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Portfolio Update: June 2011 – Custom Clothing

Herbie Hysteria — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 21:06:40 +0000

AWOL?

Yeah, yeah I know. I haven’t posted for nearly TWO whole months and the only excuse I can find is that age-old one ending in ‘..too busy’, but honestly, my workload has been intense and I’ve been busy being ‘TOO BUSY’ with it, but I’ve made adjustments now and it won’t happen again. Blogging aint easy, so I might as well do it properly after spending so much time creating and running this blog. Promise.

To all my RSS subscribers who unsubscribed because they weren’t being fed with their dosage of me more often, a heart-felt apology. Yeah, I noticed the numbers dwindle, but ya know, ‘Please come back!’. To everyone else who takes even the slightest interest in my stuff on this blog, Facebook and other online channels, thanks for the support, comrades! It seems everybody wants a piece of ‘the Hysterikal Kid’ at the moment, so I’m not complaining, because I shouldn’t, but..err.. I wish we didn’t have to sleep…(!)

Anyway, the up-side of all this is that I’ve been so busy being busy that I’ve got loads to show you. I’ve decided to start trickling out my recent work and not bombard you with it once in one whole lump sum. Think of it as a ‘drip’ rather than a ‘spill’(!)

Custom Clothing

I’ve just added six images to the Custom Clothing section of the portfolio, so we’re of to a good start. As y’all know, all the work is original and and comes guaranteed with the ‘Wow’ factor.

Cafe Express, Nelson - custom polos

Embroidery

Embroidery is the most expensive type of garment application but, boy, the results are worth it. In February, I designed and embroidered this satin kickboxing robe for UK and European champion Hassan Ali, who’s ‘lion’ logo I designed in mid-2010.

Hassan Ali 'The Lion' - custom embroidery

Click here to view the complete portfolio. I’m back now so will be posting again very soon! Peace.

Case Study: Hassan Ali ‘The Lion’ Re-branding and Team Apparel

Herbie Hysteria — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 15:30:06 +0000

Who Is Hassan Ali ‘The Lion’?

For those who have been living under a rock for the past few years, Hassan Ali Ahmed, or Hassan Ali ‘The Lion’ as he is better known, is a young kickboxing champion from Burton, UK who has managed to attain great success in his chosen sport, all at a very young age, and he’s still going strong.

Hassan Ali at the British ICO Championships 2010

I was recently commissioned by his 2010 sponsor, Stylz Hairdressing (if you haven’t heard of SH by now, then you need to take a gander through my portfolio) to re-brand his official logo and supply his 2010 team apparel.

This guy is a phenomenal talent and was selected to become ‘Sports Personality of the Year 2009′ for the Staffordshire area – not a minor achievement, kids! He’s on top of his game and all set to join the British Olympic Team for 2012.

Hassan in action (with a swift kick to the chin!)

I take my hat off to him, because at the age of 16, I was just about learning to use the TV’s remote control(!)

Just goes to show really, hard-work and motivation gets you where you want in life, even at a young age(!)

Hassan’s Titles and Achievements

His official titles are:

World Kickboxing Association (WKA) – Junior Area – achieved at the age of 13 in 2007
International Sport Kickboxing Association (ISKA) – Midlands Champion – achieved in 2009
European Gold Medalist – achieved at the age of 15 in 2009
World Association Kickboxing Organisation (WAKO) British – achieved at the age of 16 in February 2010
ICO International Combat Organisation – achieved at the age of 16 in June 2010

So, in a nutshell, you know he can kick some serious ass if he needs to(!)

The New Logo

The owner of Stylz Hairdressing, Haroon ‘Harris’ Yousaf, from my home town of Nelson (woohoo!) is a friend of mine as well as a valued client. We’ve shared a mutual social/professional relationship for years with lots of piss-taking and brotherly-banter thrown in for good measure (it kinda works!).

The final confirmed logo concept

So, apart from the usual signage, graphic design, printing and custom clothing I do for Harry, I knew THIS project was an important one for him because he was Hassan’s official sponsor for 2010 (jammy git!).

Anyways, as he had inked the deal with Hassan’s repesentatives, a few months ago, I was approached by Harris to design some new logo concepts for Hassan. I knew they had to be better than perfect so it was quite a challenge for me too, but within a few days, I had a draft prepared of possible concepts and Harry e-mailed them over to the guys in Hassan’s camp.

They were a hit and you can see the chosen logo above – slick, I know(!)
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Printed Team Hoodies

Forward a few months to July 2010 and the order was given to supply a large number of sponsored team hoodies to be worn by Hassan, his training camp and colleagues.

He was due to perform in a charity event to help raise funds and awareness for Gaza and Palestine and they needed the hoodies in time for this – again, I take my hat off to Hassan for such a positive attitude towards the REAL issues in the world (I’m running outta hats here).

As usual when working with Harry, time wasn’t on our sides and the order came a few days before the event, so I had to get my ass in gear to supply them in time.

Confirmed design draft

I designed the hoodies within a day and whizzed the design-drafts over to get them confirmed. Confirmation came quick, so the race was on. You can see the design-draft on he left and how they opted for a gold and white logo on black hoodies – a great colour-choice.
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Burning The Midnight Oil

For sharpness in detail, colour variation and quality purposes, I opted for vinyl-transfer printing. This meant having all the various colours and decals cut using my ‘ol’ faithful’ cutter, and then weeded to get rid of the excess. I used the best ‘Eco-Flex’ vinyl material to guarantee great results and vivid colours – especially the shiny gold which was part of the logo.

I enlisted the help of a coupla trusted ‘homies from the neighbourhood’ because this order consisted of highly detailed cuts and positioning – and we were pushed for time. In no time, my workshop was a mess and we were working till 3am both nights before the charity event.

Detailing on the back - gold vinyl looked great!

Some of the cuts, such as the upper arm detail were intricately small lettering, so my homie ‘Arthur’ came to the rescue, sat himself down at my desk and proceeded to weed the cuts. Of course, Arthur did a great job and impressed me with his ability to finely weed small lettering and decals. Go, Arthur!

After cutting, weeding and pressing the hoodies, they were swiftly packed and Harris set off, with Stylz staff in tow, for Burton, Staffordshire to personally deliver them to Hassan and his team. I would have loved to also go and meet the champ, but I had a meeting planned early next day so couldn’t justify the late-night road-trip, even if it meant missing out on meeting Hassan and co.

The lads arrived very late, but there was still some time for a few photo-opps with Hassan, showing his new sponsored hoodies. Below are some snaps from the night they were delivered.

Hassan Ali and the staff from Stylz Hairdressing

Hassan and his Father

All in all, I’m glad I had the opportunity to work for such a promising young man, definately beats the usual teen flock of cider-drinking, dole-dossing, 2pac-impersonating teenagers who’s only projected claim to fame is a possible appearance on ‘The Jeremy Kyle Show’.

From me, a big shout-out to Hassan and the boys from Stylz Hairdressing. Long may you all continue to do what you do best.

Burnley Brawl 3 – Deano Miles of Spartan Free Fighting Kicks Ass With His First Win!

Herbie Hysteria — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 22:52:58 +0000

Go, Deano!

Saturday, March 20th, 2010. Burnley Football Club, Turf Moor, Lancs: Burnley Brawl 3 – UK BAMMA EVENT

Spartan Free Fighting's Deano Miles and Aaron Sunter, modelling their new Tees.

Spartan Free Fighting from my hometown of Nelson, Lancashire is a mixed martial arts club who have been great clients of mine since late last year, 2009. Always one to support local businesses in my neighbourhood, tonight’s victory deserved a dedicated article from me. I designed their logo and supply all their printed team-hoodies and t-shirts for training and fight-nights. A dedicated bunch of lads with a few ‘heavy hitters’ amongst them, Deano Miles is the scarier one out of ‘em all.

BAMMA – British Association of Mixed Martial Arts

Burnley Brawl 3 is the third installment of a series of regional events organised by BAMMA. Through their hard work, MMA Fighting is becoming the most explosive and popular sport all over the world.

Burnley Brawl 2 – So Close, Yet So Far

A personal friend as well as client, I have witnessed first-hand the dedication this young cage-fighter puts into his training. He narrowely missed out on a debut fight victory in Burnley Brawl 2, November 2009, against more-seasoned fighter Anthony Diprose. Even after flooring Diprose twice in BB2, and being crowned ‘fight of the night’ Deano narrowly missed out on a debut victory that would’ve been epic. Seen as one of the major ‘underdogs’ on the night because of his lack of experience, Deano quickly shut the doubters up by giving Diprose a fine dash for his cash. That’s why I’m personally proud to hear of Deano’s win earlier today against Ashley Spencer, at Burnley Brawl 3, held at Turf Moor, Burnley.

Burnley Brawl 3 – Pro Debut Victory

Altogether, three Spartans fought tonight. Both Simon Greenwood and Declan Cuttel are confident Spartans, but both lost their bouts in the first round, to Mark Sinclair and Daniel Howard respectively. This made Deano’s win even more well-deserved. Tonight, 20th March, was his professional debut fight, so I am sure he is out celebrating with a few barrels of ‘the good stuff’ right now, as I sit here updating this post. It’s only been a couple of hours since the event happened but I have had the victory confirmed through fans on facebook, so I still haven’t seen the video of the fight. Everyone is probably out getting wasted now to celebrate, so I think I’ll wait till the morning to get the full lowdown on the fight. It’s good to see local talent being appreciated, ‘we live in this darn town, we are what makes it where’.

The boys at Spartan are on top of their game so this victory is one for all the team to savour. It must feel good smashing someone’s face and then being applauded for it by every Tom, Dick and Harry. Even though I couldn’t attend the event tonight due to work commitments, I can still show my support for my clients with a well-deserved article here on artbyherbie.com. In no time, expect to hear the name ‘Deano Miles’ amongst the big boys at the UFC Championships

SFF – Fresh new logo, hoodies and t-shirts

The old SFF logo

I re-branded the SFF ‘ying yang’ logo as the old one looked a bit dated and needed a sexier font to bring it bang-up-to-date. Initially, their logo consisted of the ‘ying yang’ design with ‘Spartan Free Fighting’ curved around the top, in the most boring font, Arial. To make it more definitive, I decided to seperate the ‘Spartan’ and ‘Free Fighting’ lettering.

I remedied this by choosing a more modern font which made the first ‘S’ look like the helmet of a Spartan warrior (I’m sure most of you have seen the movie ’300′ so I won’t go into the history of the Spartans and their conquest over the Persians). Adding ‘Free Fighting’ underneath in italics finished the look. The boys loved it and made Spartan look more professional and ‘big in the game’, if you get my drift!

[SinglePic not found]This is the freshened new logo, adorning all their t-shirts and hoodies. Sometimes it’s better to just refresh an old identity rather than create a whole new one. I think it came out great, don’t you? THIS IS SPARTAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! (sorry, I just couldn’t resist). On to the next fight now Deano, let’s make ‘kicking ass’ a habit, you ol’ clubber, you! Well done!

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