Futbol as Football Series: FC Sheriff Tiraspol

Futbol as Football Series: FC Sheriff Tiraspol from the Moldovan Divizia Națională.

First off, I just want to say I am not trying to make a Dallas Cowboys uniform in Pittsburgh Steelers colors. Yeah, I'm a Cowboys fan and yes you can add in your standard Cowboys smirk here -- I'm okay with that.

I chose to make this concept after receiving some guests from Moldova and because of their crest - a wild west sheriff's badge! It is so simple and straight forward that I was able to reduced it to just the background five points for the helmet sticker. 

Sheriff Tiraspol is on the top end of the ladder in Moldova's National Division and has caused a ruckus in years past within the Eurpoa Cup. I'm sure if you are apart of the opposition and see the Gold and Black on the pitch you know you'll be in for a dogfight! 

Or a Showdown at the Tiraspol Saloon or whatever wild west cliche you can think of ;).

I chose Sheriff's 2014/15 home uniform to base my American/Canadian Football concepts on because of the yoke and sleeve pattern. For my "Generic template" I based my design on the Montreal Alouettes' yoke and sleeve cap design. I didn't include a stripe around the shoulder like the Als and the NY Jets for my final products.

Sheriff is an Adidas squad and for my inspiration I decided to pattern my "Real World" template on a league that has recently changed to the Three-Stripes: The CFL. I chose a "Real World" template similar to designs worn by Calgary, Saskatchewan and the BC Lions. I used a three stripe design similar to the multiple-line style of the Hamilton Ti-Cats (and maybe just a little tip-of-the-cap to Adidas) for the pant stripe and around the neck.

Fonts used: Name on Back - Barbaro, Numbers - Greasy Spoon NF with Haymaker spurs, Name on Front/wordmark - Chuck Noon. 

 

Futbol as Football Series: SC Heerenveen

Futbol as Football Series: Sportclub Heerenveen from the Dutch Eredivisie.

This is one of my favorite kits! I love the Clubs' use of the Frisian flag on their uniforms and I have been waiting to take this one on!

They're nicknamed the Super Frisians for Pete's SAKE! 

Blue Stripes, Red Water Lilly leaves, a fantastic shield: daggum I dig their main kit!

Jako is the uniform manufacturer for Heerenveen and have been for quite a few seasons. The 2015-16 Jako chest stripes are too much on the striped first jersey yet look great on their second jersey. In my reasearch  I chose the squad's 2012-13 away jersey for the team's Third Kit.

My "Real World" concepts are based on Rawlings templates. The Striped First and Black Third would be custom Divergent uniforms with the use of sublimation. I used the center stripe from the '12-13 season as if it were a "Wordmark" with the numbers on the left chest. My alternate first is a customized Hawk template/ISO 147 template with Carbon Block jerseys for the seconds. I kept the pants uniform by using the GLP0909 template.

The fonts I have used are Basic for the numbers and Paragon Black for the Name on Back. 

OH! the Water Lilly symbol goes great on the helmet, doesn't it?

Futbol as Football Series: FC Spartak Moscow

Futbol as Football Series: FC Spartak Moscow from the Russian Premier League.

This is my salute to the folks from Russia who have paid a visit to the blog! 
Спасибо!
I believe I mentioned in a previous post I was in a fantasy football league called the UWFFL. 

Here's how the league worked: Instead of picking players and using their stats; team owners created uniform concepts and each week were pitted head-to-head with on another. Voting from the public helped determine the winner each week.

Teams from the International division were required to have crests on the front of their jerseys similar to the "Throwback" Letter-fronted jerseys worn by Michigan, Nebraska, Wisconsin, and Louisiana-Lafayette (and you can see my concepts here). Another standard for UWFFL International uniforms was the use of an across the shoulder stripe/yoke which you will see in the "generic" templates further down the post.

To round out my "Real World" with a "generic" concept, I have included my 2014 Spartak Moscow design (Spartak Russia in the UWFFL).  

I did my best to stay true to the uniform livery used by all the Meat teams. For my UWFFL uniform, I widened the chest stripe to keep with Spartak's history with an enlarged Crest on front. I kept the chest stripe about the same for my Nike Speed Concept with the team's crest dead center. I also have contrasting badges on the shoulders for both designs.

For the helmet symbol, I found an old crest(?) with a Spartan head from the 1950s or 60s or... let's just say "days of yore". Holy Smokes is it awesome! (I stand corrected - it's the HOCKEY team's crest from today. I need to pay better attention) 


Okay... I used it! It looks great, now let's move on.

The Hockey and Futbol teams have different Cs for their crests and I continued that tradition for my Football concept using the Ginger Peachy font. For the Nike Speed Concept I used a mockup of the Nike Total 90 font for the numbers and Aero Matics for the Name on Back. (I'll try to get the "generic" UWFFL fonts later on for you). Generic template fonta: Numbers: 8 K141, 1 Naftalene; Ruslan display for Myaso, Codename Coder Free 4F.

Oh, you maybe wondering about the drawing up above. For the different "fantasy" leagues I compete in, I draw covers for key games (or for my Moose squad - every home game). My Spartak and CSKA squads were going to face each other and I knew I had to do something special for the Main Moscow Derby. I used an alternative history as if both squads have been playing Grid Iron for years as backstory for the scene you see above. I threw back to an important point in the rivalry's history revisiting a controversial play giving Spartak the win (since they were the home team this go round). 

I researched Soviet posters from the 30s-50s as inspiration for the cover. 

Victory Day Ribbon added to both Jersey and Helmet 

Futbol as Football Series: Balikesirspor

Futbol as Football Series: Balikesirspor from the TFF First League in Turkey.

We've had a few guests to the blog from Turkey over the past week or so and I chose to do a concept for a squad from the country's second tier.

Now, I was bit flummoxed on what to do for the football helmet. There isn't an animal, inanimate object or profession for the team's mascot. Their nicknames are Balkes and Balkesler  - or those from Balikesir. I didn't want to leave their lid absolutely blank!

Then it hit me to not reinvent the wheel!

The way the B and S are stylized on the original badge whilst kicking a ball is pretty neat. I took that same concept, changed the head circle to a helmet, added another arm holding a football and what you see on the left is my final result. 

It works. I used to do in stadium announcing for a semi-pro football team which interlocked an E and an I to form a Lion's head. I wasn't that their logo yet this symbol possibly could be used by a football team here in the States. 

Balikesirspor's current Futbol kit is made by the Turkish firm Lescon and my corollary for Football I decided on is Wilson. There aren't a multitude of Football uniform designers as there are Kit manufacturers (popularity of each sport, worldwide appeal of Futbol, etc.) and I didn't want to seach for toooooo long. Wilson has a quite a few templates to choose from and the shoulder stripes from Balikesirspor work with Wilson's Stripes template.  

On my "generic template" I went a bit overboard with the chest and back stripes. 

Yeah... I do that sometimes.

On my "Real World" template, I reduced the c&b stripes to just Chest/Neck marks and kept everything fairly simple. I kept the Harlequin design Balikesirspor uses for their fourth kit and I wonder if that could work on a club team or a Semi-Pro squad.

Fonts used: Numbers - QueenSquare, Name on Back - Night Train 382.

   

Futbol as Football Series: Paços de Ferreira FC

Futbol as Football Series: Paços de Ferreira FC of the Primeira Liga of Portugal.

There was a significant amount of traffic from Portugal this past week and I decided to head back to Premiera Liga for another concept.

I decided to go with Pacos de Ferreira because of their mascot Os Castores or The Beavers!

The Beavers used to have a version of the Olympic Rings on their badge. For this season's campaign they changed them to interlocking, side-by-side rings which gives the badge a distinct look if I do say so myself.  I incorporated the rings on the kit's sleeves with a forward facing beaver on top. 

The beaver symbol came from the Adanac icon font (Canada).

The team's cross was just too good to leave out of the design so I made it the helmet symbol.

I used a design from Maxim Athletic for my "Real World" uniform concept. Since Lacatoni is Pacos' uniform supplier, I tried to find an American Football retailer that isn't a household name. I decided on Maxim who has quite a few decent designs and seem reasonably priced. 

Fonts used: Name on Front: Passero One, Name on Back: Magician Rings, Numbers: Azime WC2010 South Korea.