Sharing information and tips about how to get the most out of our Design Realization Process
For teams that have committed to working with us, we're often able to offer free design realization. We understand well that the design of your gear is one of the most important parts of the process, and our goal is always to develop your ideas into an awesome final product.
When working with us on design, here are some tips:
- Limiting the number of people sharing feedback is one of our strongest suggestions! We find that the best way to go through the design process is select a small group from the team (one is ideal, but 2 to 3 players max) who are on the same page about the end goal. Opening up the process to more, or worse, the entire team, can result in frustrations all round.
- When you are sharing your ideas (be it in our Design Realization Document, or simply via email), please be as detailed as possible. If you don't have a clear idea of what you'd like the final designs to look like, take some extra time to consider, or browse online to be inspired. The more you can fill in with regard to font, color, and design elements, the better the end result will be. Here's some suggested resources to help you browse and be inspired:
- Our very own replica collections; both Club and Pro sections have a wide range of designs so you can see what styles are popular in Ultimate right now
- Searching some other sports apparel sites is often a good way to see what's trending in general. You could check out what the most recent Olympic outfits looked like, or what the local sports teams in your city wear
- Go retro by searching older uniforms. A resource like this website is a fantastic way to browse old soccer uniforms from all across the world.
- We'd also suggest typically nailing one design at a time, wherever possible. What that means is that unless you have a very clear idea of what your Light, Dark, and Shorts, will look like, it's often better to focus on just one. By nailing, for example, the Dark design, we're able to then pull assets from that to have a much easier time building a Light and Shorts that are going to be received well from the start, and it'll save everyone involved time going back and fourth.
- After receiving design versions to review, we'd strongly request that you take time to compile all the feedback before sharing it back with us. It can make the process quite challenging for our design team if we receive multiple strands of feedback (from multiple different people), especially if that feedback is contradictory! Get on the same page about what changes you'd like to see and we'll be able to work on the appropriate edits
- When it comes to colors, sizing of elements, and fonts, please be as specific as you can:
- When considering colors: talk to us in Pantones! You can use a website like this to share exactly which Pantone color you'd like us to match your design to, which we'll do during the Printed Panel Process.
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- When considering fonts, it's often a lot easier if you are able to browse and select the ones you like! We recommend dafont.com as an excellent resource where you can even preview the text before sharing it. You can let us know the name, or even download the font package and send it our way for us to use
- When discussing sizing of elements on the design, instead of asking for things to be a little bigger or smaller, we would request that you let us know in exact terms, for example:
- "Can you increase the back number to be 7" tall"
- "Can you ensure the background pattern is visible only in the bottom 10" of the jersey"
Hopefully some of these tips help ensure that the design process is smooth and enjoyable, and that your team ultimately ends up with some gear that the entire team enjoys.