Back in the winter, I was brainstorming an idea for my senior project. I had just recently written my college essay about baseball cards and fulfilling childhood dreams when it hit me. I never had a professional baseball card of myself. I had parents previously make cards to commemorate seasons with stats on the back, but the cards were really just pictures with the basic font on the fronts. I wanted something professional. We have a special group of 8 seniors on our baseball team and I thought it would be cool to create baseball cards for all seniors. I wanted the cards to be personal and have some significance tying in our season somehow. As the project progressed I decided to create cards for everyone on the team along with the coaches. These cards will help to capture the 2022 baseball season which resulted in the school's first district championship in 26 years.
To achieve this goal, I would need to learn quite a bit about graphic design and print. I reached out to Casey Zulandt at Ten 10 Design in Chardon and she was up for the task and willing to mentor me for the three-week period. We began with some basic design sketches and seeing what I wanted. Along with this, I was taught the basics of photo editing and cutting/splicing images in photoshop along with modifying designs in illustrator. I was super proud of how quickly I was able to learn these tasks and apply the skills to photos. I was able to learn all the skills needed to begin creating the cards. This part took the longest. It took many different design inspirations from baseball cards till I found what I liked. I researched some of the most iconic baseball card designs and fan favorites. My first real design included a watercolor background swatch with the Hawken logo on a gold banner.
As I was still learning, any time I didn't know how to do something in photoshop or illustrator, I would ask Casey and she helped right away. I absolutely loved the Allen and Ginter vintage card design and wanted something based off of their card concepts while keeping a personal touch on all my cards. Here is what the Allen and Ginter cards look like
From here I was able to begin thinking about some personalization specs. For example, Nick Bollinger will be attending Montana State University and he loves the outdoors. For his card, I created a forest background. I repeated this process to get 14 different player designs and coaches. With a little time left to spare, I found that Allen and Ginter have a non-baseball collection where they make cards for celebrities that arent baseball related. I wanted to get in on this as well and created a nonbaseball series. Here is an example of a non-baseball card.
These were all extremely fun to make and I had a great time coming up with the different designs along with getting some input and feedback from my friends by asking for what they wanted. From here, I was able to create my own 20-card set!
As far as leaving anything out, I wish I was able to create more cards for other athletes. I quickly realized how long the design process was taking since every card was unique. If I had a few more weeks, I would have been able to print cards for other sports teams.
Throughout this project, I was able to learn how the design process takes long amounts of time to get something the way that you or the customer wants it. I began reading a few books on the history of graphic design and typography. Learning photoshop and other adobe programs were interesting as I had little familiarity yet still was able to make very good use of the programs. From talking with all of the members, I was able to learn some insight into marketing and sales tactics as well. An example that stood out to me the most was that a customer should never expect something to be cheap, arrive quickly, and be of great quality. Out of these three things, it is only possible to provide two.
Here was my setup for the three weeks:
Ten 10 currently works with Hawken for promotional products such as water bottles for speech and debate. I was able to see many products and designs while here at Ten 10 including some stuff for Hawken.
I am extremely glad I chose to do a senior project and would strongly recommend that any rising seniors consider something they are passionate about. Send some emails to higher-ups asking for resources and if you do this enough people will reply. Look to do something that you will enjoy maybe even with a friend for the three weeks.
I would say the most important part of the senior project is making connections while obtaining some valuable experience along the way. In my case, I now have something to add to a design portfolio if I decide I want to become a graphic designer. Even if I don't, I have the work and samples to show what I know how to do which will set me up in a better position down the road while applying for jobs or making other connections.
Finally, one last huge thank you to Casey Zulandt and Ten 10 Design for taking the time to show a student like myself how to use photoshop and introduce me to the design/marketing/promotional product/sales world. I owe another big thanks to Lindsey Whitticar and her team at POV Solutions for being able to actually print these cards, and teaching me about the print world. Without Mrs. Zulandt, this connection with Mrs. Whitticar would not have been possible. These past three weeks were full of some of the nicest most generous people I have ever met along with some great memories made on the baseball field and some of the coolest designs I have ever made. Thank you to everyone who made this project possible, and I look forward to my next journey in life whatever it might be!
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