I got back to the US in time to take part in the organizing committee for the 2023 Davis World Cup. We handled the gear, medals, pins, logos, website, etc. I had done most of my work (which was the design) some time ago, but while I was away the stickers, medals, pins and t-shirts had arrived. The Davis World Cup is a youth soccer tournament that has been going for many years, involving teams from regions across northern California aged from U10 to U19. I started designing the logos in 2019, having coached a team in the 2018 tournament. I do spend a lot of time trying to come up with ideas, trying to make them a bit different (so many tournaments use a pretty bog-standard vector logo these days, some variation of a shield and a ball). I wanted this year’s to be very different to the round retro Top of the Pops style logo I did for 2022 (which was just the 2020 logo re-used since 2020 was cancelled), have an actual player on it (non-gender specific, and I could change the kit – the main design had a Brazil kit), and make it look fun, make it look like an event which is for the kids. I have a new logo already thought up for next year, a different retro style, but I was really pleased with the 2023 logo and it gave me a lot to play with. The design above is the one we sued for the colourful stickers each player received. They also got metal pins; although we did not provide t-shirts this year, they could buy those from the on-site vendors.

I didn’t sketch much at the tournament (I was all sketched out from the London trip), but I did draw a quick one at a game we went to check out at Nugget Field. I didn’t watch many games this time at all in fact, and my own son’s team wasn’t taking part. Still it is always great helping to make this fun tournament happen every year, and I’m glad to have been able to create a look for it that I think was pretty popular. Here are the two main versions used on the t-shirts, one of which has a Mexico style kit:

Learn more about the Davis World cup at: https://www.davisworldcup.org/. We’ll be back in 2024!