Y1 is the young and adventurous field hockey brand that I was commissioned to work with after meeting them at D&AD in London.
My brief was to design a limited edition hockey stick that would be released just after Black Friday as well as a limited run of clothing for their sister company Young Ones Apparel.
The LB X stick (pictured above) is manufactured with specially enhanced carbon to increase the power of the stick to a level above the usual 90/100% carbon sticks. The X carbon properties in the LB X also allow the stick to remain incredibly soft to touch.
The design has been simplified to fit the curves of the stick and is uniform with the t-shirt prints using five specific Pantone colours.
The t-shirt prints stem from the hockey stick design, using the same colour palette they are printed on 100% organic cotton t-shirts using
eco-friendly inks.
I had a lot of fun designing the t-shirts as I was allowed a fair amount of creative freedom. Y1 really wanted my style of work to shine through and was more of a collaboration than a commission. All of the elements of the designs are hand drawn and originate from my sketchbook. I think that is important as it makes each design completely unique and original.
The banana print was the first design that was requested by Y1 to use. It was originally produced during uni for my final major project but Y1 loved it and really wanted to use it, so we agreed that if I could make some alterations to the design then it could be reused as I really wanted to use fresh ideas.
The designs for the front of the t-shirts were made to sit in the centre of the chest. I used this placement so that if the customer was wearing an open jacket or shirt the design could still be seen. Apart from the banana print pictured above, back prints have been used throughout keeping the front of the t-shirts clean, simple and bold.
To shoot the collection, I was asked to come to Shoreditch in London to create a large mural that would be used as the back drop for the photoshoot. The mural is easily 70 feet wide and approximately 12 feet tall and stretches the full width of a wall behind the Shoreditch Nomadic Gardens. It was painted in about six hours at the end of rainy November (2019).
The full collection will be available to buy from the 13th of December from the Y1 Hockey and Young Ones Apparel websites, links below.
© 2019 by Mul Draws.