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9 October 2017

Today sees the launch of a new feature on Kitbliss, and one which requires your help and participation.

It's called 'Iconic' and takes as its inspiration the '50 Greatest Football Shirts Ever' series that was put together by The Football Attic, True Colours Football Kits and Design Football. I was lucky enough to be a part of the team that created the constituent 50 blog posts, and I remember well that as each shirt in our countdown was revealed, a pattern started to emerge. In short, a number of people contacted us to say 'Why haven't you included this iconic shirt / that inconic shirt?'

And therein lies a clue as to why we hadn't included those shirts in our countdown. They were iconic in the sense that they were worn by a successful team, but on a technical level, there wasn't much to talk about. Yes, the Brazil shirt from the 1970 World Cup or the Peru shirt from the 1978 World Cup may be 'iconic', but where were the distinctive collars, the shadow patterns or the integrated sense of design?

Well, fear not. Those shirts (and in a wider sense, those kits) are still worth celebrating, and Kitbliss now gives you the chance to form a lasting tribute to them. Here's how.

First of all, consider your favourite iconic football kit. It can belong to a club team, a national team or any recognisable team whatsoever. Then, consider why it's iconic. Is it just because it was worn in an important match, or is it because it was associated strongly with a great player? The reason is entirely up to you.

Consider also the period it was worn for, how it compared with the kit that preceded it and followed it, how the colours and design features work... Basically speaking, what makes it so legendary?

And now, the final step. Summarise all those thoughts, feelings, comments and analysis in the form of a written post and send them to me here at Kitbliss. The more detail you can provide, the better, and once your post has been approved, it'll get uploaded to the Kitbliss website where it will forever be enshrined along with one of my illustrations and the writings of countless other contributors.

Iconic is intended to be an online tribute to the great kits that people love and the kits that remind us of great matches and great teams. So why not take part and send in your own tribute?

Email your text to kitbliss [at] kerria [dot] co [dot] uk... and thanks for your participation!

 

28 September 2017

Just a quick message to let you know I've been doing some low-profile updates to various team pages on the Kitbliss website.

I'm currently working my way through various videos on YouTube from the 1969/70 season and will work my way forward in time season by season, uploading and amending kit illustrations as I go.

It therefore probably looks like I've been doing nothing (because I haven't launched any high-profile features recently), but the reality is I've been filling lots of 'holes' on the site that you probably didn't even know where there.

But that's not all. I also have news of something new on the way in the hopefully-not-too-distant future. I've decided to start creating some occasional 'Kit Histories' videos which will ultimately appear on YouTube as well as the Kitbliss website. These will be short videos of no more than 15 minutes (hopefully) and will focus on one specific team. Providing a general overview of the kits worn by that team throughout their history, the videos will combine film, photographic material and some of my own Kitbliss illustrations, along with some narration by yours truly.

Obviously these videos will take some time to put together, but with any luck the first one will be ready to go in the next month or so. Watch this space...

 

31 July 2017

Phew... it’s been a busy old time of late, for me at least. I’ve been wanting to create so many illustrations for the Kitbliss website, but it’s been one of those periods you go through occasionally when there’s so much else to do.

Anyway, frustrating though that’s been, I’ve had much to lift my spirits on account of some kind people around the world. First of all, Greg at Classic Football Shirts recently stumbled upon a graphic I created back in 2014 showing the France home kits of 1964 - 2014. He tweeted the image and invited his Twitter followers to pick their favourite kit, and the response was enormous. On the back of that, Greg asked me if I had any other similar graphics he could present to his Twitter followers. Ever willing to oblige, I updated two more from the past - one showing the recent Germany home kits and the other showing the same for England.

Once again, the response was terrific and on these two successive occasions, it led to Kitbliss receiving far more Twitter followers than before. For that, I'd like to extend my gratitude to Greg.

But that wasn't all. I was also contacted by James Roberts at RedBull.com who had seen my Fantasy collection of Formula 1 World Champion Car kits. He wanted to spread the word about this quirky collection of automotive-inspired outfits, and the next thing you know, there was an article on the excellent Red Bull website. How proud was I?!! Again, my thanks to James for being so interested in my Kitbliss designs.

Finally, as if all that wasn't enough, I then heard from my good friends Jay (DesignFootball.com) and Andy Rockall (Echoes of Glory podcast) just a few days ago. Both had visited the recent show in London called 'The Art of The Football Shirt' and had sat in on a Q&A given by Juergen Rank of adidas. Being observant types, both had spotted one particular slide being displayed on the screen behind Juergen which might be familiar to Kitbliss followers (if not me). It was a section of my 'Greatest Germany Home Kit' graphic from 2015, which Juergen - Head of Football Kit Design for adidas in all but name - was using as a visual aid. Imagine that! Someone of such high standing using my graphic to show the development of the Germany national team football kit! Thanks Juergen... :)

So to summarise, yes, it has been busy of late, but the frustration of not being able to do more for this website has been sweetened by the knowledge that someone out there in the big wide world really seems to like my stuff. Lucky me!

(Photo credit: Andy Rockall)