Studio Brief: 'Research, Collect, Communicate: Product'

We were given the task of researching into a topic and find a topic within that research to focus on. My research was on the topic of Baseball. (See Design Context Blog)

From this research we then have to select 1 of 3 areas to work in and produce a physical product that shows infographics within it based on our focus topic. It was between: Publication and Promotion, Product and Packaging, Product and Distribution.

I couldn't decided which of these to go into and I felt that by selecting an option at such an early stage, it would mean that i would be restricted as to my idea generation therefore I decided to do Idea Generation for Initial Ideas first.

Initial Ideas for Baseball Brief

When coming up with these ideas, I had a brainwave and came up with the idea of producing some Baseball Cards/Top Trumps Collectables as they are a big part of the Baseball heritage and they would fit in really well with the topic I am doing, meaning that it would be very relevant. I went on to making a rationale which gave some more detail into this concept and how it would be relevant to the audience, topic and brief.

Brief Rationale

From this, I began to research into Baseball Cards (See Design Context Blog) and chose to do the overall idea based on Product and Packaging.

From this, I then went onto producing design development sheets for things like Brand Logo and Identity, Card Layout and Design, Information and Statistics to be included, Ect.

Baseball Card/Top Trumps Idea Development & Considerations

I managed to make a lot of quick possibilities that could be done for my designs. From this, we had a group Crit where we showed where we had got to so far in our initial ideas (See PPP Blog).

Brand Logo:

The first thing I decided to test out was making a logo for my card company. I had come up with a few ideas previously in my initial ideas but I decided that the most successful was the idea of having a Baseball team Jersey with the name 'Moneyball' written on it as if it is a team.

Original Template

I am very pleased with how my tracing came out as it is clear and recognizable as to its form. I think I will use colour to get the brand more of an identity but for now, I will use it as a template to work from.

It seems to me from my Baseball jersey primary research that I did that the main fonts that are used is either a Block font or a Script font so I am going to test out a few to see what effect they have on the look of the logo.

Original Template with Poplar Std Black Font

Original Design with Franchise Bold Font

I wasn't convinced by the use of a block font for the text as it seems to overpower the overall design. I want the word to stand out and some teams do use a Block font for their team names but I felt like it wasn't as authentic or aesthetically pleasing to have a block font for my lettering. I decided to try a Script font as they are the other type of font that is traditionally displayed on Baseball Jerseys. 

Original Design with Lucinda Calligraphy Italics Font

Original Design with Zapfino Font

Original Design with Brush Script Std Medium Font

I felt that the Script fonts were a lot more successful in the feel that they were giving the image, not too overpowering yet with a decorative edge. I was the most happy with the Brush Script Std Medium font and decided to play with it by giving it an underline like other Baseball Teams have under their font lettering.

Original Design with Underline on Font

Larger Point Size with Underline on Font

I felt that this font style made the logo seemed a lot more authentic and genuine to the history and tradition of the sport therefore I selected this as my font choice.

Then I went onto adding to the overall logo so that it looks more like a logo and less of a image of a jersey. I decided to incorporate some Baseball Bats to the logo to show the competitive side of the sport and how 'Moneyball' is used by smaller corporations in order to have a fair fight against the larger, wealthier clubs.

Original Baseball Bat Template

The tracing again was clean and simple in its appearance with it being consistent in style and aesthetic with the jersey so they fit together in a visual dialogue.

Moving Baseball Bats to the Back

The Baseball bats give more of the impression that it is a collective logo rather than being just an image of a shirt by itself. The use of colour means that the shirt and the bats are distinctive and individual yet together due to the placement.

Refined Logo with Colour

I've added colour to the shirt as I felt it was too plain being just black and white but I didn't want to overpower it with colour so I stuck to a small amount of colour on the piping. I put shadow on the colour so it has more of a 3D appearance and the type has been altered by putting a white border around it so it had=s more emphasis on the end of the 'y'.

Finished 'Moneyball' Logo

I'm very happy with my logo as it is relevant to the topic and has an identity of its own. It works as a cohesive unit and the colours chosen are neutral yet not too overpowering. I think that the fact that I have experimented with the aesthetic and tried different visuals means that I have managed to come up with a better icon then I had originally made.

Baseball Card Layout:

The next thing I think would be logical to go into would be designing the layout of the card and how it is to be presented.

Possible Card Back Design

Possible Card Back Design

I liked the idea of just having the logo on the back of the cards therefore I just made some generic backgrounds and placed the logo on to see what it looks like. It makes the logo stand out more when it is on a coloured background. I think the layout of the information will be the main point of whether I stick to having a plain background like this with a logo or not.

I decided to experiment with the layout of the information on the cards due to the point I just made that the way everything else is design will be based on this. I made up some information in order to see the scale and space that I would be able to use.

Card Design Front & Back 1

The idea behind the colour scheme was that it was representative of the pitch itself but when put together in this manner, the colours are painful to look at. The way this design is laid out like a traditional Top Trumps card means that the type is illegible and the information is difficult to interpret thereby making this very unsuccessful.

Card Design Front & Back 2

I like the clean aesthetic to the front design on the 2nd attempt as it seems a lot more professional and cleaner, with the white background aiding the legibility and readability of the font. The choice of having just a colour border means that the decoration is subtle and not too overpowering. The background, despite being patriotic and relevant to the history and culture of the game, takes away from the actual design.

Card Design Front & Back 3

This layout is a lot plainer than the previous attempts yet I think this is the most effective so far as it gives the information and placement the space it needs. The most important part is the info-graphics themselves so I want to accommodate to them rather than the aesthetics first as it is integral for the form to follow the function. I'm not too sure on the bright red background and I might try it with a different colour as the red is too in-your-face and quite demanding, taking away from the information.

Card Design Front & Back 4

This is the most successful out of all the layouts for the cards so far as it is clean, clear, sophisticated and makes great use of the space provided, especially due to the small nature of the card format which is compact. The layout stays true to the form of a Baseball card yet also works still in the Tops Trumps style and the fact that I have placed the team name, player name and logos in the corner gives it a classy impression.

I decided that I was going to develop the 4th layout further by adding on extra details of information in order to see whether it would work.

Design Template Development

The layout is still good but a problem has arisen in the fact that, whilst making the logo smaller so that it can fit with the rest of the size of the card, it has meant that it has lost all of its colour and the legibility of the type has completely vanished due to the change in scale.

Changes of Finished Logo Development

From the legibility problems that I encountered,  I updated and developed my logo further by getting rid of the black outlines from the coloured piping so that this would allow for the colour to be more emphatic. Also, I got rid of the white outlining of the type so that it would be more blocked out and be easier to read at a smaller scale. I wouldn't have thought that this would work on a large scale but it doesn't look too bad.

Final Layout Template

From the changes that I have made to my logo, I found that this visually worked a lot better as it was much clearer and easier to read. I have taken out the made up statistics I have used in order for it to work as a template.

Topics:

The next thing I have to consider are the topics I am going to use and how I am going to present the information.

The main thing I wanted to consider was the information that was given to me in my conversation with Bob Fromer (See Design Context Blog) as well as any other aspects that I felt were important to include. Usually, in a game of Top Trumps, you have about 5 or 6 categories to play from so I decided that I would limit myself to this amount. This would equate to the amount of space available on my cards as well as not overwhelm the players of the game.

Bob commented on the areas that would be seen as most important to Baseball clubs when choosing players and areas that would prevent them from choosing others. Therefore, taking his knowledge, I selected these areas to use on my cards;

1. Age- Usually players become undesirable over the age of 30
2. Skills- Team has a hole to fill and are looking for someone to fill it 
3. Development & Potential- Buying to invest in a player (usually put on a short-contract)
4. Injuries- Carefully looked at to see if the player can hack the gruelling schedule
5. Cost- Can they be afforded? Are they worth it? This can include the salary of the player

I decided to include the 5th area of interest of Cost as that is also an area which is considered as the player needs to be worth what is being asked of them or if they can't perform then they are not worth the asking price.

Baseball Cards Template with Considered Categories

From this, I went onto adding this information onto the template. I decided to take out the idea of having a play biography on the card as I think that would create too much fuss on the card and detract from the purpose of the cards. From that, I have centred the information categories which look a lot better than when they were further up.

Updated Template

Then I decided to get rid of the word 'Development' as it took a lot of room up on the card and made no room for the necessary information therefore I have shortened the category down to just 'Potential'. It looks a lot cleaner for it.

How To Use Them:

Now I have to consider how this information will be present and how the game will work.

Rules/How to Play:
- Split deck equally between the amount of players and decide whose going first.
- First Player decides on a category and announces the amount for that category. The other players do the same for the same category and the winner of that round gets the other players cards.
- Lowest Age, Injuries and Cost would be the winner of that round
- Highest Skills and Potential would be the winner of that round
- If players have the same amount for a category, then they put those cards to one side and keep going with that category until someone wins. The winner gets all cards put aside.
- Whoever gets all the cards at the end wins

This is usually information that is contained within a card card therefore I decided to have it as a front deck card/ how to play card so that it would aid the users as well as give the cards the brand identity they needed.

Front Card/ How To Play Baseball Card

The type is clear and legible with the rules on. The aesthetic is consistent with the template of the Player cards which will provide a harmony and unity, while, at the same time, the front is just the logo and the plain navy blue so that it stays the same but highlights the fact it isn't a player card. This would be the card on the top of the deck so that it would be easy to find for the instructions as well as provide an introduction to the rest of the deck.

Players:

I wasn't sure how I was going to approach the idea of players to use in my cards. I considered using players from the film 'Moneyball' as that would be the most relevant and consistent with my idea and theme, however, I didn't feel as thought they were very relevant to now. I thought about making up my own players and stats but I didn't think it was very knowledgable or helpful to anybody, therefore I decided to use players that are currently playing for the sport so that it was relevant to the time we are in and aid people with learning the sport alongside the theory.

Drawing Around Player

Finished Tracing

Coloured Tracing

By using Illustrator, I felt this was a successful method of producing an image of a player as this meant that I could use relevant players who are contemporary to the game yet, because I don't have images of my own, I don't have to worry about copyright of someone else's image in my work. It was good to produce an image that is relevant to the players position as it aids the understanding and information to come across.

From this, I continued to make players in this way, adding to the aesthetic of the card I have already produced.

Joe Mauer Illustrator Image

Albert Pujols Illustrator Image

Roy Halladay Illustrator Image

Tim Lincecum Illustrator Image

Austin Romine Illustrator Image

Dylan Bundy Illustrator Image

Clayton Kershaw Illustrator Image

Anthony Rendon Illustrator Image

Alex Rodriguez Illustrator Image

A J Pierzynski Illustrator Image

I am very please with how these players turned out. It took me a long time to be able to draw them and add colour to the images but I think, with practise, this will come in time. The aesthetic compliments the design for the card layout therefore allowing for some consistency. I did a mixture of in-game images and club-promotional posed images so that it would provide both worlds that are faced by a player. The main thing I wanted to put across was the passion and the intensity of the game in some of the poses.

After creating the players, I had to transfer them to the card layout template and fill in the information that I had on them. Re-sizing the players didn't seem to effect the image themselves but what they did show was any changes or editing that needed doing in regards to the drawing of the players. I think they are successful in their function as it keeps it all consistent and easy to interpret.

Digital Finished Versions of the Baseball Card Set

In regards to the information, some of it was easy to acquire, such as age, injury and cost as they had a  factual basis whereas the decision based on skills and potential was a lot more subjective and relative. The basis for the decision for the Potential of a player was used based on how young the player was as the younger the player is, the more chance they have to develop their skills as they get older and get more practise. This also means that clubs can train and mould them so they can hone there skills to become the player they need. In regards to skills, the older you are and the higher your paid, the more likely you are to have skills as clubs would not see any point to pay a large amount for a mediocre or young player or keep on an older player if they didn't have a large range of skills.

Packaging:

As part of the brief, as well as making a product, I need to make some packaging to go with it. Personally, the main thing for me is the actual cards and the product itself so I didn't want to take away from that at all. When I had my Crit, I was given some ideas for some packaging but the main one that came up was the idea of just having a strip to keep my cards together. I thought I would try this out to see if it would work successfully.

Card Sleeve

I felt that this was a successful production of a card sleeve as it would keep them all together as packaging but it would give most of the attention to the actual cards themselves and not take away from them. The logo adds to the branding and gives a 3-Dimentional element to the work as the icon has been sized to fit the same size logo on the front cover so it will appear raised.

Mock-Up Prints

In my Crit, I was suggested to try printing my cards in both A6 size and traditional Card size in order to see which would be best to work with in regards to legibility.

A6 Size Print Out

I felt that the cards printed in A6 size were way too large for them to work as Baseball cards as they were very over-sized as they were too large to just fit in your hands therefore acting like postcards rather than Baseball Cards.

Traditional Baseball Card Size

I was very surprised to find how well the traditional size worked as, just like the concerns raised in my Crit, I expected the size to make my work difficult to read or be illegible. It shows how adaptable my work is. Despite, that, it seems much more comfortable to use the cards in this size.

From this, I had to test to see whether or not it would be successful as a double-sided card.

Double-Sided Print Out Tester

The fact that the Baseball cards work as a double sided entity has made it successful in it's purpose and function. The joined up brush type is readable and the fact that I have tried one size in black and white and another in colour shows I have taken both into account and they look good either way. I have decided to stick with the option of colour, however, as it manages to show the distinctions between players and their teams. The downside is that the stock is too thin and so the front and back show through each other, especially due to the white coloured background so that will be something I have to consider when printing the real thing.

Finished Piece:

Official Finish Product Print-Outs 

I had them printed out in a thicker paper stock which automatically improved the quality of my Baseball Cards as it meant that they were no longer see-through. I did them in a grid format for printing so that they would match up and align back to back successfully. The print quality has meant that the colour has come back much clearer than my mock-up print attempts, particularly the blue used as a border.

Final Piece Baseball Card Product & Packaging

I am very pleased with the outcome of my Baseball Cards as they are consistent and work as a set- They are unified in colour and style. In regards to the brief, it is representative of how the theory of 'Moneyball' and Sabermetrics is used within Baseball and the way it is used is to aid the understanding of how it works and the principles behind it which, to me, is the most important thing as this is what I wanted to get across through the physical use of the Cards, allowing for audience participation and engagement. My work was unsuccessful due to the fact that the idea behind Baseball Cards is that they picture a player in the club they are at but, due to the nature of the game and the fact that it is currently transfer season, this means that my Baseball cards will probably become swiftly outdated in regards to the players and the clubs they play for so this would have been more successful if it was at the start of the season. Not only that but the fact that 2 of my topics is subjective meant that it was more based on opinion but I wanted to keep it within the expert opinion that I got.