It’s not easy to come up with a new trading card design. Just ask Upper Deck Lead Designer Michael Jue.
“There’s a lot that goes into designing trading cards for me,” said Jue. “Being a sports fan myself, I try to think about what other fans would like to see. Then I take into account the sport itself, the team, even the attitude of the player. We also need to be cognizant of history and heritage of our products. They need to have a similar look as people collect certain sets each year because of that aspect, but we need to make improvements and updates to make it unique. It can be really difficult.”
Trading card fans gave it their all this week when Upper Deck announced a “Custom Card” contest on the company blog. And the submissions just poured in as fans reveled in the opportunity to show off their custom cards for the Upper Deck team.
“It is really inspiring for the design team here at Upper Deck to see all the submissions we have received on Facebook over the last week for the custom NHL card contest,” said Mike Eggleston, director of Creative Services at Upper Deck. “Most of our design team got their starts early on and team members are very passionate about their craft. We have all worked to hone our talents in school, but also on our own looking for ways to develop our own style. I would encourage anyone who is serious about graphic design to take classes, join online communities with other graphic designers and stick with it! It is unbelievably rewarding to see your creations in the hands of happy collectors. Based on the impressive work submitted by some of you, that is a feeling you may experience one day.”
Congratulations to Yvon Miller who was randomly selected to receive the grand prize of a Tyler Seguin autographed full size stick! Give it a good home, Yvon!
Check out a variety of the submissions we received below along with one additional tip from Jue.
“One of the things that helps me get better is to spend some time each week looking at different designs and trying to think about what I would do to improve upon those designs,” he said. “Give it a try and hopefully you’ll find that in time you create a style all your own by improving on other designs.”
3 Comments
Grats Yvon, Nice card design, awesome prize !
Congrats on the win Yvon.
I am kind of discouraged that UpperDeck did not post my submission in this article as I also made a card for this contest.
So then the question is… After finishing Graphic Design in College… how does someone apply to design with you guys?