Marshawn Lynch Football Card

My 10 year old son Jake has been collecting football cards for the past few months. He and his friends get together, trade and make lists of cards they are looking for.

Last night he started asking me how some of the football cards are made. In particular, he wanted to know how some of the cards had cool backgrounds “that aren’t like real life” and how the names look so “cool and 3-D”.

I started to explain some of the processes a graphic designer would use to create a card. Then I thought, well, why not actually show him how it’s done.

I fired up Photoshop and we sat on the couch for an hour while I showed him how to use the pen tool to cut a player out of a photo, various layer effects, choosing a typeface, and designing the layout. Jake acted as my art director; his favorite player is Marshawn Lynch so we searched for good photos of him. Jake liked the photo of Lynch pointing “because it’s different and interesting”. He also likes a brand of cards called “Fire” so he asked if this version could be called “Flame”. When we were looking at photos of flames he decided that blue flame would be best because it is close to the blue of the Seahawks’ uniforms.

This football card is the end result of our collaboration. Is it my best design work? No, but the hour that Jake and I spent together creating it was an experience that was great for both of us. He learned more about what I do for a living and I got to encourage him to be creative and he got some insight into how something he likes was created. I wouldn’t trade that experience for the best design in the world.