i Yomiur dinal r a C e Th
Your name:
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The GS Squad Softball and baseball are huge in both Japan and the US so we took our inspiration from those countries when we created ‘The Cardinal’ and ‘Yomiuri’ (you can read how on page 3). The GS Squad opposite takes its influence from a range of great games, comics and cartoons. Your challenge is to find your own influence and create a softball inspired identity and brand for your team that reflects your character on and off the pitch. Work together and get creative as your team name, mascot, logo and crest come together. Choose a final concept for your team and we’ll transfer them on to softball kit for your team. Manga, Red Dead Redemption, Fortnite, Pokemon, StreetFighter2, and EA Sports inspired us… what will inspire you?
The Brief Here’s what we want you to do;
Choose a team name and draw a team mascot Design a team logo or crest Produce a presentation board to show your ideas
When you’re finished send your designs to us and we’ll print your team designs on shirts for your softball team. Then we’d like you to use your design skills to create a new baseball cap for you and the whole Horsham Bronco’s squad! 1
Player Profiles Before you get started on your own team – take a look at ours first. See what inspired us, and what inspires these guys on and off the pitch. It might give you a few ideas for your characters, crests and team names.
The Pro
Draft
Grip
Loves everything about sport. Confident, optimistic, and enjoys the challenge and competition of sport. Inspired by the players they see, and driven to do well on the pitch and by creating the kit they’d want to be seen in.
The leader of the squad on and off the pitch. Clever, focussed and driven to do well. She makes sport fun for her team, and always challenges them to grow on the pitch and learn life skills off it.
Loyalty is second nature. He won’t rush in, instead takes his time to learn the ropes and the skills needed. Once committed, he’s creative with his club on the course or with a pencil in his hand, and gives his all for the team.
Blitz
Tek2.0
Cameo
Vice-captain and leader of the line, he gets the team around him playing as one. Fast, aggressive, and not afraid of the tackle or running the ball. He needs to keep focused otherwise the opposition can draw him out of position!
Not naturally sporty, she sets herself ambitious goals that through practice are always exceeded. Tek’s perseverance continues off the pitch, where she trusts in the process and the apps at her disposal to come up with designs that delight.
Good at most sports but not driven by the need for recognition. He’s pretty chilled and happy leading or just going with the flow on the pitch and in the studio. Teamwork is a must so he’s at his best when working and playing with friends.
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Your Team Pick a Skipper First up we want you to choose a captain and vice-captain. These guys are the decision makers on the pitch and as you start to pull your designs together. Any tough decisions will be down to them, so choose carefully. Here’s our rough guide to choosing a good leader; Skills – they don’t have to be the best on the pitch, but need to know everyone’s strengths O rganised – making sure that roles and duties are distributed among the team on the pitch and in the design room Aware – understand the skills of the team, reinforce positive behaviour, and get everyone working together Balance – creates an environment where everyone wants to contribute, a team is about everyone not just a few
Choose a Name Second up we want you to choose your team name. Think about where you’ll find your inspiration – it could be something linked to softball or baseball, a team or player, or a shot or fielding position. Speak to your team, coach or teacher about any ideas. Give some thought to secondary meanings of any words you use. Flash may be a flamboyant shot but it also suggests speed, while a Howler may be a terrible miss it does bring up images of powerful wolves. Alliteration can help create a memorable name too! Have a look at the page opposite for some inspiration and use the space below to start pulling your ideas together.
The Cardinal
Yomiuri
The St Louis Cardinals were our inspiration – a colourful, bold and striking American bird. Red Dead Redemption gave us our character style
Inspired by Japan’s biggest baseball club The Tokyo Yomiuri Giants, we used a Manga style to create our character 3
The Name Game Team names in sport, whether that’s one steeped in tradition, a new franchise or a nickname, are becoming more important. It sets the tone, indicates a style of play, and creates an identity that fans can get behind. Think about your team name, what it says about you, and how the opposition may perceive you as a result. Take your inspiration from how you play, something to do with the game like a shot or position, or link it to something nearby like your local club or your school. We’ve given you a few ideas below – but use the opposite page to start developing your ideas. Beastly inspiration Jacksonville Jaguars, Chicago Bulls, Bristol Bears, Essex Eagles – all draw their inspiration from fearsome, powerful beasts. While the magpies, the canaries or the blue jays are smaller, nimbler, more agile creatures. What animal would represent your team?
Shirt colour Some of the greatest teams are known by the colours of their shirts. Could you take your inspiration from the simplicity of The All Blacks, or the literal translation of the Italian Azzurri or French Bleus? Think about how bold colours like red could be fiery, or greens or blues could suggest guile.
Local heritage Can the people and cultures around you give your team an identity? Arsenal are called the Gunners due to their old base at Woolwich Arsenal. Millais School is on Depot Road which took its name from the nearby military ammunition depot back in the 1800’s.
Current culture Formed in the 1800’s ‘Wasps Rugby’ came from the popularity of bugs and insects during the Victorian period. Now some 130 years later the name still inspires the club’s mascot, crest and the colours of the kit. What current trends do you think could last as well?
Animal instinct The high number of foxes living in the county saw both Leicester City Football Club and Leicestershire County Cricket Club adopt the fox. While Brighton and Hove Albion’s home being so close the seaside led the club to take the seagull to their heart.
Local industry West Ham United are the crossed hammers representing their shipbuilding history. Portland Timbers have a strong connection to forestry. Historically, Horsham is famous for leather tanning and brewing beer, and more recently insurance!
Stuck for ideas – here’s a few terms you could try. Ask your coach or look online to find out what these and other words mean. Walk – get through four pitches and you walk to first Raspberry – the mark left when hit by a softball! Bunt – gentle shot that often tricks the fielding team
Windmill – a full circle pitch to get maximum power
Change-up – slower pitch that confuses the batter
Howler – terrible miss / wolf inspired?
Crow Hop – small jump adding pace and power to a throw Married to the bag – a runner that won’t leave Choke-up – a higher grip to increase your bat control
their base!
Dinger – huge hit that results in a home run
Our team name is:
Top Tip Wikipedia has a glossary for most sports
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A Bit of Character It’s time to draw your avatar or mascot. Work together to come up with a drawing style that best suits your character – think about the styles that you’ve seen in this book, in games, on TV or in books and films. Or create your own style! We’ve shown how we created our Yomiuri character below, and opposite we’ve included the Club’s player character and mascot for more inspiration. If you’ve got access to a PC, phone or tablet search for other club mascots and you’ll find loads of ideas!
Try your hand Just like on the pitch, practice makes perfect with a pencil, pen and marker in your hand! When we create our GS characters we first draw a series of line drawings to make them consistent. Then we used the different styles and influences when we added the colour and detail.
Here’s our character Yomiuri in the development stage. Why not try adding colour or other detail to see how you can create your own personalised character? Or try redrawing her alongside and create your own character from scratch?
Check out some of the designs that other groups have come up with
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Club Characters For our softball characters we wanted to adopt influences from two countries where softball and baseball are huge – Japan and the US. Here’s the character profiles we gave to our illustrator when they first drew Yomiuri and The Cardinal; Yomiuri: female, middle years teenager. A fast pitcher and a demon with a ball in her hand. Bring in influences from Manga cartoons and create a look of speed. The Cardinal: male, older teenager. A heavy hitting top order batter. Use the GoSketch style but utilise influences from games like Red Dead Redemption. Use the space below to try creating your own character. It can be anything – draw something in human form, an animal, or even food based – it could even be a walking softball bat! Think about your team name and come up with something that fits with that.
Sketch your ideas here
Top Tip You can draw something in human form, base it on an animal or anything else that captures your imagination!
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Making Your Mark It’s time to create you team logo and crest. These are the first things people will see so they need to be eye catching, memorable and represent the ethos of your team. Think about the ideas behind the team name you created – can these be included in your logo? What do you want your logo to say – will you use capital or lower-case letters, will a certain font support the style of your team? Or will you create your own lettering? Think about how the brands you use display their name. If you’ve got PC’s, laptops or tablets available try doing this digitally or in Word and then printing off. If not, hand drawn is just as good – use the space opposite to try a few different ideas!
These are a few logos that other teams have designed as part of the GoSketch project
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Space to get creative! On this page we’ve given you the space to get creative! Try writing out your team name in different styles – or print them off if you’re working online and stick them in here. Then as a team choose which is your favourite – this will then go on your team softball shirts so choose wisely! Have a look at the range of team logos on page 9 or look online for ideas. Your team logo will be printed on one of the shirts below – so think about how the colours and styles will match.
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Hats off to the Horsham Bronco’s The Horsham Bronco’s have been smashing it out of the park since 2016! They’ve got a great team logo below that they use on their website, matchday materials and on their team shirts. But they’ve never had a baseball cap designed. Your task is to create their first cap design – just as you did with your own team name we want you to think about the elements of the Bronco’s that will transfer to a cap. There’s limited space and it can’t be too detailed – so something simple and clear could work really well. Work on your own ideas or with a friend, share them with the team, tweak the ones you think are best – before choosing the design you want the Bronco’s to wear with pride! We’ll print these on to caps for you and their entire squad so get creative and choose well! We’ve given you some inspiration below – and a load of space opposite to sketch out your ideas!
The images here are reproduced for educational purposes to inspire students completing GoSketch through examples of great sporting design!
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Next Season You’ve now had an insight into the creative and sporting sectors. Both are industries that offer dynamic and rewarding careers – good design touches every part of our lives, while sport covers everything from participation to fitness and everything in-between. Our graphic below shows some of the careers available in both sectors and the sorts of qualifications you can get on the way there.
DESIGN
CROSSOVER
SPORT
Ask your teachers or career leads about GCSE choices that could lead to creative or sporting careers.
GCSE
Find out about the range of courses you can choose at college or university.
POST 16
Ask about work experience, volunteering, intern or apprenticeship opportunities in these sectors.
EXPERIENCE
Community Coach
Graphic Design
Physiotherapists
Game Design Stadium Design
Packaging and Print
Ground Keepers Nutritionists
Club Identity
Web Design
Marketing
Psychologists
Club Administration
Architecture
Sporting connections. Ask your coach about opportunities to keep playing.
Pick up and play
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Club Management
School clubs
Short forms of the game
Local club network