2021 Spirit Deluxe

I’ve done the “flagship.” I’ve done the “retro.” I’ve done the “low-end.” Now it’s time for the “high-end” set in Spirit’s lineup of releases. Deluxe is back once again, kicking off with the base design.

This is the first time I’ve done a primarily white design for Deluxe. The marble texture adds some interest there and calls back to a fancy set from the past. The colored marble behind the player makes for a good contrast to the both the borders and the player photos. The whole thing is trimmed out in gold foil with it running around the border and also the player name and team name/logo in the upper left corner.

I didn’t go into ornate-overload like Topps frequently does for stuff like Tribute, Tier One and the like. Probably a little more “overdone” than I normally do but I still pulled back a bit from what could have been done. I’ve tried to keep some variety to the Deluxe designs over the years so this year’s look is definitely different from previous seasons. Still plenty of color to catch the eye help differentiate each card. Imagining these with a thick gloss surface and they’d really pop.

2021 Spirit Team MVP

Time for the first insert of the 2021 Spirit set. This has been a longtime inclusion in my Spirit designing endeavor, with this being my 6th entry into the logs.

Like every other year, I’ve made this an all-relic set with the MVP letters housing the relic. That means using a big, bulky typeface for the MVP as well as somewhere else in the design. This year, I carried over some design elements from the 2021 Spirit base design, namely the herringbone-esque texture and the name font. Behind the player cutout is a colorful, textured background image with a zoomed-in look at the jersey script from the photo. It’s a nice contrast to the clean lines on the rest of the design. Also included is the team logo along with the 3-letter shorthand for each club I’ve found myself using a bit.

I’m pretty pleased with the composition here and just the overall vibe. Combining clean and textured into the same design might be a good summation for my personal aesthetic.

2021 Clubhouse

I’ve had these designs in the can for a while but figured I should probably get this posted before the trade deadline. In case you haven’t been following my projects or need a refresher, Clubhouse is the “value” or “budget” line of Spirit cards. Think Topps’ Big League of today or Upper Deck’s Collector’s Choice of yore. These are meant to be fun, colorful and appealing to all ages, not just dudes in their 40s or older.

The design here is pretty simple with rounded rectangles showing off the team colors. Each color gets a pair of tabs going off the edge of the card, breaking the white borders but still keeping everything crisp and clean. I found space for the name at the top, which is something I’ve noticed goes a bit against the grain lately. Even with my own designs, I find myself placing the names towards the bottom of the card. Can somebody pinpoint the birth of that trend?

At the bottom in the center is the team logo, which should be safe to overlap the edge of the photo there and not cover up too much of the action. Flanking the logo is the team abbreviation on the left and player position on the right. The 3-letter abbreviation is a thing I’ve tinkered with on a few designs but it’s definitely a placeholder here. Honestly, I just needed something on the opposite side of the position to keep the symmetry going. I love the rest of the design so much, I wasn’t going to let a little detail like that derail things.

2021 Clubhouse_COLE_BACK.jpg

The back mirrors the front pretty closely with the tabs lining up the same on both sides. There’s more of the primary color here to make room for the player bio next to his mug shot. I trimmed the career stats down to just the most recent 5 seasons. My reasoning here is this isn’t the flagship set and I’d have to sacrifice a lot of other design options just to accommodate more columns of numbers. And really, I don’t need more obstacles standing between me and a finished design.

Overall, there’s something very pleasing to me about this design. Something about the basic-ness speaks to me in a “well duh, why isn’t this already a thing?” kind of way. Big solid colors are throwback to cards of the past, but somehow this isn’t all that hokey (to my eyes at least).

2021 Pennant

Now that I’ve finished wading through Topps’ designs from the Aughts, it’s time to reveal some new original designs. After posting the Spirit flagship design and cards for each of the 30 teams, I’m scaling back a bit going forward, offering just a few cards per release. So, say hi to the 2021 Pennant design.

The Pennant release has been the “retro” Spirit set, calling back to design styles of the past without ripping them off wholesale. I’ve bounced around decades and eras so as to not be too repetitive. Honestly, I can’t pinpoint the era I’m going for here, just more of a general “old” feel. The key is simplicity as I’ve kept the “design” to a minimum with plain but bold text at the bottom for the name and team. In the corners at the top are corresponding pennants with the Pennant logo and the player position. The most notable feature of the design is the photo treatment. What I’ve done is ramp up the contrast, remove the actual colors from the photos and replaced it with painted simple, solid color shapes. There is still some noise and black values to fill in the details, keeping it from looking quite so illustrated. Of the three here, the Brandon Lowe card is the best in my eyes, mostly thanks to the solid green background.

Here’s the back of the Lowe card. They’re black-and-white with the design mimicking the front. With just 3 seasons under his belt, I was able to fit Lowe’s full career (simplified) stats on here, though that probably wouldn’t be the case for a more seasoned veteran. This is also an opportunity to include the new MLBPA logo for the first time for me.