Along with the game itself, football kit design is just one of those childhood passions that simply followed me into adulthood. Now, as a freelance graphic designer, I have a few more tools and skills at my disposal than I did when I was seven. I love to put those skills to use to combine clean and elegant designs with some kind of twist, typically something that only people with a bit of insider information can really appreciate. Why? Firstly, it's a sense of belonging: something that means this shirt could only ever be our shirt. Secondly, that feature should hopefully serve as a point of interest. At best, other people should want to ask what that pattern is, or why that graphic is there; the shirt's design becomes a way for people to learn just a little bit more about the club and the people it's been made for. At worst, other people should at least think that it looks kinda cool.
My years of creating logomarks have taught me a lot about taking all the things that an organisation or company does, all the things that they might want to stand for, and condensing all of that work and ambition into a simple mark that looks good big or small, printed or digital, 2D or 3D. The trick is not to create a logo that tries to say absolutely everything there is to say; businesses evolve, and an overly literal logo just won't be able to keep up. Instead, a logo made to stand the test of time should carry something in its character hinting at the ethos that underpins how a business is run, why that business was set up in the first place, what motivates the people who work there. A business is liable to change what it does pretty frequently; why it does what it does rarely changes much at all.
I'd like to think that this experience translates pretty nicely into kit design. What is it that sets your club apart? What in its history or area makes its members proud? And how can we turn that into a kit that you'll be proud to wear? I'd be really interested to find out.
Telephone: 07742753293
Email: matt@matttams.co.uk
Website: www.mattams.co.uk
