Introduction to Creative & Design

Hi, my name is Matthew Wolff,

and I'm a graphic designer and art director that specializes in sports branding

with a particular focus on soccer crests, kits, and apparel.

 

Crests and kits?

If you're not a soccer fan, these could be new words.

Pretty much, the crest is the logo for a team,

and the kit is their jersey, where that logo lives, but we'll get into that later.

Basically, today, I'm going to talk to you about how creativity and design intersects with sports.

 

I grew up playing soccer in the US in the '90s

and briefly moved to the UK, where even as a young teen,

I could really see for the first time how impactful these clubs can be on their communities.

I saw that the best clubs truly represent their community and reflected sharing an identity and even the same values.

While studying at design school in New York City,

I received my biggest assist to date.

One of my former soccer teammates at Skidmore College had just joined the team building what would become NYCFC,

a new MLS club in New York.

He let me know they needed some freelance design work.

I started designing simple banner ads,

but that opened the door for me into their early conversations about brand identity, kits, colors, and crests.

Straight out of the gate, I got to be part of creating a whole identity for one of the biggest new clubs in the United States.

From there, I was recruited by Nike for kit design work.

 

While at Nike, I designed over 400 apparel pieces,

including FIFA World Cup™ Kit Collections for France and Nigeria.

I left Nike around 2020 to pursue freelance work,

which opened up a variety of amazing opportunities for me

and co-founded Vermont Green FC,

a club based in Burlington, Vermont with friends from college.

Not only do I oversee the overall creative of the club,

the branding, design, apparel,

I also get to manage a team of interns, designers, videographers, and more.

It's been such a great full circle moment for my career.

We even won the USL League 2 National Championship in 2025.

 

Looking ahead, the club will field a women's team in the USLW as soon as the 2026 season,

and we're planning to start work on our own permanent home,

a soccer specific stadium to give our community a proper place to gather.

 

Okay, enough about me though. Let's get to the lessons.

First, we're going to talk about what it means to be a creative professional.

Then I'm going to share some of my favorite examples of FIFA World Cup™ Creative.

After that, I'll share some of my favorite crests and kits that I've worked on,

and advice on how you can create your own.

Sound good? Let's keep going.