free yard
Football Shirt & Ball 2021
I was hired by Free Yard to design and produce merchandise for their DJ livestream which broadcasts from an Iconic off license in Tottenham called Harry's.
With the upcoming, postponed World Cup, and probable football fever they decided they wanted to do football shirts, and that idea developed into doing a ball too.
So we had to thrash out a concept for the design, and decided to look for design elements that tied into a familiar off license aesthetic, even if only subconsciously. I noticed that two of the most common point of sale items, chewing gum and scratch cards, had some crossover graphics in lightning and sparkles so took that for a starting point on the print design.
Once the print design was agreed, I looked at their examples of football shirt styles they liked, and approximately designed an original sewing pattern combining elements of each.
Communicating exactly what we wanted to make to the manufacturer in China took months of desperately frustrating conversations, sending and receiving fabric samples and insistence that they could do things they claimed they couldn't but we got there in the end.
And that was just the shirt, the ball was the most challenging thing I have ever worked on and as such could be my proudest achievement, because I know what went into it.
The biggest challenge was that I designed it to have a smooth gradient from one hemisphere to the other. This was an element of the panel design I couldn't get my head round at all. So I explained to the factory and they had a go, and they couldn't get it right either. I persevered with it through many more versions and eventually cracked it, and oh what a feeling!
I also recreated the 97-06 premier league shirt letters. Notice I substituted the premier league lion for the Harry's Off Licence/ Lion of Judah version. I couldn’t convince the shirt factory to receive shipment of the flock letters I’d got produced elsewhere and transfer them to the shirts for me so I actually heat pressed all the shirt letters and numbers myself in London.
Same for the sleeve patch, which was based on the Premier League sleeve patch of the same era, but reworked to take on the Caribbean culture of Harry’s Off
License and nod to the fan art they receive and display.
A typical Off-License counter with chewing gum and scratch cards at the forefront/ Harry's son DJing from behind their shop's counter in one of the Free Yard sets on YouTube.
Print design for the shirt fabric and colour options.
Free Yard gave me examples of shirts they liked. I designed an original sewing pattern from elements of each.
Many colourway options I generated for them to choose from.
Final shirt design w/ custom flock shirt numbers and arm patch.
Love that the factory took my illustration explaining the distinct panels and materials in bright colours literally and produced it as one of the samples!
First sample shirt recieved and tried on.
Original sketch for the ball design/ The final panel layout after dozens of revisions and fistfulls of hair/ The individual panels at the factory.
Look at that for pattern matching!!!
Got the iconic '97-'06 Premier League shirt letters and numbers remade as flock heat-press transfers with a custom logo in the bottom of the numbers.
Some of the hand painted signs and fan art received and displayed at Harry's.
Premier League sleeve patch from the same era as the shirt numbers/ Lion of Judah patch for reference/ The reworked version I designed and had made for these shirts.