After revealing the runners up in our Umbro Crest Designer competition earlier today, we can now reveal the five creations that have been picked out as the winners! After much deliberation, we felt that these designs deserved the opportunity to be made up into real shirts for the lucky few who came up with them. In no particular order then, here’s our five winners…
HAVANA MOON
Designed by Toshiyuki Aida
ROSBEEF FC
Designed by Antoine David
SLUG FC
Designed by Jack Faulkner
WAGS UNITED
Designed by Russell Jones
PEACOCK INDIA
Designed by Regulus Fernandez
Congratulations once again to all our winners, we’re sure you’ll agree that their designs are all worthy of this fantastic prize. Our competition might have ended, but you can still use the Umbro Crest Designer to create a crest for your team – just head over to the special site now and see what you can come up with!
Inspired by our World Champions Collection, the Umbro Crest Designer was a competition we recently ran which offered you the chance to create your own club logo and win a terrific prize in the process. We had thousands of great entries, and we’ve spent the last couple of days trying to agree on our winners.
In true competition style, we’re ramping up the tension by announcing our seven runners-up first, before revealing our winners later today.
Runners Up – these seven runners up were all highly commended by Umbro’s design team. They all win a special edition shirt from the World Champions Collection. Congratulations to all the designers!
ALL SEEING STRIKER
Designed by Tom Pearson
KILLER
Designed by Anthony Gagné
ROJO
Designed by Vicente Pessoa
BRASIL FUTEBOL E ART
Designed by Tiago Lionel
MIDFIELD DEMON
Designed by Jim Stewart
THE THIN WHITE DUKES
Designed by Paul Jones
FRANCE
Designed by Patrick Deneny
Congratulations to all the designers whose work has been picked out, and thanks to everyone who took the time to craft a crest for the competition. The Umbro Crest Designer will remain open if you’d still like to design a logo for fun – head over to the site now if you fancy flexing your design muscles! We’ll have the winners for you later today, so check back to see if you’ve been picked out to have your design made into a real shirt!
With the action in South Africa about to kick off, football is doing a fantastic job in bringing people together all around the world. That’s why, in what is recognised as the world’s finest boutique sneaker store (or trainers, as they’re known over here!), you’ll currently find some of the finest football products available.
The Alife Rivington Club, a New York-based boutique that has branched out into all sorts of cultural activity, has teamed up with Umbro to host a pop-up store in the States. They’ll be showcasing all the great stuff we’ve been doing recently, such as the England kits and the World Champions Collection, and also revealing the heritage and expertise that makes us the experts in football and the world that surrounds it. With Alife being experts in their field, specialising in the culture that connects with the world of sneakers, we felt they were the perfect people to understand what we were doing with football.
With everyone wanting to catch up with all the on-pitch drama in South Africa, Alife will also screening matches in the store, alongside live music and all sorts of other activity. Take a look at the Alife website for more details on where to find them if you’re in NYC, or if you’re not lucky enough to be in town, take a look at our Flickr gallery which has plenty of pictures.
Ever wanted to design your own football crest? Earlier this year we invited top artists from seven countries to take a fresh look at the culture and character of their nation and redesign their national crest. The results became our World Champions Collection, adding a splash of originality and humour to their national identity.
It’s this that’s got us thinking – what would people come up with if they were asked to design a new crest? With this in mind, we’ve created a great competition, where we’re asking you to design a personal crest using our favourite new toy, the Umbro Crest Designer.
Using our guide and combining the different elements available, you can construct any number of different crests that reflect your school, your workplace, your friends or your hometown. You can create a new England crest, a badge for your Sunday League team or just one that represents who you are – the choice is yours!
You’ll also be able to share your crests with the world via Facebook, vote for your favourites and show off your efforts, but that’s not all – it is a competition after all. We’re going to be checking out all the entries, and we’ll pick one winner who’ll get their crest design made up into a real shirt, Tailored By Umbro. Bringing your design to life, the shirt will be a one-off, never-to-be-repeated special edition.
So, how do you go about entering? Every crest that’s designed using the Umbro Crest Designer will be included in the competition, and you can enter as many times as you like. So, you can go for simple or complex. Anyone with no design experience can use the online templates to shape their designs, or if you see yourself as a bit of a design king you can download the toolbox and let your imagination run wild.
Upload a picture to include in your design, or just use the elements that we’ve created – it’s completely up to you. You can see some of the designs that people have come up with so far on a special Flickr feed here, or just head straight to the design studio. See if you can do better than any of our stellar efforts!
With the 2009/10 season almost over (bar a play-off or two) most of the footballing world have started to turn their eyes towards South Africa as they anticipate the start of the world’s biggest knock-out tournament. So much has changed in South Africa since it was announced that the continent would get its first international football spectacular, it’d be hard to get an idea of just how much the place has been transformed by the news. Luckily, we’ve got people on the ground over there, in the shape of Umbro South Africa, who are based in Cape Town. They’ve been experiencing everything first hand, and now they’re going to give us an insight into how the excitement is building up over in Cape Town, which will host England‘s game against Algeria plus a quarter and semi-final. Here’s Claire Conroy, a member of Umbro’s South African team, to give us the lowdown on the construction of a footballing city…
“Drills, jackhammers, the sound of trucks reversing (that incessant “beep-beep”) and builders yelling at each other has been Cape Town’s ever-present soundtrack for the past few months. Starting at the unusually early hour (for this laid back city) of oh-seven-hundred, construction workers have been putting on their hard hats and reflector vests to lay the foundations for Africa’s first hosting of the FIFA World Cup.
With South Africa’s high unemployment rate there is a real sense of pride and a tangible (and audible) cheer around the construction sites. Great to see. And hear.
Initially, Capetonians and tourists alike could not walk a few hundred metres without coming across some sort of obstacle or road closure…
…but as June 11th approaches these frustrations are being replaced with freshly planted shrubs on the fan miles and directional signage on the roads and footpaths – leaving no doubt as to which way the stadium might be.
There have also been developments to the advantage of those city-dwellers traversing on foot, such as this pedestrian walk-way over the busy Buitengracht Street which will streamline traffic on the fan mile to and from Cape Town train station to the Greenpoint stadium. There’s also the Integrated Rapid Transport (IRT) System that has been built in Cape Town (and Johannesburg) using a “high-quality bus-based transit system that delivers fast, comfortable and cost-effective urban mobility with segregated right-of-way infrastructure and frequent operations”. Sounds efficient.
Then of course there are also the numerous amounts of street poles that have received a waft of colour (and branding) too. And some businesses in the city seem to have gone flag crazy – not just the international hotels that usually boast and hoist the nations. These little bars and car salesmen seem to want to advertise the fact that they, too are aware of and supporting this mammoth event.
And then, there are the cars pledging their allegiance…”
We’ll have more from our South African colleagues as we closer to kick off, plus a whole lot more on this summer’s big football action. Keep your eyes here on the blog and over on Umbro.com for details…
Today we’re bringing our closer examination of the World Champions Collection to a close by looking at the final entry: England. First of all, let’s take another look at Abbey Clancy modelling the shirt…
The English crest was designed by acclaimed graffiti artist and typography specialist Ben Eine, who has also worked in creating customised clothing before. The World Champions Collection was still a bit of a departure for Ben though, so we sat down for a chat with him to discuss his work, the project and why he decided to get involved…
How would you describe your work as an artist?
‘Basically I started off doing graffiti about 20 years ago, when hip-hop, breakdancing and electro was first imported over from the States, and I couldn’t dance but I wanted to be part of that gang. I’ve been doing it pretty much ever since. About ten years ago, I stopped doing traditional graffiti, and moved more into the street art world, and the style of street art that I do is pretty much letter and word based, almost a modern-day interpretation of typography.’
What inspires your work?
‘It’s my weird fascination with typography and the letter form really. Graffiti for me is all about how letters change shape when you combine them with other letters, that’s my main inspiration. Outside of that, there’s been numerous artists who’ve inspired me, artists who worked in a certain way – Andy Warhol for example, and the way that he changed how art is produced, and his factory assembly line, the way he used screen printing.
How do you feel about people who say that graffiti isn’t art?
‘It’s weird, when I started graffiti as an art form or as a youth movement hadn’t existed before, it was just political or racist slogans, or the name of a band that you liked. When I started doing graffiti it was hated because of that and because it was tags on people’s property. What’s happened now is that you’ve got two generations of people who’ve grown up with graffiti and understand it, so it’s no longer this shocking youth movement that it once was. The street art movement has turned it into something that’s a lot more understandable and culturally acceptable.’
Has England inspired your work?
‘I think we’re lucky in England because artists are treated as some sort of pop star or mini-celebrity compared to lots of other countries around the world. We’ve got lots of art galleries and lots of events that happen around the country, so the general population understands art in a way that people in other countries aren’t. They’re aware of what artists are trying to do, and it’s fine to buy a piece of art and hang it up in your house. So from an artists point of view, it’s a great place to be.’
What made you want to get involved in this collaboration with Umbro?
‘I’m not a particularly massive football fan to be honest, but when the big tournaments come around, everyone gets bitten by it, and I thought this was a great project to get involved with. Also, Umbro have got a great history of supplying England, so they seemed like a good brand to get involved with.’
How did you approach the task of designing your own crest?
‘I wanted to do something that was a traditional crest, rather than something ultra-modern and sleek, but also slightly tweaked to bring it up to date and to include some of the things that have influenced me.’
What was it like to work on a smaller scale than usual?
‘It was good fun, a lot of what I do is larger than life, but I do spend a lot of time in my studio doodling and drawing, that’s something that I really enjoyed doing.’
How do you think England will do this summer?
‘I’m always optimistic, but realistic. I think they’ll do well, but I think they’d be lucky to get to the semi-finals.’
What role do you think a crest has for players and fans?
‘I think the England crest is a medal of honour. To represent your country in these big tournaments is an amazing achievement, you’ve got to be at the peak of your physical fitness, so to reach that place is undoubtedly going to be a highlight of your life. So to pull that shirt on, it’s got to be the proudest moment of your life, and the only thing that could match that would be winning the trophy and lifting it up while you’re wearing the shirt.’
We’ve got our penultimate close up of the World Champions Collection today, as we take a closer look at our near neighbours France. We’ll start by taking a quick glance behind the scenes at Charlene Suric modelling the French shirt…
The shirt was designed by French cultural icon André. Originally known for his graffiti painting, André is now recognised for opening hip nightclubs in Paris, New York and Tokyo, and for collaborating on shop openings and artworks around the world. Here’s what he had to say about his design…
‘Umbro represents a classic brand, and I always like to design crests and logos. I try to be as simple and direct as possible.’
‘What do I like about football? I like the round ball.’
‘French symbols and the colours of the flag inspired my design, and sometimes I’m inspired by football’s culture and aesthetic.’
We know you’ve been enjoying everything that we’ve revealed about the World Champions Collection so far, so we thought you might like to see these pictures of our seven girls from the seven countries involved. You can see them all in the gallery above, or you can see them individually by clicking on the links here:
We’re taking a closer look at Germany today as part of our World Champions Collection, but first of all, here’s a quick look at Julia Goedicke modelling her national shirt…
Marok is the man behind LoDown Magazine, one of the world’s most influential design and pop culture publications around. He’s also worked with a number of record and fashion labels, and has been exhibited around the world as an artist. Here’s a couple of things he had to say about his irreverent crest design, football and his work…
‘The crest is a delicate part of the uniform, and the uniform enhances team spirit. I was looking for something that could reflect my country in a positive way. The dredger is a symbol for the imminent will to construct and destruct. The stars refer to the German championships, and the sausage needs no further explanation.’
‘I like heraldic icons and illustration in general. I am quite familiar with crests from working on a previous project. It’s all about symmetry.’
‘I like the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat. Sports is the best metaphor to avoid war.’
‘Football is part of my Saturday routine. I like to watch my home team play, but they are really bad this year.’
We’re taking a closer look at the four European sides of the World Champions Collection this week, starting off with the current trophy holders Italy. Here’s a closer look at our photo shoot with our Italian model, Alice Bregoli:
The man behind our Italian design is well known for his art around the world. Tanino Liberatore is best known as a comic artist, and for his character RanXerox. Tanino has also dabbled in the world of music, creating the sleeve art for Frank Zappa’s album The Man From Utopia. Recently, we spoke to him about his work, and the design that he came up with for our World Champions Collection. Here’s what he had to say…
Who or what inspired you to become an artist?
‘The italian Renaissance and particularly Michelangelo.’
Has Italy inspired your work in the past?
‘Of course.’
What made you want to get involved in this collaboration with Umbro?
‘I like English football, and Umbro is closely related to it.’
What do you think of the existing crest used by your national team?
‘I like it, it’s very simple.’
How did you approach the idea of redesigning the Italian crest?
‘I was inspired by a trip to Rome. We cannot forget the moral value of our historical past.’
How did you decide what elements to include?
‘I’ve tried to diffuse sport’s positive message.’
If you had to name your crest, what would you call it?
‘Strong-mindedness.’
Were you a football fan before you decided to do this?
‘I’m nuts about Inter – I’m just watching the Coppa Italia match between Inter and Roma.’
What role do you think the crest has for players and fans?
‘It’s very important. It’s a shortcut to membership identification.’
How do you think Italy will fare in this summer’s World Cup?
‘I have hope, but I don’t think that the Italian team will do good things. But I think that the English team will have a very good championship.’
Reference to specific teams, players or organisations within this blog - or links from it to external team, Player, individual, media, community or organisational websites - does not constitute or imply endorsement or recommendation of umbro or the umbro brand. The views and opinions of authors expressed herein do not necessarily state or reflect those of umbro.
