Football Graphic - Bastian Schweinsteiger

I was supposed to upload this on Friday (yesterday) but I never got a chance but better late than never.

The final piece in a 5 day update has come and I will put these types of designs to bed now that I have scratched the itch to do them.

Today's footballer I used is Bayern Munich's and Germany's Bastian Schweinsteiger. A player who started off as a winger and has now been moulded into one of the worlds best centre midfielder's.

In keeping with all of these designs I wanted to keep it clean and simple and I feel I achieved that. I placed the render in, fiddled around with some settings and then to finish it off I got an image of the Allianz Arena, Bayern Munich's home stadium. I blended it in behind Schweinsteiger and played around with some settings until I was happy. Lastly, I chose a font I felt went well with the design.

Here it is.

Football Graphic - Mathieu Debuchy

Day 4 and another football piece. I will be doing different pieces of artwork from next week onwards as I have scratched the itch to do these pieces of artwork One more remains and will be published tomorrow.

Today's footballer is Lille and France international Mathieu Debuchy. A centre midfielder come right back. He's a player I have liked since I first watched him play 3 years ago.

For this piece I placed in the render, changed the layer options and then added a gradient to the base. I chose colours close to the France kit. I selected a font I liked and angled it above and below Debuchy. I then added some gradients to the font and I was happy with the end result.

Here it is.

Football Graphic - Eden Hazard

Day 3 and for this piece I chose one of the most promising young talents in world football, Eden Hazard.

Following the mould of the last few I have done I set out to keep it simple. I wanted it to look a bit like a movie poster or something to that effect. I saturated it with a colour I liked and then added textures. Messing with certain values and layer options I put it together in about 10 minutes.

Here is the finished piece.

Football Graphic - Andres Iniesta

Day two and the second piece of football art.

I used Spain & Barcelona's Andres Iniesta as the footballer for the artwork. Such is his brilliance and how easy it comes to him. Watching him play and dictate the flow of a game is poetry in motion. 

I placed in Iniesta onto a blank artboard and then began to mess around with the render quality. I tried a few pattern overlays and changed the values in the layer until I got my desired look. I wanted the piece to look like a painting so I kept it bare and added textures to lift it a little bit.

I was probably happiest with this one in comparison to yesterday's and the other 3 remaining one's. It took 10 to 15 minutes to complete. Here it is.

Football Graphic - Robert Lewandowski

A couple of weeks ago I quickly done 5 pieces of football artwork and updated 1 a day until the Friday. I enjoyed how simple it was to knock out one of the pieces so I decided to do it again. I'm off sick from work so what better way to kill an hour or so than to do a few more.

The first one to kick us off is of the Polish star striker, Robert Lewandowski. He's just off the back of an impressive season with German club Borussia Dortmund and went into Euro2012 full of confidence. Alas... Poland were knocked out in the group stage. 

Out of the 5 pieces I done, this one was the busiest in terms of art. Using a couple of layers to form textures and using that as a base, I wedged in the Polska coat of arms to finish that part off. I then placed in the render of Lewandowski and messed around with the opacity and layer options until I was happy with the look. Finally I added the text and went for something scratchy and messy to suit the look and feel of the piece.

It took around 15 to 20 minutes to complete. I'm happy with how it turned out but It wasn't my favourite of the 5 done. A nice one to start the week with nonetheless.

Football Graphic - Alessandro Del Piero

Fifth and final footballing piece for the week.

This final piece is of one of my all time favourite forwards in world football. Alessandro Del Piero of Italy & Juventus. He was always a player I admired growing up and was in awe of when watching him play. This season was his last season for Juventus and what a servant he was for the club.

Like the other pieces, I used a texture and played around with the layer options. When putting in some text I always decide what font it should be at the end. I type the text and then go through my extensive font library and what I look for is a "feeling" more so than what looks nice. It's weird to explain.

Anyway, I was happy with the piece when I finished it. Simple, effective.

Football Graphic - Michael Essien

Day 4 and the 4th piece of football artwork is here.

For this one I chose Chelsea's Michael Essien. A player I have always liked and only for injuries he would have been one of the worlds best centre midfielder's. There is still time left just a shame he plays for Chelsea.

This piece is in the same mould as the last 3 days. I took a texture and tried to incorporate it into the artwork while messing around with the layer options/blending. I was happy when I finished it as I felt it was a strong piece, for me anyway. Simple but nice.

Here it is.

Football Graphic - Zinedine Zidane

Day 3 and a 3rd piece of footballing artwork.

I decided to use Zinedine Zidane for this piece and also to focus on his time at Juventus. He spent 5 seasons in Turin and managed to win two Serie A titles in his time there. I acknowledge both his title win's by putting the season's in the piece. I followed along from the first two pieces and used a texture and I was looking to achieve a minimalist look.

Like the others it took around 15 minutes to complete and I'm happy with how it turned out.

Football Graphic - Eduardo Vargas

Yesterday I had done a quick football related piece of artwork and while doing it I decided to follow on and do a few more. I done 5 in total and will upload one a day which will take me up to Friday.

For today's piece of artwork I chose to use Napoli's exciting young prospect, Eduardo Vargas. I liked using a texture in the last piece with Ronaldo so I decided to do the same this time. I used a crumpled paper effect and added some colour to it (Napoli colours). I then underlay a picture of Napoli's home stadium "Stadio San Paolo". It's not noticeable straight away but it is there. 

I was happy with how this one turned out. It took me about 15 minutes to do.

Football Graphic - Ronaldo

I got the sudden urge to do a quick football related piece of artwork. After a few minutes of browsing my extensive library of football player renders I came upon one of the greatest strikers to ever grace a football pitch. That player is Ronaldo.

Here is the final piece. It took me 15 minutes but I'm happy with how it turned out. 

The Logo In Use

If you check my post before this one Freelance Work - Logo Design. I designed a logo for a friend on twitter so that he could use it for his football teams new kits. Here is the kit with the logo

Looking pretty slick. It's great to see it on the kit. Top Rev are also doing pretty well in their league

It's pretty cool to see something you create being used for something. Makes the time you dedicate to make it, worth it. Good luck to Top Rev in their league.

Freelance Work - Logo Design

I was contacted by a person I converse with on twitter about doing a logo for his football team. The name of the team is called Top Rev F.C and he needed something so that they can get it stitched onto their new kit. He supplied me with an image of something that was mocked up before in a hurry and that he would like me to follow.

It's a pretty basic design and all it really needed was a few touches to make it stand out a little more. So I sat down in my free time and started to create the logo again. I wanted to make it look presentable so that it could be used for various things other than the football kit, things like banners, posters, flyers, websites and so on.

So after about an hour or so I had finished the design. I was happy with how it looked in the end. Simple but effective. I saved and supplied the logo as a high quality jpeg, png, pdf and an eps file so that it could be supplied to printers etc. I also supplied him with a colour chart of the cmyk make up of the logo.

The feedback was all positive and that to me is most important.

Bayside Boats - Personal Brief Design

When setting myself a personal design brief I always approach it with the mentality of "less is more". I want to create something that isn't busy but creative and fun to design. Taking inspiration from my last personal brief, I decided to create something that was based a little close to home.

I was walking along the coast road up in Baldoyle one evening. It was a lovely evening and there was plenty of activity from joggers to people in boats on the water. I thought of how a boat for hire business would make a killing during the summer and I thought of what it would be called and how a logo would look. With that, I had an idea for a personal brief.

I sat down one night and started thinking of ideas. Sketched for a few minutes and then began making a few things on my laptop. I decided it would be nice to somehow combine the name with a graphic, something that stuck to my less is more feel. 

I decided the name would be Bayside Boats. Thinking of how I could incorporate an image with the name, I was browsing boats and seen a small boat and it's mainsail + jib looked a lot like an "A". With that visual in my head I created a boat as a letter and the rest just fell into place. 

Here is the final piece. I'm quite happy with it and happy to get it done in a short time, an hour of designing (including design concept/sketching).

Luxurious Quality Living - Personal Brief Design

Luxurious Quality Living. That was the tagline that kept popping into my head when doing this personal brief. I had set out to make a minimalist advertisement for a housing estate not far from where I live. The goal, like always, to get the point/statement across in few words and with a strong image. 

The easy part about this was that I already had the name of the new housing area so no time was spent/wasted on coming up with a snappy or original name. I didn't sketch anything this time around, I just went straight at it. I have a very artsy fartsy reason behind the design but wont get into that, I'll just leave that be.

So there is the finished piece. I'm happy with it.

Freelance Work

I was contacted by a person to do some work for her. The idea was that she wanted to get a present for her soon to be married sister. She said she wanted something like a web-comic strip where you had panels and that she wanted to incorporate things that her sister liked and things about her that are funny.

I sketched up a few ideas and was in touch with the woman who was pleased with how it was going. I finished the piece, printed it on high quality paper and had the picture framed.

The piece was well received, so much so that I have been contacted by other people to do work of a similar nature.

Here is the final piece.

Personal Project

A little while ago I decided I wanted to do a quick little piece for the benefit of my nephew. He is fascinated with Super Mario and pretends to be one of the Mario Brothers. Such is his imagination so I decided I would draw him as a Mario Brother, print it, frame it and give it to him. He's only four and loves it and that to me is brilliant.

Here is the finished piece.

Rather late Christmas wishes... from Signarama

Here is the front of an A5 Christmas mailer we sent out from work last Christmas. I designed it and was quite happy with how it turned out. The back was a calender marked with notable dates and events coming this year.

I'm rather late uploading it but better late than never. Merry (late) Christmas!

Animal Rescue - Personal Design Brief

While doing some designing in my own time (not work related) I gave myself a little brief. It was to create a poster/image for a charity or organisation. The idea was to create something strong that gets a message across without the need for huge amounts of text.

I chose animal charities/rescue centres. I done some sketches before going near any software and wasn't happy at the first few drafts so I made solid choices to make it easier. A dog, care and make it heart-warming/empathetic. I liked setting myself design briefs just to keep it interesting.

Here is the final piece.

Football Card Collections

Looking back on these cards I done, it was something I enjoyed doing because it was simple and looked well when finished. Think I will waste a few hours creating some new collections. 

I find that using football (a sport I live and breathe) while being creative comes very natural. It isn't ground breaking work, it's just something I enjoy doing.

Vanity

Nothing amazing but a self created avatar I used for my twitter account. Vanity is a sin...