2015 Deluxe Duos

I've had all the base cards posted for each of the 4 Spirit releases but I was still lacking an insert design for the Deluxe set. I decided to resurrect the Deluxe Duos autograph cards after their absence in 2014. Turns out that when you design 900 individual cards in a summer, it cuts into your ability to create inserts for other releases.

Like previous Deluxe Duos designs, this one features a pair of teammates sharing the same card while featuring autographs of both players. This is the first time the orientation has been vertical. I left more room for player images than usual since sometimes they get squeezed into a corner with maybe just their faces peeking out. Since these would be "on-card" autographs, it's up to the players themselves to decide how much of their signature should overlap their pictures. Design elements from the Deluxe base cards are present, with the team color fades and the same fonts for player name, team and position.

Some nice portraits anchor the design on the back with the team logo making an appearance. I like the simplicity of the back here. Ditch the senseless writeup and stick with some nice photos and lots of empty space. It makes things a little more elegant, befitting a release called "Deluxe."

It just goes 'round and 'round

I was already working on this design when Mr. Beltre hit for the cycle last night. I figured it was probably a sign for me to finish and post it. As you can probably guess, this is an insert set featuring those active MLB players who have hit for the cycle. I checked the list and found that there are quite a few more than I remember. There are plenty of stars like Carlos Gonzalez, Jose Reyes and Pablo Sandoval, but there are also lots of guys like Kelly Johnson here or Aaron Hill, who has managed to accomplish the feat already twice this season.

The biggest design feature here is obviously the die-cut. In trying to differentiate it from the Moonshots die-cut I did a while back, I decided to change the orientation to horizontal. But since I have to go with a circle—I mean, it's for hitting the cycle—I thought adding some little slivers between the 'stages' of the cycle (single, double, triple homerun) would distinguish it a little more.

There's also lots of shininess here with the inside of the circle all shimmering along with silver foil on the names and Spirit logo.

On the back side, things get a little wonky with the non-uniform die-cut shapes. I think I figured out why they don't make a lot of non-uniform die-cuts now. But with a brief write-up of each player's cycle exploits, they should be interesting to read.