When golfing on a course I haven’t recently played or a hole with an intimidating water hazard, or really whenever I’m not certain if I’ll lose a ball to bad aim in a tree thicket, I tend to use recycled golf balls, as not to lose a better quality one. Recycled golf balls are very cheap and often scavenged from golf courses or are overprint off custom orders from tournaments / cooperate or charity events / venues. They generally come in packs of 25 or 50 and lately I’ve found them as a convenient study in logo design. Most have limited color schemes due to extra printing costs, but the designs are mixed, with logos, icons, or just text.
Most tournament logos print in two colors (ones from any golf course on the water (especially in the Carolinas and Florida) tend to use yellow and blue). I’ve rarely seen type using neon or bright warm colors, mostly dark blues or neutrals, which contrast against the lime tinted cropped grass on the green or the dull white of a sand trap. Most companies have their exact logo printed, but with consideration to arrangement if an icon is also included. It does seem that some companies, such as Digital Reports, add a clip-art styled image that, unfortunately, gives them a dated look.
Mostly, it’s quite random and immensely amusing (at least for a design nerd such as myself) to come across such variations in branding design. Every so often I’ll find one from someones wedding (or bar mitzvah! What a fantastic kid to opt for a golf outing as part of his coming of age celebration). At the Golfsmith mecca in Austin, they have open containers for the recycled balls and, if you’re really finicky about the designs, you can hand pick them (that’s where I got the Senate one, at least).
