This trading card was my first and last design. I obviously moved it along changing different features and aspects. The background of this trading card gives it that top trump vibe. It has a bunch of different patterns overlapping each other, some masked by shapes, some lower opacity and so on.. I think this feature gives depth to the trading card, makes it less plain and boring. It gives it character and as though it looks busy.
The second features I like about the trading card is the shapes of the text boxes. This shape steers away from the standard 4 corner text box and moves into a sophisticated yet playful shape. This rectangle with curved diagonal corners gives the card something unique. This is because it allows for a smooth but rigid shape – but not making it look overly busy and overly worn out; it adopts a sophisticated but playful tone. Almost reflecting a game of football.
The trading card entails the football club logo, the players number, their skills in numeric form that can be traded and swapped with fellow players. The card features the main cutout of the player and places them in an arranged format to follow the line of depth. Is the player behind the text but infront of the numbers?
To further the playful theme of depth, I then copied and pasted all the elements, merged them, filled black and set a 10% opacity. This was then arranged backward in order to create a shadow. The greatness of the card is the play of depth, highlights and shadows and playfulness of shapes.
One questionable part of this card for my group members was the gradient. The gold edition card is a feature on a lot of trading cards that sections of better cards and creates hierarchy. The gradient is not used anywhere else in our design work. For me, this gradient fill makes the card unique and stand out. I kept this idea with me despite my members saying otherwise; this is because I think it worked very well i’m showing a sheen and shine to that one section of printing.
