PROJECT: Editorial Team images for ESPN Social
CLIENT: ESPN
PROCESS: I was invited to do some team banner images for ESPN social for the World Cup finals match. The brief was simple: Do one for Team Argentina, feature their star player Lionel Messi and have the phrase Vamos Argentina. For Germany, feature star player Thomas Muller and the phrase Die Mannschaft.
I wanted to create a bold piece that was simple in composition but also bold while capturing the likeness of Messi and Muller.
I like both teams but I'm a fan of Leo Messi so I attempted him first. My concept was to have the countries flag colors run through the background and the jersey unifying him and his country. The action strokes were added to exentuate that blending. The typeface I chose was Fan script! Why this is special is because it was created by a famous Argentinian type master Ale Paul. Probably me and four other people would know this but I found it quite apropos.
MESSI TEAM ARGENTINA FIRST COMP
Alternate Edit: "I created an Alternate Messi piece with pants to satisfy my AD's curiousity to make him less floating. I complied especially not quite knowing at this point how I could carry this visual motif into the Muller/Germany piece."
MESSI CLOSE CROP
MESSI SECOND COMP W/ SHORTS ON / FINAL??
This was the piece we decided on with shorts on. Things were locked and set and ready to go for Team Aregentina.
MULLER GERMANY FIRST COMP / FINAL
For the Germany / Muller piece. I used a reference where Muller is pumping his fist and an aggressive look. I wanted to capitilize on the dynamism of this with similar diagonals in the background and picking a typeface that was hard and polished. The typeface used for "DIE MANNSCHAFT" was "Duke" by James T. Edmondson. Other than small edits here and there. This would end up being the final approved piece.
MULLER CLOSE CROP
10:00 AM GAME DAY: "I get a quick email from AD, detailing that they just found out that Argentina would be wearing their AWAY jerseys instead of their iconic Home jerseys. So I quickly scrambled to find images and did a last round of changes, just a couple hours before kickoff. This campaign was to launch before the game started as well. Ahh such is the life of an editorial artist." This would be the final images used. You can view the FB ESPN image Here: TEAM ARGENTINA / TEAM GERMANY
