Inside the Pack: 2023 Topps Design Released

Earlier this month, Topps released its 2023 flagship card design. If you’re a longtime collector and something seems familiar to you, you’re not wrong.

In 1963, Topps placed inset player headshots on the front of the card for the first time. They’ve repeated the stylistic design every 20 years since, with head shots returning in 1983 and 2003. These head shots are returning in 2023, the latest in the 60-year pattern.

Headshots are set against a background featuring the team logo. That’s great news, because the team name, appearing above the headshot, appears like it will be obscured by the photograph. The player’s name features in what appears to be a larger font than the past few years (thankfully) at the bottom. Cards have a traditional white border, as they have for the last three years.

My first instinct when I saw the design was how dynamite these cards will look in their Chrome offering next year. Chrome was still relatively new in 2003, the last time headshots were used, and those cards had blue borders. The colored refractors with the headshots are going to look amazing.

We have a few more months to wait until Series 1 is released, which generally happens in February. Until then, there are plenty of exciting 2022 releases forthcoming.