Birth of a Premier Stitchings Patch

In 2007, Upper Deck introduced a set of manufactured patch cards in UD Premier Baseball. The Premier Stitchings set was also included in UD Premier Football and will return in 2008 UD Premier Baseball and 07-08 Premier Basketball.

Von Glitschka, a graphic designer and illustrator, designed the Premier Stitchings patches for Upper Deck. Check out his homepage and his art blog. He does some really neat stuff, including the logos for Orbit Gum (which I chew constantly).

Here’s how Von went about designing a Kevin Durant patch for 07-08 Premier Basketball.

The Process

1. These are the reference photos sent by Upper Deck for the patch. Von decided to use the photo on the right because of the more approachable facial expression.

2. Using the reference photo, Von digitally defines and simplifies Kevin Durant’s Portrait.

From This:

To This:

3. Von adds some design elements to the player portrait. The copy for any writing that appears on the patch (Like the “KD” below) is provided by Upper Deck.

4. Next he shades the patch design by hand.

5. The pencil shading is then digitally translated.

6. Here’s a layover on the original photo:

 

7. And the Final Patch Design:

 

Total Time: About 2.5 hours. Considering he designed about 50 basketball patches and over 100 for baseball, thats a lot of work!

Here’s how another one of Von’s designs translates from design to card:

Finally here are some of Von’s designs from various sets of Premier Stitchings Patches.

2007 Premier Baseball Patches

 

2007 Premier Football Patches

 

 

2008 Premier Baseball Patches

 

 

07-08 Premier Basketball Patches

Apparently Von is designing Hockey Patches for Upper Deck as well, so it will be interesting to see what he comes up with for that.

Thanks for reading! And a special thanks to Von Glitschka for providing the pictures and explanations. Check out his sites at www.vonglitschka.com and www.artbackwash.com

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 24th, 2008 at 6:00 pm and is filed under Articles. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.