More?

Seeing as though I didn't post in a while thought it might be a good idea to have two posts in one day! Who would have thought eh?

Well what can I bring you, well I have this design which I just made up playing around with shirt styles, I never made any shorts or socks because they were starting to become quite unimaginative so I kept to the shirt only for the model.


First up we have Beşiktaş J.K. current Turkish champions, and I haven't ventured into Turkish football yet so I thought they'd make an ideal model for the design.

I also realised that none of my striped kits had any stripes on the sleeves, not that I am allergic to them or anything just I never think to add them, so that is something I got to straight away. The bottom white line is a kind of deviant of the 2002 Nike design which had a line of different colour wrap around the back and stop on the front so I incorporated that and turned it into a more energizing shape almost giving the appearance of bull horns. The collar is a plain V-neck which I have used before on some other design I made but have added a couple of lines to add a bit of red into the design as a plain black and white kit would be so boring, I also think it gives a classy not over complicated look.

I have place a decorated Turkish emblem on the left of the chest to signify them winning the league title and the word 'SAMPIYON' (Champion) underneath, with Beşiktaş' two stars above symbolizing the former league victories.

As an after thought to make the kit more unique and special I decided to make a stylized version of Beşiktaş' İnönü Stadium as it is the last year they will play there before they move to their new modern stadium, on the stands are wrote 'Stadyumu İnönü' and on the other side it says 'Kara Kartallar' which is the team's nickname and means Black Eagles in English. The stars over the stadium represent the 11 players on the pitch with a special large on in the middle with a 12 of course denoting the fans as the 12th man. The pitch contains the clubs initials BJK in an ornamented fashion with the founding date of 1903 in the stand under the large star.

Hamburger SV und FK Baku

Again not really updated this in a while so apologies for that, just been busy/lazy, well, it makes sense in my head! I am pleased to say I have come up with a few more designs though so I've not been all that lazy after all.

Today I bring you the kits of Hamburg SV (HSV) and FK Baku (FK Baku), funny no?

These are both in the same style as my previous Győri kit so they both have the wacky sleeve design, and big central graphics and all the other pizazz that you saw in it.

HSV are a club that doesn't require an introduction, one of the biggest teams in Germany and one of the only teams to never have been relegated from the Bundesliga. They haven't had the same success in recent times as they did have in the early 80's but they have been a big hitter usually finishing their seasons among the top 5.

As I mentioned in my St. Pauli article Hamburg is one of the nicest cities I have ever been to and a few years ago I got to see HSV play at what was the AOL Arena (now HSH Nordbank Arena, just doesn't have the same ring to it) against Schalke who won 0-1 and then went on to win the league, I do have fond memories of it and it was around the time that Juan Pablo Sorín had joined the club as I still have the programme with his big face on it so from a time I considered them to have their strongest squad in a long time, note the word squad and not team.

What I have done here for the shirt is try and take it back to having a predominantly blue trim since they've had a red trim last season and a blue trim before that so I thought it time to hope back to blue but I have kept a good deal of red in it with the logos and numbers, the graphic on the front is the castle from the Hamburg coat of arms and the rest of the shirt is pretty self explanatory.

Both the shorts and socks are traditional HSV with the Rothosen and blue socks with their typical black and white stripes around the top, never been sure why that is the tradition though, but it is there.


FK Baku are a team I must admit again I don't know much about other than they're the current champions of the Azerbaijani league so will be playing Champions League football next season and are located in the capital Baku. From looking through some older pictures I noted they have played in hoops before so I thought that could be something to revert to as the stripes looked a little dull and this gives the shirt some character although it has ended up looking like a bit of a Reading kit. On the back of the kit their is an insignia from an older crest of the team showing an oil derrick which I believe is one of the main industries in Baku and Azerbaijan. The graphic on the chest comes from the teams current logo and gives it a unique look if nothing else, yeah, ok, it does look a bit odd (shit).

The socks for this turned out well I think I used the serrated style which can be seen around the rim for the hoops and I think it gives a nice feel to it.

Győri ETO FC

Another day, another kit, today is turn of Hungarian Soproni Liga side Győri ETO FC from the city of Győr in the north of Hungary, a pleasant town in the north of Hungary of which I have had the pleasure to travel through.

I can't say I know much more than that about this team without consulting Wikipedia and even that doesn't give me a great deal more information other than they have won three national league titles one being in 1963 which coincided with a good run in the European cup the following season getting all the way to the semi-finals before being dumped out by Eusébio's Benfica side 5-0 on aggregate.

One reason I like Győri is that I consider their logo to be one of the nicest looking in world football, the colour combination of a dark bluey-green and white with gold trim makes it stand out for a start. Then the presentation of the information is quite classic being almost completely round with an inner section displaying a cockeral upon it's perch (not quite sure what that represents) and the presentation of the clubs colours on the opposite side of the crest. Then their is the fantastic Hungarian text around it which just looks like no other language on Earth top off this wonderful logo.

After a little bit of extra research into the history with regards to the teams shirts and kits, this led me to know I had to create something all green with a good splashing of white too. I took my inspiration for this design from Orlando Magic's jersey (I was watching the NBA playoffs at the itme of designing it) and that's where the lines on the sides of the shirt come from. You may also notice the unusual cut of the gold line on the back and shorts, this is corresponding with how the Magic setout their shirt too giving it an intersecting look.

You will also see quite an unusual pattern on the sleeves of the shirt, again I drew inspiration from another shirt for this. I originally set-out to create a shirt with the feel of a 98 kappa design and inparticular the kappa Red Star Belgrade shirt, I played for about half an hour trying to get something similar with different colours but always failing. Eventually I decided to make it into a kind of water mark using different chades of green but still it didn't look right in the centre of the shirt so I tried it on the sleeve et voilà, the pattern was born.

The socks I am also quite proud of this time around, I have given the top trim of the socks a serated edge with a gold trim around the top and a small logo of the crest stiched on the front of the socks a bit like Adidas did a few years ago (Anyone else getting the impression this shirt is a major rip-off? haha).

I needed to use the cockeral on the front of the shirt I thought it made a cool central feature of the shirt and broke up the big area of plain green. An earlier version of the logo also features on the back of the collar. Hopefully the kit looks just as nice as the logo.

Maribor + Litex Lovech

Two different teams today, using the same template as the previous Bohemians 1905, so I won't be jabbering on too much about that.

Why have I picked these two teams? Well I actually have a list of all the teams I want to create something for then I just randomly pick a number between 1 and 20 then create those teams, that's what I usually do anyway, and I did this time to a degree. I picked Maribor a bit more manually because I thought the purple and yellow colours would perfectly compliment the template. Litex was picked the random way from my list.

Maribor are the most well supported team in Slovenia, unfortunately for me I have only passed through their on my way to Ljubljana but I was tempted to jump off and see if I could find a shirt. Maribor are also the most succesful club in Slovenian football and have won the league championship this season too mean that they will have Champions League football next season. The are also the only Slovenian team to have qualified for the Champions League group stage back in the year 2000 sharing the group with Lazio, Bayer Leverkusen and Dynamo Kiev.

I've always been a fan of Maribor kits ever since I first saw them in pictures about 8 years ago. Then when they got a Nike T90 kit I knew I just had to have one, but as you'd guess Slovenian kits are quite rare in the U.K. and I'm still waiting to get my hands on one now. So I just did the next best thing at the time and created them in FIFA. It's a kit I'm still pretty pleased with until this day as I had to create all but one or two of the sponsor logos and it is a large amount of sponsors.

For my version, which I actually created before Bohemians, I greatly cut down on the sponsor logos as I wasn't going for accuracy like I was for my FIFA version, so I have just left their main sponsor, 'Zavarovalnica Maribor'. The logo has also been modified from the crest you see in the centre of the presentation to just the city crest which you see on the shirt. As I'm not a great fan of the name above the logo, always thought it looks a bit poor like nothing else representative can be found to place in that location of the logo.

Litex Lovech I don't really know to much about at all, I just know that they used to have a pretty nice kit by Adidas a few years ago which they played against Middlesbrough with back in 2006, it was orange with a diagonal black gradient which is what I have attempted here, not quite sure if it works though. I saw their game against Aston Villa where they wore another Adidas shirt with a singular white shoulder which I thought was alright, but it wasn't a touch on the 2006 kit. The player on the back is former Charlton Athletic defender Radostin Kishishev, 'Радостин Кишишев'.

Some more Nike...

I got an email the other day just asking if I could post more of my Nike kits that I posted way back in March so I am happy to oblige. Plus I've not posted in a bit of time so this will make up for it a little.

Something different...

Just thought I'd make a change today and show you some of my early work with FIFA. These are so unbelievably ugly so please avert your eyes if you're of a delicate disposition.

To be precise I actually made them for a game called Total Club Manager 2004 which used the same graphics engine as FIFA. The lines and everything aren't so bad it is just the collars which let these kits down severely oh and the logos haven't been resized properly at all, look at the dinner plate logos on that Sweden kit! Also note that I think the Portugal kit was the first time I discovered how to use the screen blending mode in Photoshop for the first time, hence why it looks really shiny.

Aaaah the good old days, how I feel nostalgic.

Bohemians 1905 (Prague)

Now for another sob story, well ok not so much a sob story but more a semi-sob story. Today's protagonists are Bohemians 1905, a team based in Vršovice, Praha 10 administrative district of Prague, and is another place I am really fond of. Having visited there quite a few times, , but never have I seen a Czech match! One day I will see a game though, hopefully a Bohemians 1905 game!

Bohemians are affectionately nicknamed 'Klokani', or Kangaroos in Czech, after a tour of Australia they were famously given a kangaroo to commerate the trip to take back to Prague zoo and it has stuck ever since and has notoriously become the clubs logo. Bohemians 1905 are not to be confused with Bohemians Praha another Czech team who until this season were above Bohemians 1905 in terms of leagues but now the more famous of the two, 1905, have gained promotion back to the Gambrinus liga.

This is where the semi-sob story comes in... The club who as the name suggest have over 100 years worth of history but in their centenary year of 2005 they were struck with a massive financial crisis due to poor management of the club, this forced to demote the team to the 3rd division of Czech football and briefly became known as AFK Vršovice due to not being able to pay the licence fee too the league, during this time another Prague team, FC Střížkov, bought the license and continued to play under the name Bohemians Praha which could never be retrieved for the true Bohemians who had to settle for Bohemians 1905. Got that all?

Their fans are known for being some of the most loyal in the Czech Republic as when the club faced this economic crisis their fans setup a cooperative trust collection between themselves and managed to raise a very impressive 3,800,000 CZK, 2,800,000€ at the time, and managed to clear the debt.

Today the club have just regained promotion to the Gambrius liga and look set to duel with Bohemians Praha, which will surely be two of the biggest games of the season for them, possibly overtaking the rivalry which once stirred between them and fellow fallen giants Dukla Praha.

For this kit I took a bit of inspiration from Canterbury's kits for both football and rugby, having their seems seemingly dotted all over the place in near random positioning but still managing to look very nice and very impressive. I was also looking to create something quite dynamic looking, my first try I created something too ugly for words so I went back to the drawing board and simplified it down to what you see now. The white and green patches down the side of the kit are intended to give a kind streamlined effect. I toyed with making these patches continue in an arcing shape down the back of the shirt but didn't turn out well so I opted more for a semi-chevron look. Lots of semis going on isn't there.

For with the shirt sponsor I again didn't want to pollute the shirt with a bawdy looking corporate logo so I dedicated this space to the incredible Bohemians fans and added a simple bit of text, Klokani, with the kangaroo logo incorporated into the 'O' of the writing.

The shorts follow this style, almost. here I actually did think to follow down looked better but perhaps you disagree that this just looks wrong because it doesn't follow the same style as the shirt, but I am quite happy with it.

Peñarol & Busan I'Park (아이파크)

A totally non-European affair today. We've got teams hailing from Uruguay and South Korea respectively. I can't think of any connections between the two whatsoever but now the two have come together under my 'Infinite' brand!

Yeah it is tenuous but that's all I have to work with....

Well Peñarol are the Uruguayan team in this instance if you hadn't guessed. Peñarol are one of the biggest teams in Uruguay and also historically one of the most successful teams not only nationally but also internationally, claiming fourty-six league titles and five, yes five, Copa Libertadores titles. As well as this they also have a fierce rivalry with captial city rivals Nacional, a rivalry so fierce than the opposite teams sponsors have majorly suffered business wise from being boycoted as was the case with Pepsi when they were the main sponsors of Nacional, fighting the Cola wars even in football.

For the shirts I have opted for a checked shirt in the teams famous yellow and black colours, not a totally original move as Peñarol have worn a checkered pattern before in their history, way back in 1901 Wikipedia tells me. So I thought it was high time that they made a reappearance. I have used the slightest amount of white on the shirt but have been told by one person that this would cause a reprisal in the Peñarol camp and by another that this amount would be tolerated so I really don't know who to believe. The crest has been 'double-badged' to highlight its location or it would just fade into the background with the checks. On the back of the shirt their is a large black panel for the name and number to be seen visibly too. I had toyed with the idea of using a black crest on the back for the name and number to be placed in but it just look really dated. The Uruguayan flag also is located on the back of the shirt for some national pride.


Busan I'Park (아이파크) which you may have guessed by the Korean text is in fact the Korean team we are discussing today. I really know next to nothing about them other than the team colours and have enjoyed seeing the evolution of their strips ever since their kappa strip from 2004. Their colours are truly unique and I can't think of any other team that uses red and white quarters in the world, if you can let me know!

The most recent Busan kit has done away with all black from the shirt which I personally am not a fan of so I have given it another run out with black sleeves and a black collar. The shirt features the red and white quarters with the Busan I'Park crest centred in nearly the middle of the shirt with two largish stars either side of it, which represent their four K-League victories. Beneath the crest is the typical Busan I'Park text which is featured in both Latin and Korean alphabets.

On the back of the shirt is Korean international and the club's top scorer Jeong Shung-Hoon (정성훈)

Knattspyrnufélag Reykjavíkur (KR)

Now to Iceland! A country I have a bit of history with, but that is a pretty long story to say the least.

On my travels to Iceland I had the chance to watch this match live at the KR-völlur, now you must surely be thinking, that's got to be the dullest thing ever, well I can tell you it really wasn't. The fans were far better than I had expected, all of them were on their feet beating drums chanting for their team, I even joined in a few 'Kow-Air' (as it pronounced in Icelandic) chants! The match was good too, it was between KR - HK (Handknattleiksfélag Kópavogs) who have now been relegated to the 1. delid karla. The match ended 3-2 to KR and their was much jubilation around the stadium, which is more one stand at the side of the pitch than anything else. A small report on the match can be found here: http://www.soccerway.com/matches/2007/09/16/iceland/landsbankadeild-karla/knattspyrnufelagid-reykjavik/handknattleiksfelag-kopavogs/442641/ an if memory serves me right Takefusa's goal was a spectacular bar down and in so it was well worth my while going. Only regret is not buying a scarf, I have contacted the club but they never get back to me :(

Above is a bit of my 'excellent' photography I took from the match :D

KR is officially the most successful club in Iceland although they've not won a national title since 2003 they have been an ever present threat in the league and because they are the most successful team they wear gold with their traditional black and white. They are more well known for wearing stripes, but I tried this and I just didn't feel it looked good enough for them to hypothetically wear, so I limited it to a singular black stripe down the centre with black sleeves giving the illusion that the stripes were bigger than they actually are. I also opted to make the KR crest a tad larger than usual to boast the teams identity and show the opponent just who they are. The collar is a stylish and semi-modern design which gives the impression that it is cutting through the shirt. The crest of Reykjavík is feature on the back of the collar just above the gold writing in a business like times new roman font.

The shorts and socks are both black and feature white and gold trims with the socks differing with text 'Knattspyrnufélag' down the left sock and 'Reykjavíkur' down the right sock.

Competition!

Hi,

Just want to let you know that over at DesignFootball.com their is going to be a competition taking place in the next few days to see who can design the best Sevilla home kit! Their will also be a grand prize for the winner, but I can't let you know what that is yet though, it is a good one though.

Your truly is going to be the judge so I can't win it unfortunately, so bad times. However it is open to everyone else, happy times! I am going to be looking for the most meaningful, most well designed and best presented kit, well they are what I am going to look for most and it's got to have a wow factor too.

To check out the rules and regulations for the competition check out this page http://www.designfootball.com/football-shirt-design/119-which-team-for-first-unofficial-df-competition

Hope to see you competing!!!

FK Vojvodina, FK Mladá Boleslav

Well I don't know about you, but I really can't say I know a lot about these teams. I have never been to either place either although I do hear Vojvodina is meant to be pretty nice, maybe I'll get to go one day.

You may have seen a pattern develop with the kits in the past few posts, basically places I've been and seen, but now I just decided to totally stray off of my beaten track and try some teams which are seen in their own countries as being forever the perennial under achievers hovering in mid-table nothingness. Although this season has been slightly different for Vojvodina who are looking to take down the Belgrade monopoly of the league and have been working their way towards a second place finish behind Partizan. Currently with a game to go they are two points ahead of Red Star and a win in their next game will secure a third qualifying berth in the new Europa League.

Mladá Boleslav however have lived up to their own label of being a decent team in the Czech league but not a brilliant team. With a sixth place finish, must be said on the Czech head-to-head rule, they have missed out on any European competition whatsoever. With a second place finish in 2006 behind surprise winners Slovan Liberec, it has been hard to replicate such success in recent years. They are not a team of big names and never really have been although you may recognize the name Michal Papadopulos from the Czech national team who made his international debut again England.

For the kits I have kept them pretty traditional but using the same template as the previous Ferencváros kit. Colours have all been kept the same and to a degree so has the styles.

Vojvodina are best known for playing in red and white halves and I was happy to oblige this, also adding in a tertiary accent colour of gold which can be seen as a prominent colour on the clubs logo. I had the choice of the gold or the blue of the star and thought that the blue was a little too full on to use on a wider scale of the shirt. All of the rest of the design pretty much follows the same as the previous kit you have seen in this design. The blue star does however feature on the back of the socks.


For Mladá Boleslav I have tried something a little different but nothing radical. The team usually plays in an all white shirt with a light blue secondary colour in just parts of the shirt but I have changed this so just the sleeves feature the blue. The rest of the design is made up of mesh which still gives a visible look but nothing full on, such as a change of colour would bring. The team are sponsored by that very recognisalbe Czech brand Škoda so just for the sake of making it look as Czech as possible and also I think it has become a recognisable feature of the Mladá Boleslav shirts that I couldn't not add it.