03 Behind the Graphic: The Rematch
Passing of the Torch Perhaps?
The Idea
Last year I watched arguably the best tennis match I have ever seen live on the floor of my aunts family room. Alcaraz v Djokovic gentleman’s final on Centre Court at Wimbledon’s All- England Tennis Club. Coming up to that match Novak had been seeking his recording-breaking (for men in the open era), 24th grand slam title. He was also looking to tie Roger Federer record of 7 Wimbledon Championship victories. Alcaraz, was looking to secure his 2nd grand slam title and his first on grass, he had won the US Open the year prior.
What ensued was utter, jaw dropping madness. Stellar tennis filled with 30 minute deuce games, tie breakers and 5 set perfection. It was absolutely everything you wanted from a grand slam tennis match.
Alcaraz breaking through to defeat Novak last year seemed like it was an early indication of, perhaps, the changing of the guard in mens tennis from the Big 3, to Alcaraz, Sinner, and the rest of the best.
This was the first tournament they would meet at in 2024 and would prove to be another test for Novak’s incoming future in the game. It is to be noted that he was coming off knee surgery from 6 weeks prior and had made it to another grand slam final with not much of a test.
This graphic was made in anticipation of what I hoped to be a similar match to last years. Would Novak refuse to yield to father time? Or would Alcaraz’s dominance be too much for a wounded, aging, Djokovic?
The Inspiration
Last week I saw a video on from @outlyningart on this very cool face warp effect. I had seen some stuff like it on Youtube and wanted to test it out in a design. Please go and follow her work, she is an incredible music designer who always posts great tutorials on the different effects she does!
I wanted to try this one out for Alcaraz v Djokovic, I thought it would be a clever way to do a match day graphic that was a little different.
I honestly wasn’t expecting it to be as popular as it was on twitter, because it only took me a little more than an hour to complete. Most of the problems were that the Liquify feature kept crashing, but what else is new.
The Process
Using @outlyningart’s tutorial I created the face effect. It most just requires you to play around with the liquify tool. Hopefully yours crashes less than mine did.
Always use high res photos from Google (larger than 4 MP). I wanted photos of them yelling because I thought it looked cool but Novak did not yell much this tournament (he was playing the violin) so I used a photo from years past that ended up working perfectly.
Player Treatment
I detailed how I created my stipple effect more deeply in this post, but to give you the gist of it cut out your image using your preferred method. Then, head to camera raw, desaturate the image, and lower contrast and shadows so the image is very flat. Then go to the details tab and raise texture and clarity to around the maximum. Proceed to the effects tab and raise the grain, but lower the roughness. That is the general sense.
I then added some motion blur under the main image and played around with masking.
I added some textures from @oj3a.psd, you can find them for free here, I use them in every design I make!
Layout
Super simple centered layout. I positioned the text using a 3 column x 10 row grid with 20px gutters and 70px margins.
Type
Times New Roman!!!!! Sometimes simple is better. Nearly did a sans serif but I wanted the elegance of a serif because that what seems right for Wimbledon.
Final Thoughts
Did not expect this to gain as much popularity on Twitter as it did. It took me under 2 hours to do this design and I didn’t think it was my cleanest work. Just proof you are your own harshest critic.
So glad people enjoyed this and have been really feeling the support over on Twitter (@643studios if you want to follow me there). Excited to continue on the creative journey, and I have an exciting photo day coming soon..!
As always, if you are a paid subscriber you will get access to the PSD file for this project in the weekly paid roundup and be able to dig deeper into the design and all the assets I used :)
Thank you so much for reading about my process and I look forward to seeing you in the next one!