The most 1995 card ever

I've mentioned "Nineties Design" quite a few times on this blog. The 1990s were an interesting decade for design as just about everything swapped onto computers for good. All the old ways of laying out printing disappeared. Computer-aided design made it much easier to play around with fonts, manipulate photos, add colours and jazzy bits and bobs, and the trend was for card companies to mess around more and more, until they peaked and gradually retreated down into sensible territory. 

Today's card is from the absolute zenith of that peak. In it's own way it's beautiful. As an artifact of a decade that is so far removed from today's world it may as well have been in a different century, it's incomparable.

Card Number 368: Fleer, 1995; #560

The multiple repeating tinted images of Tony make a stained glass effect. What's odd about this set is that most of the cards looked nothing like it. This design template was reserved for the National League West teams - the Rockies, Dodgers, Padres and Giants. Other divisions had much more normal looking cards.

How much of an outlier is this card? Well here are 8 other base cards from 1995 for comparison.

Admittedly, we do have the three cards there that could well have been photographed at the same game, and the Pinnacle one bottom right is weird too, but it's quite clear that the Fleer '95 card is in a class of its own.

The back is also weird.

The stats box is spaced out to cover the whole card, but only shows the last 10 years' worth of stats. Meanwhile there is a close up of Tony's face cropped from an action shot. Half the logo is included. The legalese is printed in tiny font over the player name and the card number encroaches on the picture as well. 

There is something so pure about the aesthetic wrongness of this card it is literally breath-taking!

As I was compiling that 9-card comparison graphic, I decided to include a card that I hadn't yet blogged about. As a counterweight to the incredible nineties design from Fleer, here is Tony's Topps card from that year. 

Card Number 369: Topps, 1995; #431

It's an unremarkable card until you turn it over.

Topps teamed up with Mitsubishi Diamond Vision - the company that produce the huge screens at sports stadia - in 1995 and rendered player portraits on the back as if they were on the big screen. The way they have added a cut-out image of Tony underneath makes it look like he has a huge head on a tiny body, reminiscent of the memorable Score cartoon All-Star card. I find it amusing.

Total: 369/394

Pop Quiz answers - from yesterday's quiz

a) Fred McGriff went to San Diego in the trade that saw Joe Carter move to Toronto.

b) Joe hit a walk off home run to win the Blue Jays their second World Series in a row in the final game of the 1993 season.

c) Joe is older - born 7 March 1960.