When tackling this project, I found myself in an unusual position when compared to my peers. Due to medical reasons, I ended up doing this project in solitude several months later. This meant that I severely lacked any opportunity for collaborative working or client feedback. Therefore, when it came to addressing design iterations and adaptions, I ended up relying heavily on my own judgement and the occasional feedback from friends and family.
So, let’s enter a realm of hypothetical shall we. If I was to start this project from the beginning and be given the opportunity to work with both the marketing students and my peers, there are several things I could have gained from this project. One of the first benefits from working in a collaborative setting, is instantaneous feedback. Every idea and iteration is challenged and built upon by those around you, something I severely lacked when relying on nothing but my own mind. With the addition of a group, I could have produced more varied iterations and would have received targeted feedback from the marketing students. This along side additional marketing knowledge could have shaped how I approached my designs outside of the view of a graphic designer. Because of this, I worry that I didn’t fully address the client’s original goals and had to do additional research to try and combat this disadvantage. Ultimately, I still fear that I focused too much on promotional content as apposed to awareness.
An additional benefit I would have received from working in a collaborative group, is the advantage of industry specific football knowledge. Up until this project I had never watched a game of football, let alone my chances of naming a player. This made it extremely difficult when knowing which players were appropriate for my icon campaign. Thankfully, I have several friends that were willing to explain which players were the most identifiable and why, as well as explaining which kits where their most iconic. This additional information gave me the opportunity to produce more relevant and up-to-date content, something I definitely couldn’t have achieved alone.
Finally, because I was unable to have any communication with the client, I instead had to rely heavily on their pre-existing material. This meant theming most of my design choices and colour schemes off their social media accounts and website, alongside searching for previous brand collaborations to draw inspiration from. My thinking stemmed from a position of that these were already pre-approved concepts by the company, allowing me to gauge what persona they wanted to present publicly. Whilst this does not replicate industry standards, this was the best I could do with limited resources. In an ideal situation, I would have had several bench-marked meeting to address my progress, allowing me to adapt accordingly.
Reference
- Classic Football Shirts (2026) Classic Football Shirts: retro vintage soccer jerseys – Classic Retro Vintage. https://www.classicfootballshirts.co.uk/ [Accessed 28 July 2026]