marketing machines went into overdrive promoting him to the world. The image is loaded with great imagery. The city of Oz in the background is actually Seattle and there is a rock in the foreground with the saying "There's no place like Dome". You've got the classic Oz characters in various states of disarray on the ground and the "Bozkins" standing nearby. The poster also gives us a great look at Bozworth's classic look, hair and sunglasses. This poster is a true long lost sports design classic.

Another classic Costacos Brothers poster features Ken Griffey Jr. and Sr. and is called "Griffey-The Next Generation" in a salute to the Star Trek series of the era. This poster design is another all-time classic. The image features Ken Griffey Sr. in his Cincinnati Reds uniform and a young Ken Griffey Jr. in his Seattle Mariners uniform. There was a great deal of hype surrounding this famous father-son duo playing together back then. There are a ton of hidden details in each player's locker. Ken Sr.'s locker features a picture of Ken Jr. from an early Reds Father/Son game, a can of "Dad's" root beer, and a set of golf clubs signaling the fact that Ken Sr. must have been ready to retire to the golf course. Ken Jr.'s also features some family photos along with lots of fan mail, baseballs to sign and some flip flops, a basketball and football. There is also a Ken Griffey Jr. Bar in there as well. Again, this is an absolutely classic sports image.

The Costacos Brothers posters from that era were entertaining and imaginative. Some of the ideas they came up with were out of this world. They are true pieces of sports design history.There were posters for players from every sports league and the themes ranged from the simple to the ridiculous. These classic poster designs are a great reminder of the sports business from the late 80's/early 90's and great pieces of sports design history.

Comments

[J.R.]

I used to love these posters. My bedroom walls were covered with them. My favorite one was "The Bash Brothers" which of course was Mark McGuire and Jose Canseco dressed up as the Blues Brothers.

I also had "L.T. the Terminator", Hershel Walker's "H-Bomb" and Kevin Mitchell's "Bat Man". The last one was mostly because I loved Batman at the time, too, but that one was a lot of fun. Kevin Mitchell with a cape, on a roof with a SF logo in the form a bat signal. Good stuff.

[Zubaz is Zu-back!!!]

My brother had a John Elway "The Rifleman" Costacos poster. Elway was dressed as a cowboy, holding his hand next to a football in a gun holster around his waist, like he was ready to "draw." He had little footballs where bullets would normally go in the belt. He was standing in the middle of a dusty Western town road with other cowboys on horseback in the background.

Myself, I had an Eric Dickerson Colts-era "RoboBack" Costacos poster. It was a pun on RoboCop. He was standing in the middle of a scientific lab, with doctors and scientists testing him. On the back of their white lab coats, it said SEE DICK RUN in big blue letters, a reference to Dick and Jane books. Eric's helmet and trademark goggles were being lowered onto his head by robotic arms. On monitors in the background, there were computerized charts and graphics showing his body in uniform and his stats.

Years later, we found an LT (Lawrence Taylor, the original, true LT) "The Terminator" Costacos poster at a flea market. Somebody decided to mount it on plywood and give it a glossy sheen. This poster was hilarious; it showed LT shooting red laser beams out of his fingers at "dead" football players laying on the field. In the background, a football player was dangling on the crossbar of the goalpost, like he got flung there by LT and was haning on for dear life, or he climbed up there to protect himself.

One question about details in the Boz poster: is that scarecrow with the orange #7 jersey supposed to be Elway? I bet it is, especially since the Seahawks were in the same division as the Broncos back then. I think the #14 tinman is probably Steve Grogan. He was #14 on the Patriots (red jersies and white helmets). He was about to retire in the late 80's, wasn't playing much, and when he did he SUCKED (his rating was a dismal 37.6 in '88!), so he would've been a prime target for jokes.

[John Costacos]

Yeah the #7 is supposed to be Elway. We did that because Brian had said some things about him, most notably saying he looked like Mr. Ed. #14 wasn't supposed to be Grogan (I was a Patriots fan since I was a kid so I wouldn't have deliberately put Grogan in there). The Scarecrow and Tin Man were the a top DJ team i Seattle at the time, Gary Crowe and Mike West. We did this for local publicity. Dorothy was Ava Fabian. She was the Miss August 1986 Playboy Playmate. She looked perfect for it, plus we figured with her there every male reporter in the area would show up to cover the shoot...it worked.

All the guys in the background of the LT poster were our crazy Greek friends from New York. The extras in the Dickerson poster (and many others) were friends of ours or people who worked for us. We even made our dad a referee in posters of Todd Christensen ("In Todd We Trust") and Ickey Woods ("Dirty Dancing"). We had more fun than anyone deserves to have in their jobs.