Adobe x NWSL Creator Club 2025
Agency: Dentsu
As one of five selected creators for this year's Adobe x National Women's Soccer League partnership, I was tasked to illustrate eight designs that celebrate my local NWSL team, the Utah Royals, and represent four different fan types in the soccer fandom. The final illustrations took form as digital embroidered patches for fans to remix on Adobe's design app, Adobe Express.
In youth soccer, there's a tradition of trading team patches with the opponent at the end of the game to build camaraderie and friendship. This project takes inspiration from youth soccer culture and reimagines the patch trade tradition for the big leagues.
For the Utah Royals patches, I used fan-favorite puns and chants as part of my design and included my interpretation of the team mascot, Cleo the Lioness. One of the objective is to highlight qualities that are unique to the team's DNA and is reflective of the city's culture. I used the word "heck" to showcase Utah's quirky vernacular of exclaiming "heck" instead of "hell" in everyday conversations. A typical soccer ball is composed of black pentagons and white hexagons. Hexagons are a recognizable symbol in Utah in relation to bees, honeycombs, and the concept of unity, industry, and strong work ethic. I intentionally placed Cleo in a hexagon as a subtle nod to our state pride.
The fan patches each represents a type of fan. I designed a patch to celebrate the LGBTQ+ fan base, who show up to games in pride gears. My "forever" patch represents the die-hard loyal fans. The "hincha" (Spanish slang for fan) patch was inspired by the local bilingual fan club for the Utah Royals and with soccer being a beloved sport among Spanish-speaking populations globally. The last patch showcases the fervid "online" fans, who hype up the players and express their love and support through social media.
The final illustrations were vectored in Adobe Illustrator. The embroidery appearance is a digital effect added by the client. Adobe produced and released a video to announce the Creator Club campaign, featuring all five artists and Kelley O'Hara (2x NWSL Champion). My patches were also highlighted on the Sports Are Fun! Podcast hosted by Kelley.
The patches are part of a fan experience contest hosted by Just Women's Sports and Adobe. Fans can submit their remixed designs from Adobe Express for a chance to win a custom jacket with the artist-created patches.
Below are initial concept sketches, including unused designs.
