Sunday, April 6, 2014

Hardware!

My US Soccer 2030 concept series has won the award for best concept series on the CCSLC boards! Here is what one of the judges said about my project.

Best Concept Series // US Soccer 2030 // raysox

Who ever said size doesn’t matter? Well, raysox definitely has a big, bad... concept. 

Let’s look over the spec-sheet for raysox’s US Soccer 2030 project: 72 teams, full faux-backstories on each team, uniform concepts, logo designs, AND it’s fully playable in a video game? Yeah, that’s award-worthy. 

For me, the real joy of the project was reading the wonderful backstories (future-stories?) presented for every team. With each bio, you can see, smell, and practically taste the vision raysox had while recreating all 72 teams. 

On the artistic side of things, raysox does an amazing job in two specific areas: knowing when to show restraint/flex his creative muscles and succeeding in the fine details. For example, if something is working design-wise, raysox leaves it alone (Sounders, TFC, Chicago Fire), he also recognizes when the idea is good but tweaks need to be made (DC United, San Jose Earthquakes), and when a team need needs to head in a completely new direction (Columbus Crew, Boston Revolution). And even when he has nothing to work with, he shows that he has the ability to create great designs all on his own (San Francisco, California, & New Orleans). 

The other area raysox where excels at in the little things... Take choosing a sponsor, for example. Not many people would notice that he chose Meijer as the primary sponsor for the Detroit City concept; but someone who lives in Michigan would instantly recognize Meijer as their stores are a staple throughout the state. San Francisco FC is sponsored by Twitter. Buffalo Athletic is sponsored by Rich’s Products. Even the conscious decision to use a wide variety of apparel manufacturers helps sell the realistic nature of the project; and for that, the US Soccer 2030 project is deservedly wins the 2014 award for Best Concept Series.