Manchester United: Treble Quest - Part 1

Fuzzy Duck, a Media City (Salford, UK) - based design house hired me to work on a project for Manchester United Football Club. Exciting, not only because my hastily-typed stream of emails actually yielded a client, but of course Manchester United probably rank in the top 3 of organisations that I can now claim on my CV. ...The other two being Microsoft and Huawei, however whilst those two global giants got unpolished, scribbly storyboards, (the Microsoft one's in particular being mostly unused by the client) this footy project is something I can show off without cringing.

 The final product is an interactive 

touch-screen game located on a 

large display in the Manchester 

United Store, Old Trafford. 

Think of it as Football Manager-lite. The player has to guide Man U through to winning the treble cups in the year 1999. The three cups being The Champion's League, FA Cup and Premier League trophy.

Essentially you get to be Sir Alex Ferguson; 

chewing gum and po-face, not essential. 

His image is all over this game.

Assistant Manager Steve McClaren also turns up

to blow his whistle in your face.

This is what happens if you completely screw it up.

Seaman is from South Yorkshire, where I once lived.

I know this because drunken knobs were chanting it

back in the summer of Euro '96. 

From left to right: Peter Schmiechel, Jaap Stam, 

Dwight Yorke, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, 

Denis Irwin (sorry Denis, but it is you honest), 

Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes, Roy Keane, 

Andy Cole, David Beckham 

...plus the arm and legs of some other guy. 

I won't spoil the ending just yet, you have to go and play it, score some goals and whatnot. Go, now!

Fruit and Football Wizards

I always make a point to use the word "diverse" in describing the range of projects I have worked on. Well, this one come straight out of left field. That being said, I had worked with famous footballers before ...and by "with" I mean as an unknown entity, on the same project, for vastly different salaries. Sad face (not really sad, I'm always happy to be employed).

Back in January, I worked on a commercial starring several Manchester United football players. The ad was for international fruit juice brand Chivita and the post-production company I worked with were Bark & Bite (Manchester). In the advert, the players (Wayne Rooney, Juan Mata, Marcus Rashford and Eric Bertrand Bailly), drink some juice before gathering round a Chivita themed pinball machine "Chivita, 100% Pinball" as the illuminated backboard says. See the video here...

As you can see the scenario is like an analogue version of Disney's Tron; the players are miniaturised and play football-pinball against the machine. My role was to create the artwork for the sides of the main body of the machine as well as the "backbox" sides and "backglass" where the score is displayed.

 Combining fruit, football to make it look hopefully interesting and pinbally:

The sides of the main body of the machine.

 Kaboom! The sides of the backbox.

Aside from a supermarket-load of fruit, that backglass is where my illustration of the players comes in. First drawn separately, they were composited together like the reflections of the players themselves, frozen in time. ...Just watch the bloody thing, it's hard to explain!

Wayne Rooney

Eric Bertrand Bailly

This is the final post-transition backbox with the 

players in their frozen reflections. Some of the above

elements were created entirely for mock-up and some 

were in the final commercial...

...Such as the fruit corners. Thanks for reading!!!