I decided to push myself and give it a go at kit design in hopes that maybe I could add it to my portfolio or somehow pick up business for my freelance business. Either way, I just wanted to practice designing soccer jerseys as I've played since I was 6 and have always been a fan of jersey designs.
Usually, people that engage in practicing jersey design like myself, start with professional teams and/ or make teams up. I decided to start designing the local high school teams around me instead as I think that market is substantially ignored, by and large. I set a couple of rules: 1- Had to relate to the teams playing style Or mascot in some way. 2- Had to look professional and simple, 3-Try to make the collars and piping from scratch. 4- Have fun.
I ran into the problem of the high schools not having vector logos...so I either had to turn low-res JPEGs into brushes OR in the case of the Northlake Christian logo, I created a completely new, unique crest/ logo to help me out & maybe sell to them.
I created about 5 sets before I shared them to the general public. Further I decided to share them with a friend that runs a statewide high school soccer site/ forum, whereupon he posted them and then I was asked directly by a coach in another city to design his school's jerseys. Also, the number of views on my Flickr posts went from low double digits to triple digits in a matter of hours.
