[Editor’s Note: Today we have a guest entry from reader Sawyer Busny, who’s going to tell us how he designed a jersey for the men’s lacrosse team at his college. Enjoy! — PL]
By Sawyer Busny
I love uniforms and I love Adobe Photoshop. My gateway into using Photoshop consisted of editing my friends’ faces onto the bodies of NFL players. After that, I started designing graphics for my high school football team. And when I arrived at Colby College in Maine, I got involved in the school’s social media feeds for the various sports teams. Keep in mind, Colby is a Division III school with no formal social media department, so there were plenty of opportunities for me.
Last fall, I was asked by the men’s lacrosse coaches to develop concepts for an alternate jersey for the team to expand their wardrobe. Here’s what their primary jerseys looked like:
For 2024, the team was looking for its first-ever alternate design. They didn’t have any particular vision for what they wanted and therefore granted me the creative freedom to design whatever I liked. I created concept after concept in both blue and white colors. Here are some of those concepts:
None of these designs illuminated what an alternate uniform should be — they lacked a purpose. The Colby Athletic Director is a former Navy SEAL, so I decided to create a uniform honoring his service as well as all Navy SEALs who have served our country. Colby plays against the Maine Maritime Academy every season, which I thought would be a great opportunity to wear my new design.
I also knew I wanted to feature more Colby branding on the uniforms (something I felt the 2023 uniforms lacked, as they did not use the Colby font or logo). For my design, I used the Colby font on the chest and placed the Colby mule logo on the sleeve. I placed the Navy Seal badge on the chest and experimented with camouflage patterns, like this:
Even though Colby’s official school colors are royal blue, white, and grey, no Colby team had ever worn a grey jersey (except for baseball’s road uniform). I decided to lean more in that direction. Here are some of the resulting concepts:
And here’s a Photoshopped image, showing a player wearing one of the concept designs:
It was at this point I brought my concepts to the team captains. They voiced concern over having to hold a “ceremonial event” for the military for every appearance of the uniform, and they didn’t want to limit the design to games against Maine Maritime Academy. We then moved toward a design without the Navy Seal insignia. Here’s the final jersey design:
During the design process, I learned that an assistant coach had designed new home and away uniforms for the next season as well. He, too, had aimed to better represent the Colby Athletics brand by using the official font for both the chest wordmark and the numbers:
These new uniforms created more consistency with my alternate uniform then the 2023 uniforms would have.
With the design finalized, I reached out to a supplier — Zima, through Lax.com. Here’s a mockup they provided:
Meanwhile, I had also been asked by the assistant coach to design new decals for the team’s helmet. Here’s how those turned out:
The uniforms were ordered in January. But then the team unexpectedly added several walk-on players to the roster. We didn’t have jerseys for them, so the design’s on-field debut was delayed until those additional jerseys could be produced.
The team ultimately ended up wearing the alternate uniforms for their last three home games. Here are some photos from those games (first three photos courtesy of @ansleyphotos, @aidenwhitephotography):
It was an unreal feeling seeing my work on the field for the first time and really a childhood dream come true. I cannot wait to design more for next season.
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Paul here. Big congrats to Sawyer, and even bigger thanks to him for sharing his story with us. Go Mules!
Great work, Sawyer!
Both in the jersey/helmet design and the write-up. It’s always cool to see a fellow uni-watcher get to have a design actually make it to the field. Congratulations!
Very fascinating lede today! I do get a bit of a Detroit Lions vibe from most of those concepts, especially with the use of Northwestern stripes (which, admittedly, the Lions deviated from with their newest set).
Frank Gifford’s an interesting choice for the 16 graphic today. I would’ve expected Joe Montana, but then you used Gene Washington on Wednesday, and two Niners in three days would seem a bit much. Though if I were posting a countdown like that, I’d personally choose Vladimir Konstantinov, but that’s me.
I would have gone with Michel Goulet to show off his wonderful blue Nordiques sweater.
Can’t go wrong with Gifford, though. Great choice.
That second kitty picture is the epitome of “What? I wasn’t doing anything!”
Exactly.
My youngest’s two favorite things are books and cats, so she’s going to love today’s Mascot Watch.
Gifford, excellent choice. The Mules set would have benefitted from white outlines of the wordmark and the numbers but otherwise a grey jersey for a team named the Mules is spot on. I like it a lot.
“After today…”
Worst section ever.
Great job, Sawyer! My sister is a Colby alumna and I know she’ll get a kick out of your story. She attended when they were still the White Mules, but I really like the grey!
Always love it when lacrosse gets its due time. Awesome job Sawyer
#55 has some serious eye black game going.
These are a huge upgrade over the old jerseys, which have a big “okay, we gotta order some shirts” vibe about them. But at the risk of sounding unpatriotic, I think the USA flag is actually a huge detractor to the design. The red really pops against the muted gray and blue of the rest of the jersey, and thus immediately draws your eye to that spot. I’m not sure why Colby College would necessarily need a USA flag shoulder patch, so I would lose it (or put it on the back neck).
I agree with Ingmar that some white outlining would also help. But I love the Northwestern stripes and incorporating the mule logo. And the helmets are great.
Also, as someone who has no dog in the CBB hunt and isn’t trying to offend the author, I really like those Bates unis.
As a laxer, love these jerseys and decals. Love the return to porthole – nice and old school. Good job!
Great job Sawyer
Really nice, Sawyer! The (sports) world would be a better place if Uniwatchers designed more uniforms!
I would have bet the farm that day 16 was going to be Joe Montana. What kind of Niners fan are you ; )
ldnfic
Thank you so much Paul for the opportunity! And thank you for all of the support in the comments!