USC vs Cal – Sierra Lodge Football Poster
Update: Part 2 of the design process is now up.
This upcoming Saturday, Kairos Christian Fellowship will be having a getaway in the sierras. Unfortunately, that coincides with the big Cal vs. USC home game. As a way to draw students to choose the sierra trip over the game, we designed a poster for this event.
USC vs Cal - Kairos Sierra Lodge Getaway Poster (final)
More about the design process after the jump:
The most time-consuming part in designing this poster was making the water feel right. I’ve tried so many variations of water splashes, but they all looked flat, especially when added to the helmet. I even tried using the warp transform to make it wrap around the helmets a bit more, but that still didn’t look right.
Stock images of water found from sxc.hu
This was already my third (or so) attempt with the water wrapping around the helmets.
I showed this version (above) to my friends for feedback. Surprisingly, they actually liked the water effect (even though I did not); their only suggestion was to use a more modern font, especially for the “USC vs CAL” title. Their advice encouraged me to tackle the water problem anew — up until this point, I was ready to give up.
After toying around with the poster some more, I realized that a balloon pop photo might work as the splash element for the helmets. I’ve downloaded and tried the photo before, but I used it as drop elements (which didn’t quite work). It might just work to treat it as a huge, all-encompassing wall of water rather than a tiny speck:
In the above image: (1) Inserting the same photo over the Cal and USC helmets; (2) Changing the blend mode to screen; (3) Applying a large, soft-brushed mask to each bubble
After applying the realistic water splashes and making some more changes (noticeably on the text treatment), we have this:
This looks close to the final version, but not quite. After showing this to my design friends, one of them liked it immediately; the other suggested getting rid of the faint border altogether. Furthermore, I also noticed some design issues within the football/rain image:
Places where rain/splatter end too abruptly
After fixing those portions, inserting additional text (our getaway trip isn’t just about the football game), and making final color correction adjustments, we have the final result:
Etcetera
- Download the hi-res version of the USC vs Cal Football poster
- Source of my inspiration (it’s also a case study): Soldiers of Peace
- I’ve attached a psd of another poster in a previous post, but I’m not sure if anyone finds it useful. If enough people comment on this post, I’ll put it up.
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Tagged as inspiration, process + Categorized as Design
This poster looks really cool. I’m learning that the difference between amateurish products and professional ones really comes down to detail. I especially appreciate the parts of your case studies where you point out the mistakes.
Great stuff Abe, wow – have always enjoyed your work.
Nice! Can we see the stock photo of the players before the first passes?
@Wes @Jes: Thanks.
@Aaron: I’ve written a follow up to this post that includes snapshots of the base elements (ie, the photos).
great stuff abe. looks awesome.
did you have any thoughts about the cal players’ thigh being dry.. or thought about making their jersey more “soaked”. just wondering if those portions were considered. it actually helps that the bottom left part of his jersey actually looks wet already.
love the typography work – that is actually my favorite part. love a good typography layout.
@Clean Cut: Thanks for commenting — I’ve been waiting for someone to point out something like that. Questions/critiques are always welcomed!
In designing this, there was much deliberation on my part as to use how much “splashage” and where. There is such a thing as overdoing something; I even wanted to take out the splash from the arm because I thought that was slightly overboard.
In the end, I didn’t consider the hip area (honestly, I think there would be more water splashing from the entire back than just that one hip). I was, however, thinking about adding some splash effects to the player’s left hand, but didn’t think that would look as good. Furthermore, had I more time, I wanted to play with adding droplet and soak textures to the uniforms. I think that subtlety would definitely add to the effect.
Re: typography — thanks. I personally would love to see more designers examine the world of typography to a greater level.