Shiny new object: Breaking out of my design comfort zone

As a digital creative designer, I work in the world of screens, pixels, and vectors. I love the constraints of the online format as well as its power: animation and motion, limitless color choices, ability to refine and adjust—even after a project’s “completion." So, when the opportunity arose to try a completely new design media, I embraced the challenge, though with some trepidation. And what was the challenge? Design a sports pin for my son’s tournament baseball team.

Now, to those unfamiliar with the world of kids’ competitive sports—and I was one of you, before I birthed and raised 2 boys who somehow turned out to be very athletic—these pins are a very big deal. In the summer of 2019, my son's team, the South San Francisco Fog, would be attending the American Youth Baseball Tournament in Cooperstown Dreams Park. Every summer, over a thousand teams of 12-year old boys make the pilgrimage to Cooperstown, NY for this iconic tournament. Dreams Park houses 27 pristine baseball fields, on which 103 teams per week play in perfect red, white, and blue uniforms. The teams stay in dorms within the park, and play 2-3 games per day. And each team brings a team pin. Each player gets 103 pins so that they can, in a perfect world, trade with each and every other team there for the week, and come home with an amazing collection of team pins from all over the country to proudly display in their room (or put in a box or binder under their bed) for years to come.

First step: Competitive Analysis

When I embarked on the project, I benefited from having gone to Cooperstown Dreams Park once before, with my older son. So I started with a survey of the pins that he had collected. 

What were their themes? Their sizes? Their quality?

This is what I found: 

Themes: Almost all the pins contained a combination of 2-4 of these elements: 

• Baseball objects (bats, balls, diamonds)
• State outline or item of local interest
• Team mascot (pirates, scorpions, etc.)
• Names and/or numbers of team players
• “Cooperstown” and the year

The other learning was that many of the pins looked somewhat generic—like the same companies were using the same collection of things, rearranged, over and over again. I wanted to create something unique and fresh.

Color: Many pins stuck to the team colors (usually just 2 colors). Others used more colors. The ones with more than 2 colors were more appealing and unique.

Size: The pins' sizes ranged from 1-3 inches in diameter.

Second step: User Research

My user research consisted of interviews with two users: my sons. I had them go through the pins and pick out their favorite ones. Then we looked at the favorites and talked about what they liked about these pins. 

What they liked:

• Bling. They were very much into the extra cool stuff that costs more money to add to your pin: glitter, spinners, and sliders.
• Color. They like the more colorful pins.
• Size: They liked the bigger pins.
• They were aware of the “generic” feel of many of the pins and were more attracted to the ones that felt unique and different.

Third Step: Manufacturer Research

I began to research pin-makers online. I found that many of them included design for free, which they would provide at the time of quote, so decided to go ahead see what they would come up with. I found that the designs they sent felt a bit generic, as expected, and so decided to continue with my plan to design our own. 

Price-wise, I found a large difference between the high and the low. I thought that I had found a really great deal at a great price, and then decided to take another look at my son’s pin collection. I found that the back of many of the pins included the manufacturer’s name—what a find! Because it turned out that there is a large range of quality. Some of the pins were hefty and vibrant, others felt thin and cheap. And sure enough I found a pin from my low-quote company, and it felt cheap. So I then collected the company names from the good-quality pins, and went back and got quotes from those. I ended up with a good quote from All About Pins, and decided to go with them.

Fourth Step: Committee Involvement

All of the parents of the team members met monthly to organize fundraising and everything else that needed to happen to get us to Cooperstown. I didn't want to be creating the pin in a vacuum, being aware that my personal tastes could be very different than the overall feelings of the group. So, I brought my son’s pin collection to the next meeting, let everybody look and comment on what they saw. It surfaced that people really liked the idea of including the Golden Gate Bridge. I also recruited 2 other parents to be on the Pin Committee with me, so that I have a few more perspectives than just my own. 

Fifth Step: Design, Round One

Based on all of the above, our committee came up with 3 general ideas. I created rough sketches, and I presented these to the group at the next meeting. 

The group voted and the winner was clear: Golden Gate Bridge.

Sixth Step: Finalizing the Design and Ordering the Pin

At this point there was a lot of positive buzz and encouragement from the group of parents, so the rest of the process was just taking it to the finish line. I discovered that drawing fog in a graphic format is really, really hard. I added color, glitter for the fog, finessed and polished up the design. I presented the final design, got the thumbs up, and put in the order!

The Final Pin

I wish that I had known I was going to write this at the time that I was doing it, and I would have taken some pics of the large piles of small, heavy boxes that arrived at my door. With great anticipation I opened the boxes full of pins wrapped in individual small plastic bags. They turned out great!

Here is the final pin:

The tournament was a great success. The South San Francisco Fog had an unforgettable, once-in-a-lifetime experience. And on top of that, the Fog team pin was a big hit, and became one of the most-sought-after pins of the week, which obviously made me feel really good. But aside from achieving bragging rights, the whole experience of breaking out of my digital comfort zone and trying a new design challenge was extremely rewarding. I highly recommend looking for opportunities to branch out into different mediums or practices as a great method for personal and professional growth.