NEW WORK: FORT WORTH VAQUEROS 2020 APPAREL - PHASE 1

I had the opportunity to create some merchandise designs for the 2020 Fort Worth Vaqueros FC season. The designs below are part of the first round of releases.

SHIRTS

Calavera 2.0

One of the best-selling shirts of the last two seasons was a calavera design (I did not design that initial shirt). I was challenged with freshening that concept, which was a front-view skull packed with both soccer-themed and traditional Dia de los Muertos elements.

To elevate the concept, I dug into giving the skull a different placement, opting for a 3/4 view, and freshening the inside elements. The original design had the Vaqueros crest in the forehead, with soccer balls in its eyes. I wanted to be less forward with this design, giving supporters a more unique and subtle nod to the club. I broke the logo down, keeping just the hat and horns to adorn the forehead. I also added a V to give it some more shape. I rounded out the skull with some patterned florals, webs and other small design elements. However, my favorite piece of the calavera is a subtle nod to Fort Worth, the iconic 7th Street Bridge along the jaw line.

I didn’t want the skull to be alone, and classic calaveras are often coupled with roses, so I wanted to give the yellow rose of Texas some love. I flanked the skull with the two yellow roses, then added the blue leaves to keep the design within the colors of the club.

For the rest of the design, I took “VAQUEROS” from the logo, then rested the skull and roses on top. I also gave the entire design and offset path to make everything pop, no matter what color it was printed on. This also sets it up nicely for stickers, banners and any other items.

As a final step, I began the distressing process (all the spots and scratches). This gives the design a lived-in look. This was a blast to do.

VFC Rise

Vaqueros t-shirt designs in the past have mostly been heavy on the club’s crest, and rightly so from a branding perspective. However, for the seventh season, I wanted to create some fresh designs to give supporters some variety. Ryan Higgs, one of the managing partners of VFC and a veteran of the music industry and merchandising game, agreed. He and I met to brainstorm some ways to accomplish this task.

The VFC Rise design was one of my contributions. I felt the text needed some movement to give it a bit of life, and I knew I wanted “Vaqueros” to be the visual focus. For the bulk of social media and print images I have done for Vaqueros during the past few seasons, I have used Alternate Gothic No1 D as the focus font. Though I am updating that for this season, I decided to keep it for this design. It has a “sporty” feel to me, especially for a sans-serif font. I played with the kerning then moved on to the other two elements.

For “Fort Worth” and “Fútbol Club”, I went with a lighter font, PT Sans Caption, and adjusted the leading to give each letter some space. This gave the top and bottom a nice contrast to the closer-kerned “Vaqueros.” Overall, I love this simple design.

Vaqueros FC

Ryan Higgs wanted a very simple, text-based design to give a nod to one of Fort Worth’s most beloved nicknames, Panther City. This was one of the contenders for the club name back in 2014 when the community vote was held, and it is what the Panther City Hellfire (and many other supporters) had hoped would win.

When I settled in to work, I knew I wanted a chunky font. Though one of my favorites is Futura (which I am leaning on for social media and print for Vaqueros this season), I felt it was a bit too chunky for this particular design. I settled on Roboto Bold, which felt nice, clean and just chunky enough.

For “Panther City, TX,” I wanted a lighter font to give contrast, much like the Rise design. PT Sans Caption did the trick again (why reinvent the wheel), and this ended up being a nice, simple and clean design.

SCARF

For this year’s scarf, we wanted to give some love to the Chisholm Trail Clásico, the yearly contest between Fort Worth Vaqueros and their sister club, Denton Diablos. The trophy for the winner of this matchup is a wrestling-style championship belt (crest also designed by me). In its inaugural year, VFC won both contests, virtually painting the Chisholm Trail blue and gold.

With that in mind, I designed one side of the scarf as a replica of the championship belt. The other side, with a silhouette of both a cattle drive, as well as the skyline of downtown, is a love letter to the city of Fort Worth.

MORE ON THE WAY

Stay tuned for more designs in the near future!