Noah Winter boasts he’s been to more Super Bowls than Tom Brady.
Brady played in 10 games — more than any other player. But Winter will be part of the Super Bowl spectacle for the 30th consecutive year this year, no longer in uniform but in charge of the celebratory confetti after the game.
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Winter’s company, Artistry in Motion, also makes confetti for rock concerts, movies, political meetings and the Olympics. But the blizzard of color that rains down on the field at the end of each Super Bowl is probably what he’s best known for.
This is certainly the question he’s most likely to be asked at a dinner party. “This has become an iconic moment,” Winter marvels, sitting in his office and confetti factory in Northridge, California.
Jane Gershovich, who was the photographer when the Seattle Seahawks won the Super Bowl in 2014, said when the confetti dropped, everyone wanted to play inside. Players and their families have been known to throw it in the air and make confetti angels.
“Just seeing players and their kids participating at such a healthy level brings a lot of joy to everyone on the court,” she said.
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So, how do you plan and execute a giant confetti drop? Winter raises some questions:
What happens to the confetti from the losing team?
Artistry in Motion shipped 300 pounds (135 kilograms) of confetti in two colors to each team participating in the Super Bowl. With about four minutes left in the game, they brought confetti cannons onto the field and lined them up around the stadium walls.
Even if teams flood the field before the clock expires, the confetti waits until the timer shows the game is officially over. The winner’s color is approved.
“Better late than early,” Winter explained. “Sometimes players go out and shake hands. We don’t launch until three zeros on the clock. In 30 years, we’ve never launched the wrong color or launched it too early.”
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The color mix isn’t 50-50, as certain colors dominate the video, so the company had to experiment to find the right mix.
Seaman Paper Co. in Massachusetts has been making tissue paper for 25 years, and Artistry in Motion turns it into confetti, said Jamie Jones, one of Seaman’s owners. Many New England Patriots fans who work there are particularly excited about their appearance in this year’s Super Bowl.
The company produces approximately 150,000 pounds (68,000 kilograms) of tissue paper per day, primarily for gift packaging and food service.
“It’s a very prestigious order, but not a big one,” Jones said of the Super Bowl newspaper.
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How to get the best flutter effect?
Winter found that a rectangular shape worked best for confetti because it rotated on its axis and hung in the air.
But what TV viewers may not realize is that there are actually two confetti dropped at the Super Bowl – one at the end of the game and the other when the Vince Lombardi Trophy is presented to the winning team. The second round of confetti is cut to follow the outline of the trophy.
Messages can also be printed on small rectangles. At a handful of Super Bowls, Artistry in Motion printed social media messages on each small flag at the request of event sponsor Twitter.
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Someone asked if the confetti was cut by hand (it wasn’t), and Winter joked that his hands were tired.
Is confetti biodegradable?
The small, rectangular, tissue paper flags are made from 98 percent post-consumer recycled material from the United States, Winter said. The paper is biodegradable.
The company makes confetti in the colors of the final four teams in the NFL playoffs. All unused is recycled.
Confetti made a mess in the stadium, but it wasn’t Winter’s job to clean it up. Each stadium takes a different approach, depending in part on the make-up of the venue. Some use rakes. Others use leaf blowers, taking care not to damage artificial turf.
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How did you get into the confetti business?
Winter studied lighting design in college and worked on pyrotechnics at venues such as the Hollywood Bowl before Disney asked his team to recreate the falling and swirling leaves for the live “Pocahontas” show in the mid-1980s. Soon, he was making confetti for the daily parades at Disneyland.
In 1986, Mick Jagger saw confetti at Disney and asked Artistry in Motion to make some for a Rolling Stones concert at Dodger Stadium. He then toured with his fledgling confetti company. Other artists, including U2’s Bono, also requested confetti for their shows.
Stadium concerts gave rise to sporting events. The company’s first Super Bowl was in 1997, when the Green Bay Packers defeated the Patriots (formerly Brady’s team) at the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans. Winter served as the pyrotechnics performer for the Super Bowl the year before, and this year is his 30th game.
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In 2025, an estimated 127.7 million people will watch games on television or streaming.
Winter wouldn’t admit to having a favorite team, but he did say that two of his brothers are New York Jets fans, and he promised to take them to the Super Bowl and set off confetti cannons if their team returned. In 1969, quarterback Joe Namath led the Jets to their last Super Bowl title.
