A Tip of the Hat to Civil Standard

It is the perfect sport logo. Jim Thorpe wore it on his chest in 1912 when he was crowned the greatest athlete in the world. The American rugby team wore it when they won the Olympic gold medal in 1924. They could walk out of those old photos into today and still look perfect. It is timeless, graphically pleasing, and meaningful. Despite all that, it is surprisingly hard to find. 

That isn’t to say it isn’t out there, but it is rarely just IT. Modern designers love nothing more than to ruin a good thing by trying to put a modern twist on things. “Oh look at that! Its perfect. Let’s change it.”

Then that one day Huckberry sent me an email and I discovered Civil Standard.

There it was. Just the patch. Simple. I could do whatever I wanted. Better yet, one of what I wanted was already there. Just a navy blue cap with the patch front and center. My purchase completed, I spent a little while longer clicking around the site. They have a manifesto. Who doesn’t love a manifesto?

Talking to the founder of Civil Standard, Trevor Henry, you find a guy geeking out over graphic design and personal relationships to geographic identity. He is exactly the kind of guy you would think would have a manifesto on his entrepreneurial website. He has a bachelor’s in anthropology/econ from Miami of Ohio, then got an MBA from Northwestern… but then at the heart of it he just really loves the city of St. Louis flag. Its where he’s from sure, but ya know, it just looks great.

St. Louis isn’t my favorite, South Carolina’s is better, but that wasn’t why I was there. I came for the imperialist shield of the United States. No, I’m not a fan of annexing islands all Teddy Roosevelt, but I am a fan of that design. It looks great on the bow of a ship in the white fleet, on the chest of Jim Thorpe, and now it looks great on my hat.

Item number one on my Christmas list is checked off!