Jersey Design
The process of creating something that represents you as a team or cub.. or even as a "Brand" can be long and potentially disappointing. One person's idea of cool is another's idea of cringe, so you can end up coming to awkward compromises such as removing design aspects, or following the trend of everyone else.
I've given UKWM a hard time in previous posts about how much of my time as a resource those events take to edit photos for.. But I've also probably had similar amounts of time returned by James in review and design work.
Every incarnation of the ICON jersey that has seen the light of day so far has been crafted as a learning piece by me, and managed to completion by James. With design influence coming from either a select number of players in the early days... to direct team sponsors in more recent years.
Clever Kitchen have been funding the jersey refresh for the past two seasons and as such you will notice they have taken a spot in the forefront of the designs... But it's not just logo space that Andy from Clever Kitchen has pushed in terms of the jerseys, It's been design influence and a passion for cleaner lines too.
Over this post.. I'm going to review a history of the ICON jersey design.
2020 - Proof of concept
The first print that was done as a proof of concept, only one was made, and it was the first attempt at creating any Illustrator artwork.
The money behind the ICON logo was designed specifically for this, with the crossed markers from the money being later used in the lens stickers that we have.
The tequila bottle on the gauntlet is a nod to a teammate who clearly knows their limits!
The team has had a longstanding relationship with Virst, and even the concept jersey featured them.
Aquatec are a plumbing supplies company who brilliantly supported the team through Rhys.
2021 - First Club Jersey
These two became the first Club jerseys that were produced. with each one having the player name (or "guest") on the back. Only one copy of the pink was ever produced. In the grand scheme of things it probably shouldn't have been made as it created a difference in the uniform.
Virst, Aquatec and RSPerformance logos were included. The money was removed, and the logo straightened. The hex pattern became a staple part of the team branding for the next few seasons.
One part which didn't end up looking all that great was the large cross design, as it turned out to look like braces when worn.
2022 - Sponsorship
In paintball, you very rarely get anything given to you.
You might get a discount offered, and an expectation to stick to an organisation (that's fine, everyone needs to earn money... and when was the last time you actually did something for your "sponsorship" anyway?)
So teams are almost entirely self funded, there are some organisations in the UK (S.A.D. for example) who have connections to outside support in which a level of funding can actually be found for the club.
Well, at the end of 2021, an old friend, and former team captain returned to playing. Andy is a man who makes his decisions quickly and knows what he wants. Within a few weeks of playing the last event of 2021 with us, he quickly decided to go all in with the team. Providing a stylistic guidance, and genuine funding to keep first team looking fresh at events. Let's raise a glass to the Clever Kitchen Company for that!
The first team jerseys took on a blue to brown fade, keeping the brown from previous generations. unsurprisingly this look is somewhat reminiscent of an Entity (Andy's previous team) jersey from some years ago with the brown / blue combination.
The club jerseys were refreshed to match the layout from the freshly designed team jersey. with the only other notable change there being the removal of the large cross. This cleaned up the look and allowed for better logo placements.
Spending time playing at the site of, or hanging out at events with One41 over the past few years has brought us close, and as another southern organisation it was extremely easy to apply their signature look to the rest of our recommended kit (you'll see a lot of the club rocking the packs and playing pants from them).
Over the covid years we were working with @denrteam via zoom for online classes which included exercises and theory in the lead up to the various layouts.
The Virst logo was lowered on the sleeves to allow better visibility and a more balanced look.
2023 - Looking Forward (And Back)
This year we've been fortunate to continue receiving support from the Clever Kitchen Company, and with that, took a move to shake up the jersey design once more.
The blue / brown has been flipped and instead of a fade we created a checkerboard style blend. Most of the logos got an outline after feedback from James and placements were adjusted to make better use of the chest.
As a part of the cleanup and sharper edges being used elsewhere, the ICON wording had a font change which has given it a sleeker look. The number on the back also had the shadow taken off making it lighter.
As 2023 is the fourth competitive season for the team, we wanted to show some respect for the people who have been a part of the organisation, so down the sides you will find a list of players that have been a part of the club at some point since it's inception. Filling out the remainder of the sides is a definition of the word icon, along with a mantra style quote.
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