Philippine Women's National Soccer Team Uniform Concepts
This year when the Women's World Cup team uniforms were released, the sports and design world were amazed by the significance and vibrancy of the designs, especially for the nature themed Adidas kits. This year was also a historic year for the Philippines because it's the first time they qualified for the World Cup (men's or women's). Due to this accomplishment, I hoped they would come out with a uniform as exciting as the big name teams. Unfortunately, the team's uniforms were a little more on the basic side and didn't have deeper meaning other than the national colors.
As someone who comes from a Filipino family, I wanted to do a passion project where I designed what I think would be more meaningful and culturally significant uniform. My goal was to design something representative of the Filipino land, culture, and community.
Project Overview
Duration
June 2023 - July 2023 (1 month)
My Role
Solo Graphic Designer, Researcher
Tools
Affinity Photo, Procreate
Why
Passion Project
Brainstorming
When brainstorming, I decided to pull ideas from different aspects of Filipino culture - wardrobe, textiles, food, landscapes, and more. My initial design ideas were centered around the Filipiniana (a Filipino garment with pronounced sleeves, which often included intricate embroidery of flowers and other motifs).
Reassessing Design Choices
After getting feedback on my original concept, I found that my designs were not as meaningful as I would like. Though the Filipiniana is a traditional garment, it didn't really align with my goal of vibrancy. I chose a different design path that was still related to Filipino textiles - traditional weaving patterns.
Originally, I was saving the weaving pattern for the away jersey which I planned to do in black. Upon further introspection, I decided to use that idea and apply it to a home jersey (in white). I really liked this clean look and thought it was a good middle ground to represent the colors of the Filipino flag while incorporating weaving designs of the indigenous peoples of the Philippines.
A Fun & Colorful Approach to an Away Jersey
In contrast to the crisp, traditional home jersey, I wanted to make the away jersey colorful, fun, and organic. My inspiration for this kit are two stories about mythical Filipino birds - the Sarimanok and the Ibong Adarna. These birds are known for being bright and colorful birds. They are also known for bringing good fortune or having healing powers.
Making Slight Revisions
When doing another round of revisions, I found that the initial color palette was all over the place and had clashing colors. I decided to refine and tone down my color selection in addition to making a cohesive color palette.
The color palette still seemed too busy when I revisited my design, so I decided to condense it to four colors. I also played around with feathers and wing imagery to complement the colorful tail feathers, but ultimately didn't include the feathers in the final design.
