M.Willis - Art, Design, Soccer, Tech

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The WBC checks all the boxes. Sports + national symbolism + a unique cultural crossover (baseball in a soccer-style international tournament). Oh, and there’s some definite potential for improvement.

Sounds like a design project to me.

So I started with the question: What if Clean Sheet Co. designed caps for all 16 participants in the 2017 World Baseball Classic? We’ve been circling around the idea of making baseball caps (snapbacks, naturally) for a while now. This is a great opportunity to test those waters. The 16 designs you’ll see here are still concepts, but we want to know if we should bring any of them to life.

All of our design projects have guidelines, and this one is no exception. Here are the guidelines that informed this exercise:

No language characters. Sure, letters on baseball caps have a long and prominent tradition. Sure, they can look good. Sure, they can even be creative. All that said, we’re not using language elements in our designs. The idea is that the designs themselves should communicate the national identity without “spelling it out”, so to speak.

Also, guideline #1 solves a thorny problem - namely, what language system to use for what team? Currently, WBC designs use mostly english language characters. Teams like the Netherlands and Italy can use their own native spellings (Nederlands and Italia, respectively). But none of the Asian countries even use their own character sets. I understand why (marketing, audience expectation, tradition), but I don’t quite approve. For caps, we can do better. (And anyhow, initials on international ballcaps have always looked kind of cheesey to me - while initals work really well for cities and club teams, national identity somehow seems too potent to be represented up by a letter or two on a ballcap).

All caps have to be items Clean Sheet Co. could theoretically produce and sell. If you want one, let us know here.

We reserve the right to approach these guidelines creatively.

All set? Let’s get to it.

Pool A: Israel, South Korea, the Netherlands, Chinese Taipei

Israel

Israel is one of several WBC participants with a fantastic visual pedigree. Two strong colors (royal blue, white) and a universally-recognized symbol (the Star of David). The team’s current WBC cap is really good, with some extra adornment (the “I” initial and squigly lines). The classic Star of David mark can also stand on its own. The Clean Sheet Co. version of the cap introduces a white front panel, but otherwise, it’s easy to leave perfection alone.

South Korea

Like their group-mates Israel, this iteration of the South Korean team wears royal blue and white. And while Korea has always worn blue in these competitions (a departure from their soccer compatriots), they don't always wear the same exact shade. Korea sometimes wears a lighter shade of blue - bordering on Carolina blue. It plays well, and we haven’t forgotten it. The South Korea ballcap features light blue accents - the brim, eyelets and button (or squatchee, if you prefer). The logo features the red-blue yin-yang from the country’s beautiful flag. Strong and unique.

The Netherlands

Say what you will about the Netherlands - but they get international branding right. The country’s teams are generally attired in eye-catching orange. Amsterdam owns the “XXX” idea. The Dutch understand the value of a strong brand. One item they don’t always elevate on the national stage is the fantastic rampant lion, very prominent in national heraldry. The lion is beautiful, traditional, and cool. It’s the perfect ballcap emblem. Orange and black complete the package.

Chinese Taipei

Chinese Taipei, the politically diplomatic way to reference the state also called Taiwan or the Republic of China, has a suspect WBC identity. To its credit, it has elements with both eastern and western appeal - but to me it doesn’t add up to a coherent design. I know there are fans of this logo, but I'm not one of them. If Taiwan didn’t already have a strong visual brand, it would be simply be a case of mediocrity filling a vacuum. But take a look at the sun symbol on the flag Chinese Taipei uses in international competition. It’s gorgeous. And it works perfectly on a ballcap. Done.

OK: Which custom cap from #WBC2017 group 1 should we produce for sale? https://t.co/iLtoPVhzee

— Clean Sheet Co. (@CleanSheetCo)

March 15, 2017

Pool B: Australia, China, Cuba, Japan

Australia

Australia’s baseball identity is, on balance, pretty decent. But it’s got some issues. The most pressing: from the squad’s colors to the letter ‘A’, the current visual package looks way too much like how a video game who couldn’t secure MLB rights might depict the Oakland A’s. This is fixable. The Australian national identity is tied up with that of the kangaroo. This version of the ’roo is inspired by the one used by the Australian air force. Depicted in classic Aussie green and gold, there’s no way this cap is confused for any other team – or nation.

China

Out of China's population of 1.4 billion people, apparently a couple dozen can play baseball. Along with soccer, I’m hoping baseball becomes a national obsession in China. How great would that be for the inernational growth of the game? The current cap isn’t doing much - an olde english “C” has little pedigree or connection to the country. I debated using a dragon mark here - but getting that exactly right would have required some extra-special dedication. In its stead, this cap (inspired by the five stars on the national flag) is both strong and incontrovertibly Chinese.

Cuba

Cuba will always have one of the most compelling stories in this tournament. The baseball-obsessed country’s own national league continues to exist in a separate universe from the rest of the world, shrouding world-class players in mystery. As Cuba opens up to the world, that might change, and one day, I hope to see an MLB team in Havana. (Los Cubanos de la Habana, with a cigar-inspired logo, if I might put in an early pitch). I don’t know who designed the WBC Cuba caps, but they seem rote. A serif ‘C’ doesn’t begin to evoke this country’s story. We opted for a solitary white star on a triangular front-panel field of red, backed by blue – approximating the famous Cuban flag. It's a start.

Japan

Despite what WBC caps might say, Japan isn’t “J”. If they were an english letter, they’d be “N” - the english-language consonant that begins the word ("Nihon") that attepmts to represent how Japanese verbally express the name of their own country. Or they’d use the japanese glyph for Japan, 日本. But there’s a better, less confusing way: just use the flag. There’s no more recognizably simple symbol in the world than the Japanese flag. Use it! The red sun pairs here with navy blue, which Japan has traditionally worn as a sporting accent color. It’s unmistakably Japanese, and beautiful.

OK: Which custom cap from #WBC2017 group 2 should we produce for sale?https://t.co/Fu7bMduzzh

— Clean Sheet Co. (@CleanSheetCo)

March 15, 2017

Pool C: Canada, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, USA

Canada

This one’s simple. The maple leaf in silvery white on a red background, black brim lending a little edge to the look. Canada already did the heavy lifting here - the iconic leaf is a design masterpiece. All we have to do is get out of its way.

Colombia

I love that more South American countries are joining the WBC party. Visually, Colombia is challenging not because it lacks for great visuals to pull from, but because of its graphic similarity to neighbors and fellow yellow-red-blue enthusiasts Ecuador and Venezuela. We’ll get to tournament-participant Venezuela in a minute, but for now, we’re leaning on deep yellow to set Colombia apart. A stylized version of the condor, a dominating feature of the Colombian coat of arms, gives the cap some competitive personality.

The Dominican Republic

This one is a favorite. The Dominican Republic has a fantastic flag, with alternating quarter-panels of red and blue, divided by a white cross and a seal. The cap re-creates that – we only see one view here, but the panels alternate in quarters around the entire cap in the harlequin style. No further symbol or decoration is needed here - the look is strong and completely distinctive.

USA

There are a lot of ways to go here (especially when the symbol you’re looking to improve on is this) - but only one we at Clean Sheet Co. could fathom. The People’s Crest is our choice to represent American athletic endeavor, and it happens to look great on a ballcap. We went with a navy front panel and a white body to really help the colors pop.

Note: by popular demand, we're making this one! The USA Cap, in all navy, is available for pre-order at Clean Sheet Co. right now! You can get it here.

OK: Which custom cap from #WBC2017 group 3 should we produce for sale? https://t.co/5Hb0xege4d

— Clean Sheet Co. (@CleanSheetCo)

March 15, 2017

Pool D: Italy, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Venezuela

Italy

This was a tricky one. Italy doesn’t actually have a wealth of national symbols to pull from. When we designed an Italy World Cup t-shirt, the Stella d’Italia (Star of Italy) was a welcome discovery – but that wasn’t really the right symbol here. In looking at the country's national crests and symbols, there is one recurring element – the olive branch. It never quite stands on its own, content to be a decorative touch in most applications. Well, we’re changing that. An olive sprig stands in appropriate green against a field of Italian azzure blue. A small touch: the green-white-red of the national flag gets a nod at the bottom of the branch. (And yes, the branch kind of looks like a cursive “I” - this is a happy coincidence.)

Mexico

The current Mexican WBC cap is great, probably the best of the field. It’s hard to improve on it. We went for simplicity - a basic pattern, derived from Aztec textile traditions, creates a distinctive shape. OK, it’s an “X” - but this is a creative violation of our “no characters” rule. I’d argue that “La Equis” has symbolic meaning for Mexico in a way no other letter does to it’s particular country – it’s a point of national pride. It’s also a universally-recognized symbol as much as it is a letter of any particular language. Add in the indigineous pattern (if you squint, you can even see an Aztec temple in the negative space beneath the legs of the “X”) and it’s a no-brainer.

Puerto Rico

We looked for a while at options for Puerto Rico before finding the island’s crest, topped with a royal crown (to symbolize the island’s Spanish heritage). Simplified, in silver on a field of red, the idea took on surprising strengh, so we went with it. A stripe of blue beneath the crown gives a splash of the island’s other national color.

Venezuela

You don’t see looks like this on the field too often. Perhaps that’s for the best, but that didn’t stop us. The Venezuelan national flag is the inspiration for the striped front panel, and the galloping silver horse is taken directly from the country’s coat of arms. Even if this one never takes the field, we really enjoyed imagining the look.

OK: Which custom cap from #WBC2017 group 4 should we produce for sale? https://t.co/onlQAa7muV

— Clean Sheet Co. (@CleanSheetCo)

March 15, 2017

And that’s the field. Like any of these caps? Hit up Clean Sheet Co. in the usual spots and let us know. If there’s enough interest, we may bring a few of these to life.

I founded Clean Sheet Co. in early 2013, during the long run up to the most recent World Cup. We’ve survived and grown since then, thanks to some solid choices, some good fortune, and an extremely loyal, passionate and expanding group of supporters. I don’t talk about it too much, but the love we get from customers, fans and supporters - on social media, in correspondance, and most of all, in person - is astounding. I still can’t believe it’s real.

I don’t want to get all mushy about this, but it should be said: it’s an honor to meet the folks who stop by our parking lot table (or more likely, our website), get to know us, and end up being our supporters and friends. I didn’t know that was going to happen when I started an apparel company. But it’s become the best part of what we do.

The 2018 World Cup looms, at this point in the cycle four years ago, we were about to launch Clean Sheet Co. Those four years have seen us build a great foundation, and it’s time to raise our game. Here’s where we start:

1. Today, you’ll find a brand new website at cleansheet.co - a version 2.0, if you will. New era, new site. It should look good and present our stuff in an attractive light. I hope you’ll check it out, and tell me what you think.

2. We’re going all-in on the pre-funding model, and building it into nearly all the designs we make. You guys know how this works: if you like a design, commit to it by pre-ordering. If enough folks do the same, we make the shirt and you get it at a great price. If not, you never get charged. In the past, we experimented with this model and called it The Lab. Now it's just how we work.

3. The States project, dormant for a year or so, is back. Our first new state design, New Mexico, is live now. If you break bad, know the answer to “red or green?”, or just want to believe, go check it out - it’s pre-funding for the next week. More state designs are ready to roll out after this one.

Get it at Clean Sheet Co. »

4. The People’s Crest, our project to re-imagine a free, open-source logo system for American soccer, rolls on. Our newest variation is a response to the USMNT’s tough start to World Cup qualifying. We need inspiration, so we’re calling in a big stick: Teddy Roosevelt. Go check out our Rough Rider shirt - it’s also pre-funding now.

Get it at Clean Sheet Co. »

5. We’re planning out our Clean Sheet Co. tour schedule for 2017 now. Do you know about a parking lot we need to be at? We want to visit your group, your stadium, your crew, and get inspired. Big, small, on the map or off, let us know if we can come by and hang with you before a match.

6. Our goal is to call you a supporter. It’s the community of people around us that makes this whole thing great. Leave us a message, or show us how and where you’re rocking your Clean Sheet Co. stuff - we’ll proudly show it off. (I love this page.)

7. So many of you have reached out to us, we figured it would be smart to start connecting cool people together. So we host a growing online community folks who like to talk soccer, design, watch live events, make fun of Jürgen Klopp’s antics… and get previews of new Clean Sheet Co. stuff as it’s being dreamed up. We call the Inner Circle, and you can join up here. (Shout out to the Inner Circle members who’ve helped beta-test the new Clean Sheet Co. website - you guys have been great.)

8. We’ve got some more amazing things to fill you in on - starting with the fact that Clean Sheet Co. and the People’s Crest are both featured in EA Sports FIFA 17. Did you know about that? We’ll reveal the full backstory - and what it means for us - very soon.

That’s all for now. Much more to come. Thank you for allowing us to start and continue this endeavor. It really is a dream. I’ll see you at the tailgate.

Around that same time, I published a different U.S. soccer-themed design: The People’s Crest. The open, downloadable, adaptable, customizable, remixable crest for American soccer fans was greeted with a fantastic reception, and picked up a decent amount of momentum in the American soccer community. The Crest is designed to adapt and change to reflect a variety of U.S. soccer themes, and one idea was to give the women’s program it’s own version. But because the women’s “three star” design had started earlier, it and the People’s Crest design were projects on separate visual tracks.

Flash forward to last week. With Olympic qualifying starting up again, I knew it was time to get the Women’s design, now known as The Third Star, ready. Here’s where I made a mistake: I first went with the original design, that included only the "three star" concept by itself. While it looked pretty good, it didn’t quite fit Clean Sheet Co.'s American-themed lineup in a post-People’s Crest world.

It became obvious quickly: The Third Star should have been our first People’s Crest design specifically for the USWNT.

So, I went back to work. The result is a new, much improved Third Star shirt featuring The People’s Crest and three bold, beautiful stars to represent championships in 1991, 1999 and 2015.

Click here to support this design. (Once we get 25 supporters, we make it.)

The stars themselves have unique designs – each carries some of the visual design language from the uniforms the teams were famously wearing for their victories.

In 1991, the team wore bold, blocky, over-the-shoulder red and blue stripes on billowy white shirts.

In 1999, they wore plain, prestigious white shirts, with red numbers accented in blue. You know, when they wore shirts.

In 2015, soccer’s visual language having undergone a personality explosion, the USWNT wore precious little red or blue in their first-choice uniform. White was set off by black accents and neon yellow gradients. I think it worked.

The stars pick up elements from each championship look. The shirt itself had to be white, the common denomenator in every year. (This one isn’t just a plain white cotton, though - it’s a heathery white poly-blend, so it’s got a great, soft feel to it.)

There’s one last thing that makes this whole endeavor kind of interesting. The women that make up the U.S. team are, shall we say, less than pleased with the U.S. Soccer establishment at the moment. There are questions, some mistrust, and a bit of disappointment. Lawyers are even involved. Logos mean a lot, and right now the U.S. women are playing for their country with the official U.S. Soccer logo over their hearts. When we launched the People’s Crest, we weren’t envisioning disputes between players and federations. But the fact remains - pledging your allegiance to, or falling in love with, a logo that belongs to a corporate entity can sometimes introduce conflicts if ideals start to diverge. The People’s Crest is an alternative crest, made by and for, well, the people. So to my mind, sporting it is the perfect way to independently and specifically show support for the community of players and fans who make the USWNT what it is.

The Third Star, our second People’s Crest design, honors the U.S. Women’s soccer team. It’s available exclusively in women’s sizes (at first) in women's and men's sizes, and it’s pre-funding right now. If you want one, head over to Clean Sheet Co. before Friday, March 4.

And: Go USWNT.

My goal for Clean Sheet Co. is to build something that fans feel is theirs. The only way to sincerely accomplish that is to do more than sell t-shirts.

So, as of today, Clean Sheet Co. is giving The People’s Crest design to the American soccer community.  We’ve created a website where you can read more about the project, download all the “building-block” files for the design (including high-resolution images, vector graphics, fonts, and layered source file documents). It’s completely open and completely free for any and all personal use.

There's a lot more over at the project site, and I hope you'll to take a look. 

My modest hope is that it’s something the U.S. soccer community can use. Maybe one day it’ll even be a talisman, like those English St. George’s Cross flags filled up with slogans, or like some of the other grassroots symbols that have inspired American fans over the years. 

The design is meant to be adapted, remixed, and personalized. So, American Outlaws, club supporters’ groups, individuals - if you can use it, go get it. 

The People’s Crest is yours.

Thanks again for being amazing supporters of Clean Sheet Co.

Hey, I don’t have to stare into space on the subway anymore! I can read angry tweets!

Hey, I don’t have to spontaneously go the movies on a Tuesday night anymore! I get to struggle to put pajama pants on a kid!

I’m not here to extoll the virtues of, defend, recommend, or decry either experience – each is what you make of it. I will say this: I don’t plan on changing anything. My phone and my family are a part of my life now.

Interestingly (to me), sometimes the two experiences inform each other.

I’m an iPhone guy. With the recent release of new phones and the newest iOS software, it’s been easy to reflect on how far Apple’s progressed during the smartphone era. Their technological and design leadership is well-documented, but they’ve also begun to lead in a humanitarian sense. Think about these things:

• They’ve continually made progress on negating the environmental impact of their products and their physical footprint.

• They’ve committed to cultural diversity in the workplace, and are being transparent about their progress.

• They’re placing a moral value on cultural ideas like acceptance, accessibility and kindness.

Apple’s status in modern society is such that their actions and positions have a great deal of power. When they come out in support of environmental responsibility, or cultural diversity, they move the needle. Apple – more than any other company – is helping to affect progressive change in our culture.1

Likewise, Apple’s values align very closely with those I’m trying to teach my own kids. I believe in what they’re saying and doing.

And so we arrive at distracted driving, something that involves both my phone and my family. I’ve been guilty of it, never more so than in the whiz-bang (pre-kid) days right after I got my very first iPhone 3G. I suddenly had the world in my pocket! How could I not peek every so often? Yes, I’ve fought myself not to look at my phone while driving. I’ve told myself “I’m not texting, I’m just looking up a song to play.” I’ve made the “How is eating a burger from McDonald’s on the highway any different?” argument.

It’s difficult to admit that my pushback was unjustifiable, and that I was wrong. But whenever I did anything more than speak into my phone while driving, that's exactly what I was: wrong. I've tried to evolve, and I will continue to. Having kids and a smart, tough wife has sped that process up significantly. I’ve realized that I have to be a careful driver for the sake of everyone on the road, and, so crucially, for the sake of my children and my family. When I'm driving, I’m their protector and, more than that, my actions are their compass.

Using your phone with your hands while you drive is wrong, and in most places it’s illegal. A great many people don’t do it. But others ignore the moral imperatives, and the laws, that ask them not to. Enough people, in fact, that accidents and fatalities from distracted driving are heartbreakingly common.

Maybe the right thing to do is too easy not to do.

Here’s where I think Apple could do something directly in line with its progressive, moral mindset. It could make doing the right thing easier for lots of people.

It would be really simple.

That’s it.

iPhones, and all modern smartphones, have the technology to do this – namely, advanced motion detection and interactive voice control. Saving lives really could be as simple as the alert above.

Let’s break it down. Using the phone’s GPS, accelerometer and M-class motion chip (all of which most iPhones in the wild have now), an iPhone can figure out when its owner has started a trip in a moving vehicle. There’s probably a very nuanced algorithm to be had, but let’s say for the sake of argument, it’s whenever the phone determines that it’s moving faster than 10 MPH laterally and it’s not detecting footsteps. Whenever those conditions are initiated, the alert pops up.

• If you’re a passenger, you simply tap to assert that you’re not driving. That’s it. The phone trusts you and you’re free to use it normally.

• If you are driving, you can quickly tap the big, blue button to enter handsfree “Siri only” mode. If you don’t do anything, a countdown (say, 10 seconds) puts the phone in this mode anyway. “Siri only” mode would lock the phone’s display and text input methods. It would still allow you to make and take calls with your voice, and do anything else that Siri lets you do, like hear and compose text messages. If you have Apple CarPlay (as I’m sure more and more of us will in the near future), everything runs through that.

When the phone detects that your trip is over, it takes itself out of handsfree mode, but you can also do it at any time: wake up your phone and tap the "I'm not driving" button, or simply say “Siri, I’m done driving.” Boom. Phone back to normal.

A few points sure to arise:

Could I stop "Siri mode" during a trip?

Yes, just like you can take your seatbelt off during a trip. You'd be completely in charge. This feature is meant to reinforce good behavior, not to force your phone operate against your will.

How will the phone know my trip is over, and that I'm not, say, at a stoplight?

The same way it detects you’ve started moving in a vehicle. A combination of your vector, speed and whether or not footsteps are present.

What about if I’m on a train, or a subway, or an escalator, or a roller coaster...

A few false positives are to be expected, though I’m sure Apple’s detection algorithms could get pretty sophisticated to the point where they were relatively rare. The situation could also be aided by another recent invention - iBeacons. A train car or an amusement park ride with a beacon could send a simple message to phones letting them know that the alert wasn’t necessary for users in close proximity.

(Be careful with those escalators, though.)

I don't want Apple to know when I'm driving.

Apple wouldn't know; all the intelligence necessary to do this is on the device. Nothing ever needs to be communicated to a server or third party. Apple is getting good at doing smart things with sensitive information (like location and health data) without that data ever leaving your phone.

Won’t this get annoying?

Maybe. Are you annoyed when your car bing-bing-bings to tell you to put on your safety belt? Or when your in-dash GPS makes you pull over in order to use it? Or, for that matter, every time somebody who cares about you says "Hey, drive carefuly, and please let me know when you get there" before a trip?

Sure, kind of.

In 2013, over 400,000 Americans were injured in accidents related to distracted driving. Three thousand people died. These statistics repeat every year.2

What if a simple opt-out dialog cut those numbers in half? Or even by ten percent? A trade-off — being asked to tap (or ignore) an alert every so often, in exchange for actual lives saved — seems pretty worthwhile to me.

Won’t people lie?

Yes, some will. But many, many won’t. Consider the person who doesn’t really approve of texting while driving, but they’re at a red light and a text from a good friend arrives with a really adorable picture. It would be rude not acknowledge it, right? It would be so easy to type in “haha! so cute!” and hit send....

In that scenario, the bridge to “just a quick text back” isn’t as tough to cross as it should be. But in a world where a user’s car trip starts with the above alert, many of those same people, inherently moral people, would never have to get into that situation. They'd accept the alert and subsequent handsfree mode as a normal part of using their phone, like unlocking it with a passcode or a fingerprint has come to be. The alert would reinforce good behavior at exactly the right moment to make a difference. It would make it easy for most of us to never be tempted to do something dangerous and wrong.

And if you’re the kind of person who would lie or not care, the alert has made you take the very conscious, deliberate step of moving to a place many would consider morally and legally out of bounds. Those who can stomach that will no doubt continue to do so, but it will much easier to draw a line between that small group and users who don't explicitly want to do the wrong thing.

Consider how Apple shapes us, its community of users. As mentioned above, there’s the guidance on moral issues like preserving the environment, promoting cultural diversity, and fostering inclusion. And then there are also practical steps that Apple takes on our behalf: they made passcodes opt-out instead of opt-in and introduced fingerprint detection on iPhones to reduce the risk of a user losing their phone or their personal information. They've taken extra steps to encrypt and anonymize user data, without the user needing to, or even needing to know to, ask for it. And they’ve enabled two-factor authentication for anyone trying to access anything personal in the cloud.

Apple knows that powerful technology makes users vulnerable, and takes steps to protect them. This goes beyond smart business. Apple feels protective of its users. Apple considers all of these actions part of a larger moral responsibility to its user community.

It occurred to me that the way I feel about my family, the steps I'd take and the behavioral changes I'd make in the name of keeping them safe – overlaps a lot with the way Apple thinks about its users.

Apple feels a sense of stewardship towards their user community. They feel a responsibility to show users a clear path through the rocky, trecherous challenges presented by technology. This dedication to users is what led to the iPhone, and what guides them on its development. It's also a lot like what parents do for their families.

Apple is not responsible for its users’ behavior while driving. We're all responsible for our own actions. But – especially given its track record – I'd argue that the company does have a moral responsibility to take steps that will make us collectively safer while using the devices it so carefully crafts.

A recent article at Asymco posited that what makes users love Apple products is that the products help their owners be better people. The resulting gratitude, it argued, is repaid by users in the form of affection for the Apple brand.

I can’t think of an issue more ripe for Apple’s clear-eyed guidance than that of distracted driving. They can help us be better, and can make being better easier.

My family helped me figure this out. But it shouldn't take a family, or constantly grappling with the weight of personal responsibility, to make a smartphone owner a better driver. It could, and should, be simple. If Apple leads on this issue, lots of lives, and families will benefit. And I think we'd end up loving them for that.

Find Mark on Twitter at @M_Willis. Steering wheel icon courtesty of the Noun Project and designer Rowan Kelly.

Somewhat ironically, they have achieved this cultural power by being one of the most successful capitalist enterprises of all time. ↩

Every few months, a thought pops into my head. “I should revisit the U.S. stuff.”

It’s not that I don’t love the ideas that I laid out three years ago in the USA Kit series. It’s not that some of the design work wasn’t headed down the right track. And it’s not that U.S. Soccer’s visual identity has been misguided in the meantime.

It’s just that everything – you, I, American soccer culture – has changed significantly in the past three years. And those changes mean that I have more to say.

There’s one thing I didn’t do in that first series: try to redesign the team’s graphic mark. I played with colors and uniform ideas, but I left the familiar U.S. Soccer crest in place. I think I understood that it wasn’t the right time – for me, as a fan or as a designer – to attempt changes there. Sure, I had ideas, but back then, it was a step too far.

Today, it’s time to revisit. If rumors hold, U.S. Soccer looks set to reveal a new visual identity soon. That's a big deal in my world. It’s something I definitely have opinions about. I want to contribute to the conversation.

Ergo, this piece. “Identity Sketches for U.S. Soccer” is my current comment on the national program’s visual identity and brand. It’s less about uniforms or style choices and more about building something iconic and beautiful that can envelop, extend, and amplify the passion that more and more Americans are bringing to the game.

Yes, I’ve worked up a new crest mark. But that’s not the full scope of what I’d like to discuss. As I have in pieces on various soccer identities, I’ve been thinking about U.S. Soccer’s graphic identity as larger than a crest or a logo or a shield. I envision a redesign as a chance to introduce as a modular system – one that can be mapped to the many different ways Americans are finding to be fans.

(After discussing this “systematic” approach to visual identity in well-read pieces on the Columbus Crew, the San Jose Earthquakes and more, and then putting it into practice with Clean Sheet Co., M.L.S. seemed to get it and follow suit with their visual rebrand last year. Hey, at least re-tweet me if you’re reading, Mr. Garber!)

Today, I’d like to go through the U.S. Soccer system I’ve worked up. It’s not fully complete, by design; indeed it’s meant to be a framework that evolves over time. Hopefully I’ve developed it enough to allow the reader to mull over their own interpretations of this hypothetical U.S. Soccer brand. Unlike the “USA Kit” series, I’ll be concentrating on the team’s graphic identity, not specifically the uniforms.

I. The Need for Change

Like many things U.S. Soccer, the team’s graphic identity has seemed eternally stuck between worlds, stalled at a crossroads of cultures, eras and tastes. The shield, which dates to the 90s, and the overall brand, which goes back to the 80s or so, carries over much from those earlier days. We’ve always tolerated it; now that it’s imbued with the excitement and stature of notable success, the shield actually carries some sentimental value for U.S. Soccer fans. But it must, and will change. Why?

It’s visually stale, confusing and inelegant.

Alternative designs, including retro styles, have proven very popular with fans.

A new design moves product and gets people excited.

It’s just a crest. What’s needed now is a system.

Solving for everything on the list above, and having the solution be (for lack of a better word) cool, always seemed out of reach to me.

II. Challenges, Guidelines, Inspirations

But imagine if you could solve the equation. Imagine if a new U.S. Soccer graphic identity was

Fresh, simple, straightforward and refined.

Created with a nod to American soccer heritage, the present, and the future.

An exciting design idea suited to team uniforms, casual apparel and much more.

The foundation of a well-constructed system that let the brand grow in limitless directions.

…and, it was cool. What guidelines would one follow to arrive there?

I’ve been thinking about these points while sketching out U.S. Soccer logos for years now. (It’s one of my favorite hobbies; for better or worse, I have notebooks filled with sketch concepts.) Every time I start a new idea, I test it against these principles.

The right design has to navigates choppy waters. It shouldn’t be overly retro, or overly modern. It must, in fact, avoid being heavily swayed by any common “school” of sports identity design. (To name a few: novelty, heraldic complexity, pure minimalism, mundanity.) It would have to be visually rich enough to act as a crest, but simple enough to doodle in the margin of a notebook while daydreaming in class. (This is how designers are made.) It would have to convey feelings of both American-ness and soccer culture, without feeling too derivative or clip-arty. It shouldn’t pander to jingoistic patriotism (on the one hand) or continental fútbol snobbery (on the other). Its usage would have to feel appropriate in official, organizational capacities, but it would also have to feel comfortable in casual, unofficial settings (for instance, by supporters’ groups). It would have to portray strength, but not arrogance; determination, but not overt aggression. And it couldn’t be a generic; it would need personality.

Easy, right? Next, to find inspiration. Out of what might have been a list of hundreds of influences, I narrowed my focus to several:

prominent, powerful marks in global soccer

official U.S. insignia

U.S. Soccer's visual history, and related national logos

From those categories, I used influential designs I've always loved. Here's where I ended up:

click for notations

Patterns started to emerge. Various recurring shapes. Stripes. Eagles. Banners. I was getting closer. Now, there were new questions to answer: How many colors? How many elements? What kind of typography? But before I could get to them, there was one fundamental question I had to answer.

What shape should the mark be?

Guidelines and influences pointed to both round shapes and shield-style crests as equally valid. Many great soccer logos are circular; the roundel (a logo made up of an inner circle surrounded by a contrasting ring which often contains text) has a well-established place in global soccer identity, and athletic design in general. The roundel also has a home in official “American” capacities; look no further than the Presidential Seal for a fine example. And as recently as the 1980s, U.S. Soccer used one. Shields, however, are equally (if not more) important in soccer design language. The heraldic roots of soccer identity are still expressed in a variety of shield-style shapes. And of course that's what U.S. Soccer uses now.

It was the defining question. So, I kept sketching. And one day, I hit on an idea.

III. The Mark

It began, as many of my U.S. Soccer crest ideas have, with the circle (or a ball, if you like) as a foundational element. I had been playing around with incorporating eagle iconography, and decided to add outstretched wings to the ball as that "breakaway" element. At first, that produced a very horizontal mark, somewhat akin to the Bentley logo. That's not ideal for a soccer crest that often needs to fit into vertically-aligned spaces. But I was on to something. After working on that germ of an idea for a good while, I think I have something that can answer the challenges I set up. Meet my take on the U.S. Soccer crest, and the first step on the path to an identity system for American soccer.

What I like about this: It’s energetic. It’s intriguing. It’s really American, but not crass. It’s avoids being too silly, basic, fussy, euro, clever or xxxxxtreme. It’s something I think domestic soccer fans could grow with.

Take another look at how I got here:

click for notations

The key was bringing the wings up. As the wings are elevated, not only do they look more glorious, but the mark's shape begins to become shield-like, without losing its pleasing round proportion. This was a eureka moment. The mark could have elements of each definitive crest shape, roundel and shield. The trick was to execute the design in a way that didn't seem to overly complicated, or weighed down by the roundel/shield idea.

It took some time, but I think I arrived at something harmonious.

With the roundel shape as a foundation, the mark achieves both a sense of satisfying balance, and a home in world of soccer crest design. And with the lightest additional suggestion of a shield-based shape, the mark plays homage to important global and domestic soccer history.

Let's talk about the eagle. Like some of the influences above, the mark features our most enduring patriotic symbol, the North American (bald) eagle. As symbols go, it doesn’t get too much more American than the bald eagle (unless you portray one, say, devouring an apple pie while being ridden by Abe Lincoln). In this mark, the eagle is shown with wings spread in a state of glorious victory, or a show of strength. In spreading its wings so, the bird breaks through the circular form and creates a shape that feels dynamic and crest-like. The rendering here is simple and basic, reducing the eagle design to familiar shapes, but it retains the power of a detailed, “old school” heraldic crest.

Next, stripes. Many U.S. marks use vertical red and white stripes to echo the flag. I think it works. So within the roundel here, an inner circle holds red and white stripes, a direct call back to both the American flag and the 1950s-era USSF crest. The shape and negative space of the center area also subtly suggest (to me) a soccer ball – perhaps one rolling rapidly towards the viewer.

Finally, below the inner circle, a silver banner holds the simple slogan “United States”. The banner is a common motif in soccer logos (and logos of all kinds), and was even used in a similar capacity when U.S. Soccer augmented their logo for the 2013 centennial. Crucially, the alignment of the banner completes the roundel shape and gives the entire mark a pleasing proportion. Like the eagle, it nods to heritage without extra flourish or detail.

The design is comprised of 11 components: an eagle, a banner, and nine stripes. This is not accidental.

I’m proud of this mark. I think it solves the conditions laid out above, and does so with power and charisma. It achieves a balance - both visually and metaphorically - that I strive for.

IV. The System

This is the where I start to get excited. Once the mark has been established, we can figure out where it can be pushed: which parts are modular and adaptable, where the mark invites outside influence. This is where we bring the brand to life.

First, to demonstrate the mark’s flexibility, let’s take a look at a variety of contexts. As noted, it looks great at it’s original three-color incarnation against a white background.

It also works quite well in single color variations…

…against dark backgrounds…

… or even with some components given tonal range.

The mark adjusts gracefully to each context. We have the foundation of a system.

Next, variation. I’ve chosen two places where variation can be integrated into the system: the banner and the striped “ball”. This is where the brand will spring to life, and where you can begin to imagine just how far we can go with this system in place.

Let’s start with a basic variation. “United States” works simply and beautifully on the banner. But what if that banner space could reflect more than just that slogan? Imagine evoking a heritage feel with both color tone and banner variation:

The roman numeral reference, of course, is to the founding year of the organization that would become the U.S.S.F.

Let’s take it further. If you know my work with Clean Sheet Co., you know how much we love the Gadsden motif when it's combined with U.S. Soccer fanship. How about a Gadsden-inspired version?

Here we see both the banner changing (to evoke the classic “Don’t Tread on Me” slogan) but also the striped ball taking on an added component. In this case, we’re referencing a common variant of the Gadsden flag, the “Don’t Tread on Me” red-and-white striped naval jack, which of course includes a snake. This flexibility - to use the inner "ball" area to reference ideas - is one of the keys to the system's flexibility.

Let's keep exploring this. The visage of Teddy Roosevelt (Goalsevelt?) is fast becoming a folk hero to domestic fans. How about a Rough-Riders-themed iteration?

The red and white stripes incorporate a navy sash inspired by military dress (and past U.S. uniforms), as well as tones of leathery frontier brown. The quote is a TR original, alluding to our own American code of football (albeit only a few years removed from branching away from its soccer and rugby cousins).

Further still, what if the mark inspired supporters groups to adapt it and make it theirs?

Update! The response to this piece has been fantastic, and the fans are the reason why. So, Clean Sheet Co. and I are taking the step of releasing the design — which we're calling The People's Crest — freely to fans for personal use. This includes source files, vector graphics and fonts — everything you need to make D.I.Y. shirts, banners and other stuff. So if you like the design, go get it! There's a lot more over at the project site. U.S. soccer fans, The People's Crest is yours. Thanks! —M.

The idea isn't to replace official logos for other organizations or causes, but to give those most passionate fans an invitation to create.

Once the system is established, creativity and expression can flourish; visual rules can be broken so long as the form is honored. Color, for one, can be highly expressive, and the striped ball can be pushed into places beyond red-and-white Americana. What if the mark could express ideas?

Perhaps a version of the mark could convey appreciation for those who serve our country:

(Stripe color pairs represent combinations for the Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force and Coast Guard, respectively.)

Or, what if it could be cast as a beacon of inclusion?

Many logos have done this recently, but how many were created to support this kind of extension? This is where the branded visual expression is going.

These are just a few straightforward samples; with the right system in place, they (and many more) can spring to life, joyously.

V. Applications

Any visual identity system has to account for wildly different contexts. The mark is a corporate logo; it’s a marketing calling card, it’s a supporters’ talisman; it’s a uniform crest; it’s the basis of a must-have t-shirt.

This mark can be all those things.

First, I think it would serve the U.S. Soccer establishment well.

And it would lend itself to marketing in a way the current crest can’t.

You can imagine it in the stands,

or above the heart, on a U.S. jersey.

(This is just a riff on the team’s recent classic Centennial jersey template, with the mark in crest position. I think it looks pretty fantastic.)

Of course, it has to look great in the universal setting: on a beautiful, broken in, tri-blend t-shirt.

One of many, many possible t-shirt variations. (Want one? Let me know on Twitter or via email, and I can get Clean Sheet Co. on the case. I know a guy.)

Update: Clean Sheet Co. is making this shirt a reality! You can get one here.

Oh, and did I mention it looks great with stars? The eagle is designed to hold on to them.

With the one star the men might win one day, and the three the women already have.

This is the visual identity I was working towards, even as I wrote that first look at U.S. Soccer years ago. It's been a long trip, and this is where I hoped to arrive.

Ever since I learned about Gonzales, the cannon, and "Come and Take It", I've loved it for one particular reason: I’m a huge US Soccer fan, and the story resonates perfectly with that of the Mexico - United States soccer rivalry and the battlefield on which it's usually contested, the biennial CONCACAF Gold Cup tournament.  

The Gold Cup is almost here, and “Come and Take It” is, in many respects, the ultimate regional rallying cry for US Soccer. “It”, of course, is our mutually contested “cannon” - the Gold Cup itself - which the US currently possesses and must defend. (To the chagrin, no doubt, of Mexican fútbol fans, who must rue the day that feisty US soccer decided to challenge their south-of-the-border supremacy).

While the story is a great lens through which to view the current rivalry, what makes "Come and Take It" even better is that it comes with fantastic visuals built right in. If you haven’t seen a representation of original flag, check it out.  It’s stark and beautiful. Black and white. Three components. No missed meanings; no equivocation. 

My favorite detail is the period after “it.”  Just ice cold. (image credit: Wikipedia)

Since the original, the flag’s design has been remembered and modified into an even simpler, starker version that’s still popular today.

With solid black detail. (graphic credit: Wikipedia)

As a designer, I’m inspired by flags and slogans - especially ones this direct and simple.  As a soccer fan, I’m energized by the idea that cultural significance cascades through history, turning a revolutionary flag into a symbolic and good-natured challenge.  Soccer is tribal.  In many respects, American soccer remains a band of feisty settlers, challenging a global regime. Knowing how far we’ve come, and how much it means to be on par with the worlds’ established powers, it should be obvious that we’re not giving anything back just for the asking.  

The Gold Cup begins in a month.  Clean Sheet Co., my apparel company, has designed a limited edition Come and Take It - inspired shirt: The Cannon.  

Get it at Clean Sheet Co. »

The Cannon is modeled after the Gonzales flag, with a heritage cream-colored organic cotton fabric as the base, and a stark, dark navy cannon-slogan design inked across the chest. The star in the original flag doubles as the star in the Clean Sheet Co. crest, while the crest’s shield is patriotic red and white stripes.  The stripes protect something crucial - a core of bronze-gold.  The meaning couldn’t be more plain: this shirt is Clean Sheet Co.’s tribute the original bronze Gonzales cannon and the settlers that defended it - and its modern equivalent, the Gold Cup and the team that will defend it shortly. 

Starting today, we check five new states off the list. Michigan, South Carolina, Rhode Island, Kansas and Idaho get the Clean Sheet Co. treatment. I'm also pleased to announce a new way in which we're structuring the debut and ordering of each State shirt. Beginning with Volume 2, each State design will be a Clean Sheet Co. Lab project - which means we'll be asking folks to support the design(s) they are interested in.

We've used The Lab for a few previous projects - including our popular Gadsden Black design - and it's been a fantastic way to make sure we're producing exactly the right amount of each shirt, and to reward our core supporters with the best pricing. The Lab works on the 'Kickstarter' model: when you support a shirt in the Lab, you don't actually get charged, but you commit to buying the shirt as long as enough other folks support it too. You also lock in a lower price than the shirt will cost at retail. If support for a given design doesn't reach a low threshold (20 shirts) you'll never get charged (and we'll probably take the shirt's design back to the drawing board).

Oh yeah: and for or those first 20 shirts supported across each design? Shipping to anywhere in the U.S. is free, courtesty of Clean Sheet Co. - so if you’re one of those crucial early supporters, you get a really fantastic deal.

Ready? Let's dive in.

Michigan

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“If you seek a pleasant peninsula, look about you.” With a state motto like that, I knew I had an fascinating task ahead of me. Michigan - a place I’ve never been - seemed complex and nuanced in comparison to other states, where colors and themes practically announce themselves right away. I knew Michigan was big, has both industrial and pastorial components, and of course has the funky two-part geography wrapping around the Great Lakes. I also suspected that the state had a very down-the-middle American vibe; unlike, say, Texas or Minnesota - places that seem to have cultural brands all their own - Michigan just seemed like the good ol’ U.S. of A.

As I dug in, I found some great material, all of it in beautiful balance. I learned about Michigan’s connection to water, and also to it’s sprawling interior. I learned about its history of industry and engineering prowess (Detroit needs no introduction), but also about its natural charms. This balance created a basis for the Clean Sheet design to emerge. In particular, I called on two important state symbols: one natural (the antlers of a decorated white-tailed buck - the state animal, and a sight Michigan outdoorsmen know well) and one engineered (the sprawling, symbolic Mackinac Bridge, which connects Michigan’s two land masses). The antler design created wonderful curved spaces, perfect to house very modest, minimal nod to the bridge and its distinctive paired cables. For the shirt’s colors, I went with a dominant indigo blue and white scheme, with a bit of sunset orange-red. This takes the state’s primary color motif (blue and white), adds splash of bright color (mirroring the look found on certain popular state license plates). I thought the combination ended up capturing the natural, engineered, and even human sides of complex Michigan in a very simple and honest way.

South Carolina

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If Michigan seemed to offer a variety of symbolic options, South Carolina was very straightforward. I’ve been a fan of South Carolina’s state flag for years, and I knew I’d use its unique trope - a palmetto and a crescent moon - along with its perfectly stark colors (midnight blue and full-moon white) - in the Clean Sheet design. Everything came together quickly; while reading up on the flag and its history, I learned some wonderful detail. This flag has serious history on its side.

Its origins date back to the Moultrie flag - a stylized waxing crescent moon on a blue field, the moon holding the slogan “LIBERTY” - which was first flown during the Revolutionary era. During an early skirmish in the War for Independence on Sullivan’s Island, it was shot down by the British, only to be commandeered and charged back into combat by a South Carolinian soldier - an act credited with inspiring the local troops, winning the battle at hand, and protecting Charleston. (As flag origin stories go, that’s a great one.) The tree was later added to symbolize the state’s abundant palmetto population, and also specifically to reference the island, defended that day from British cannons that could not penetrate defensive sand walls protected by palmettos laid atop them. Even when somebody tried to mess with perfection - adding a white halo around the tree, and colorizing it - it was quickly corrected. (Incredibly quickly - the state reverted to the old flag within 48 hours, and the imposter was ignominiously dubbed the “Two Day” flag).

The Clean Sheet Co. interpretation hues closely to the venerable state flag for inspiration. Dark navy ink on a mindnight blue shirt just barely delineates the stylized palmetto tree and the Clean Sheet crest, through which the blazing moon passes. And a final touch: the tree is bent in wind in deference to the costal storms that often batter the South Carolina coast, but never break its spirit.

Rhode Island

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As far as visual language goes, Rhode Island shares some unique qualities with South Carolina. First, the singular power of its chosen symbol: whereas South Carolina has the iconic palmetto/moon scene, Rhode Island relies on the mighty anchor. There’s also the matter of simple sloganeering - South Carolina’s historic use of “LIBERTY” is matched by Rhode Island’s “HOPE”, which still graces its flag. As with South Carolina, I’ve always been drawn to Rhode Island’s direct graphic language, and I knew Clean Sheet’s design would inevitably be based around an anchor motif.

There are some differences, of course, between the states; one that struck me was just how interestingly Rhode Island’s two components - symbol and slogan - played together. South Carolina placed it’s LIBERTY mark against the moon, where one might expect to gaze and congure dreams about a flight to freedom. The phrase and the visual match. Rhode Island, however, is a bit more wily. It places its HOPE banner beneath an anchor - a stunning, or maybe subversively cunning - bit of symbolism. Hope, the combination seems to be saying, is present even when burderened; or perhaps that the very things that weigh us down also inspire us. Or maybe it’s just a sly, ironic jab from a state that’s always punching above it’s weight class. Whatever it is, it works. The juxtaposition creates visual emotion.

I worked with several anchor shapes until I found one I liked - it has has traditional features (like a rounded version of flag’s icon) but has some modern flair as well. The anchor’s ring, stock (crossbar) and shank (neck) are offset against the Clean Sheet crest, creating negative space within the shield shape. As I worked with the components, I was able to realize a wonderful secondary meaning: the negative space within the crest roughly corresponds to a stylized map of the southern Narragansett Bay.

It’s a bit wistful, but it’s there: the dark blue is Narragansett water; the lighter blue is land (Conanicut Island, home of Jamestown, on the left; Prudence Island to the top, and the actual Rhode Island - née Aquidneck - on the right). The “ball” within the Clean Sheet Co. shield happens to precisely mark a very important geographic spot: it’s Newport, perhaps the state’s most famous city, and home to momentous acheivements in business, sport and culture. No particular event, in fact, merges those three categories like the America’s Cup yacht races, which were ably defended by American skippers in and around the waters of Newport for more than five decades. In honor of Newport’s nautical patriotism, a disc of antique white and red stripes notes its costal location. The shirt itself is that same antique-white color, in homage to the white base of the state flag.

Kansas

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I had a few objectives with Kansas. First, not to get into the Wizard of Oz. Nobody needs more of that. Second, not to conflate Kansas with the Kansas City metro identity. Yes, the larger region does spill over into the state, but a) KC is really Missouri’s deal, and b) Kansas is much bigger than any one city.

With those paramaters in place, I started searching for some beautiful visuals that symbolized Kansas. I began, as usual, with the state flag. I’ve found there are really two types of U.S. state flags: those with specific symbols and definite ideas (see: South Carolina, Rhode Island, New Mexico, Alaska, etc.), and those who put a very detailed seal on a solid-color background and call it a flag (see: Michigan, New York, Wisconsin,etc.).1 These seals are usually heraldic still-lifes, with figures (normally ideals personified, or Native Americans, or Lewis and Clark types, or elk) standing astride an oval that contains a pastoral American landscape. Nice, but visually complicated, kind of boring - in that way museum diaramas are boring - and unoriginal.

Kansas is mostly in category 2, with the addition of some interesting details. First, they get points for clarity in slogan choice; where South Carolina uses LIBERTY, and Rhode Island, HOPE, Kansas goes with KANSAS. I mean, absolutely no confusion there.

“Hey Kansas: what do you guys believe in?” “KANSAS.” “Ok, then.” “…KANSAS.” “Dude, ok.”

I kid, of course; this quirk actually goes back to an interesting moment in state flag history. For a period, Kansas had a state banner instead of a state flag - it consisted primarily of the word KANSAS and a giant, stylized sunflower. The banner was intended to be hung horizontally, not flown on a vertical staff. And while this brief non-conformity flourished (during the heart of Prohibition - draw your own conclusions), it created problems for the US government (who had to display a few dozen flags and one horizontal banner) but nonetheless was probably pretty cool. The banner was derived from a speculative sunflower flag comissioned by the state and brought to life by a Topeka-based artist named Albert Reid which I happen to think would have made for one amazing flag, banner, pennant, or any other official Kansas textile. Sadly, the look didn't stick - not exactly, anyway. Back to modernity, and yes, the second interesting thing about the current Kansas flag: there’s an added component above their seal. The beautiful, simple, and completely appropriate sunflower has persevered, albeit in a diminished fashion, and is still represented on the Kansas flag.

Sunflowers naturally grace the Kansas landscape, are now the official state flower, and yet were and are so abundant in Kansas that at one point the state deemed them a weed and wanted them eradicated. This was quickly corrected; the state government reversed that edict and began to celebrate the flower in due course. And why wouldn’t you - the flower is stunning, bold, colorful, optimistic and broadly popular.

Clean Sheet Co.’s Kansas shirt is based on that simple idea: a resplendent sunflower against a blue-violet background. A note on the shirt's color: in some states - it happens that they’re mostly large, midwester land-grand states, which makes sense - colors can carry a lot of weight. At Cleas Sheet Co., we have no intention to pit rivalrous intra-state collegiate factions against one another with color choice; where possible, we’ll try to stay above the fray. (See: Michigan.) However, when it comes to Kansas, tones of blue are a key state identifier. Instead of going full on Kansas U. royal blue, or K-State purple, we split the difference with a fabric color called “lapis” - a bright, purplish blue - and a crest color that’s a bluish purple. As a wise bumper sticker once said: coexist. And really: it’s all about the sunflower anyway.

Idaho

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Like Kansas, I had a few initial rules for Idaho, too. One rule, really: this isn't about potatoes. Potatoes are honorable, they’re prolific, they’re tasty - yes. But even though potatoes are a core component of Idaho’s identity, I just coudn’t see basing a shirt design on them. I didn’t know much about Idaho coming in to this endeavor, and didn’t want to end it by knowing a few more ways to make au gratin. I wanted something different from Idaho. And, as one might guess, Idaho delivered.

It turns out, Idaho is a natural paradise. Beautiful, fertile plains; winding rivers, breathtaking mountains. A particularly famous set of those mountains - the Sawtooth range - was so visually intersting, I decided they had to be a part of the Idaho shirt’s deisgn. Their jagged spikes and steep inclines were a perfect visual to start designing with. I was still figuring out how, exactly, to integrate the mountain idea when I stumbled onto something even cooler.

Star garnets.

Are they pieces of art? Something an alchemist might have stirred up? Of extra-terrestrial origin? Implausibly, no - star garnets are natural, earthly gems found in the Idaho mountains that only look like something from another realm. Here’s a quick explanantion:

Star garnets are a type of garnet referred to as ‘almandine’ (a deep red garnet consisting of an iron aluminum silicate) which displays an ‘asterism’ (star-shaped figure exhibited by some crystals by reflected light). The color of the star garnet can range from deep red to brownish red.2

They are amazing - almost cosmic. Oh - and they’re found in only two places on earth: India, and Idaho. Perfect.

As I learned more about the garnets, I came to notice that most of the “star” effects were four-pointed stars created when two lines of rutile crystals intersected within the stone. Even more impressive were the much rarer six-pointed stars, created by three perfectly-spaced intersecting lines. Some say that Idaho is, in fact, the only place in the world to find the six-pointed variety. In a state known as the Gem State, the star garnet is the official state gem.

That settled it. I had the elements (the Sawtooth range, and the star garnet). And I had the colors (deep blue, tones of garnet red, and crystal white). The result is the design you see: the Sawtooth Mountains in slate blue and garnet, stretching across the front of the shirt; the Clean Sheet crest becomes a star garnet, with bright rays stretching out in a six-pointed star from the shield’s center. The asterism effect stretches past the logo and across the shirt to complement the mountain design. The result is a toned, layered design that I hope reflects some of Idaho’s unique beauty.

–

And there you have it: Clean Sheet Co.'s The States, volume 2.

I hope it was an interesting read and a worthwhile visual journey. Remember: if you'd like one of these shirts, make sure to support them - early supporters get the best deal, and for the first 20 shirts supported in each design, shipping to anywhere in the US is on Clean Sheet Co. - you can't beat that.

See you back here for Volume 3!

The States is a joint project by M.Willis and Clean Sheet Co. about designing expressive shirts for every U.S. state. Questions, comments, etc.? I'm on Twitter at @m_willis. You can check out Clean Sheet Co. at cleansheet.co. If you want to know a little more about me, check out the features at the top of the page, or check out my brief bio. Thanks for reading!

There’s a separate category for clearly insane Ohio that we’ll cover in a future volume. ↩

If you’re reaching that point yourself, maybe I can help. Below are thirteen Christmas songs that can sub in for the tunes you might be just a tiny bit tired of. Instead of playing the standards through one more time, consider adding a few of these to your holiday playlist.

Note:♫ = play at Spotify, ▶ = play at Youtube.

Here Comes Santa Claus - Bob B. Soxx & the Blue Jeans ▶♫ consider playing when you need a break from: Autry'sHere Comes Santa Claus,Lee’s Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree, Helms’ Jingle Bell Rock The “rockin’ Christmas" genre is a bit overplayed - it’s generally some Autry, the two interchangeable "rock" songs mentioned above, and maybe Springsteen’s take on Santa Claus is Coming to Town. You've heard most of them into the double digits by now. Bob B. Soxx and company’sHere Comes Santa Claus is better than all of them. It’s not pastiche rockin’-good-time™ music; it feels like what it is - a real 60s-era jukebox track with a healthy does of Phil Spector polish.

Silent Night - Booker T & The MGs▶♫ consider playing when you need a break from: Como’s Home for the Holidays, Crosby’s I’ll Be Home for Christmas

If you want to feel nostalgic – which is what Perry Como and Bing Crosby specialize in – give Booker T & The MGs a shot. They convey all the emotion of heading home for Christmas (whatever that might mean to you) without any words at all. That Hammond organ is magical.

Wish You a Merry Christmas - Kim Weston▶♫ consider playing when you need a break from: Carey’s All I Want For Christmas Is You

There are plenty of soul and Motown inspired Christmas songs. Mariah Carey’s unavoidable smash, now into its 20th year of yuletide domination, draws on these roots. But before you hear Mariah one more time, why not go back to some reference material? Looking for a beautiful, powerful voice pleading for romance at Christmas? Kim Weston’s underplayed track expresses much of the same sentiment (with a bitter edge that Carey could never muster). This song comesfrom a world that’s more real than ideal. No, you probably wouldn’t set a movie montage to it, but maybe that’s the point.

Merry Christmas from the Family - Robert Earl Keen▶♫ consider playing when you need a break from: Boyd’s I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus, Elmo & Patsy’s Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer

There are plenty of novelty Christmas songs that tell cute stories and give you characters to root for. Most of them are silly, good for a listen a year at most. Robert Earl Keen captures all the fun of the Christmas novelty song with real poignance and melancholy. This is the perfect modern holiday song - a snapshot of merriment and dysfunction. It’s my all-time favorite Christmas song.

Fairytale of New York - The Pogues▶♫ consider playing when you need a break from: Lennon’s Happy Christmas (War is Over)

This one obviously gets a fair amount of play - moreso in the States every year, it seems. (In the UK, it’s broadly popular and considered possibly the best Christmas song of all time.) I can’t hear it enough. Whereas Lennon went big, writing to literally everyone in the world, Shane McGowan took the same amount of songwriting pedigree and focused on two tiny, lonely souls. It’s a little rough around the edges,heartbreaking and cinematic.I could have been someone / well so could anyone.…wow, Merry Christmas.

Hanging Up My Stockings - Debbie Davis ♫ consider playing when you need a break from: McCartney’sWonderful Christmastime

I have no idea what the provenance of the song is (it involves Squirrel Nut Zippers and a very scratchy recording), but it’s understated and Debbie Davis’s version captures some of the contented bounce that McCartney-style romps are famous for, but with just a little more heart.

Cascabel, Cascabel - Beatriz Márquez♫ consider playing when you need a break from: Feliciano’s Feliz Navidad

Latin Christmas music is wonderful - and there’s so much out there. When I was growing up, I didn’t get this; it seemed like Feliz Navidad was the only latin-influenced Christmas song ever made, and even then, it was helpfully mostly in english. In today’s digital music era, it couldn’t be easier to explore the world beyond Feliz Navidad, the Tijuana of Christmas music. Cascabel, Cascabel is a Cuban-latin take on Jingle Bells that gets absolutely pinned to my brain each Christmas - and that’s a good thing. Give it a shot.

I’ve Got My Love to Keep Me Warm - Billie Holiday▶♫ consider playing when you need a break from: Mercer & Whiting’s Baby It’s Cold Outside, William’sIt’s The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

When it comes to duets, yes, Baby It’s Cold Outside is a fine work (though with lyrics that include “the answer is no”, “what’s in this drink?”, etc., it might sound just a bit strange to modern ears). As nice a duet as it is, it can be topped: you just can’t beat Billie Holiday’s voice working in concert with a gravelly jazz trumpet. She can take a song about watching icicles form and make it magic.

I’m the Happiest Christmas Tree - Nat King Cole▶♫ consider playing when you need a break from: The Ronnettes’Sleigh Ride,Ive’s A Holly Jolly Christmas, kids’ standards

This one is an alternate take on the “we’re having delirious fun!” song, usually occupied by Sleigh Ride during Christmas (and by Walking on Sunshine during the rest of the year). There is so much to love about this track - Nat’s voice, the “hey and a hee and a ho-ho” intro, and the “ooohhhh…,” lead in. Bonus points for a fantastic rhythm guitar line. And if you’ve heard all of the kid-oriented Christmas songs a few too many times, this track might be a welcome respite. Send Frosty and Rudolph to the bench for a few plays, and let a manic Christmas tree take over. Hard not to smile after this one.

Blue Christmas - Tammy Wynette▶♫ consider playing when you need a break from: Presley’s Blue Christmas

Yes, it’s a classic song, with an admittedly classic delivery from the King – but everybody needs a change in perspective sometimes. Every fourth our fifth play, slip Tammy’s version in there. Attributes include: the perfect country voice, a great slide guitar and some subtle changes in orchestration that make it about 25% bluer than Elvis’s. (After all, how sad can you be when chorus girls are singing “woo-hoo-ee-oo!” behind you?).

Greensleeves - Vince Guaraldi Trio▶♫ consider playing when you need a break from: Guaraldi’s Linus and Lucy

Like Elvis’s Blue Christmas, I wouldn’t forgo Vince Guaraldi’s Linus and Lucy for anything - it’s a holiday staple. But if you’ve heard it a few times more than is healthy - let’s just say your two-year old was given a Christmas ornament that plays only the opening piano riff, and she really, really loves it - you may be seeking an alternative. The Trio’s take on Greensleeves always gets me, especially the flourish they add after the famous refrain that just takes off into another world.

Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas - Betty Bennet▶♫ consider playing when you need a break from: happy versions ofHave Yourself a Merry Little Christmas

A simple rule: when you mix a little sadness into a song with holiday sentiment, you get something very potent. As many people know (or rediscover each year) there are two versions of this song. The first is a sad, steadfast look to the future, grounded in an imperfect present. As written for Meet Me in St. Louis, it was originally the song ofa mother doing her best to convey optimism to her child during a bleak holiday. A few years later, Frank Sinatra decided it was too depressing to put on his holiday record, and had it punched up into something broadly “nice.” The edits stuck, and the happier lyrics are the ones you’ll hear 90% of the time this song is played today. I strongly prefer the original “muddle through” version (which is coming back into favor) instead of the more prominent “hang a shining star” variation. And though it’s been covered by many wonderful male singers, the song is at its best when sung by a female voice, to find its innately maternal quality. For me, it boils down to the original (by Judy Garland) or Betty Bennet’s take. I like the latter - it captures the song’s earliest sentiment in perfect repose.

Santa Claus is Coming to Town - Ramsey Lewis Trio▶♫ consider playing when you need a break from: Crosby’s White Christmas

Bing Crosby will always be a first-ballot Christmas hall of famer. But just in case you’ve spent decades passively absorbing all things Crosby during the holidays, it’s wise to take a break every now and then. White Christmas, before you’ve heard it –infinity– times, is really about reflection. It’s about the end of the evening, when everything is quiet and perfect and still. Maybe everybody is sleeping, and you’re up with slippers on and a scotch in hand, feeling content and nostalgic, watching the fire. Then, magically, a few flakes start to fall outside. I’ll take the Ramsey Lewis Trio’s subdued interpretation of Santa Claus is Coming to Town every time to compliment that scene. I don’t think Bing would mind.

As soon as I determined that I’d be creating a collection centered around the states, I immediately decided on California as my “first” design. I still haven’t figured out how I want to go about organizing the collection, or how, exactly, I want to go about ordering the states as we go. (I may actually ask you guys to play a role; stay tuned.) But California seemed like the perfect place to start.

Why? Well, it’s a huge canvas, for one thing. California is a state so big that it just actively considered splitting itself apart (into regions, I might add, that each would make for interesting design projects). Beyond the physical size, though, California is a kaleidoscope of sensory and evocative ideas. It invents modern industry in the north, and perfects modern storytelling in the south. It eagerly tries big new things - and introduces them to America – all the while holding fast to cherished traditions. It’s a magnet for the aimless and ambitious alike, a place where people arrive to connect with dreams. It’s fiercely independent - often calling itself a Republic - but it seems to cherish its role in our collective society. All together, it captures something quintessentially American.

Also, its got a kick-ass grizzly bear on its flag.

The flag’s story is pretty cool; it was created by the very revolutionaries that liberated California from Mexico - exactly as they took command of their first town, in the skirmish that would spark California’s secession and ultimately, its freedom. The flag’s bold visual statement - equal parts optimism and obstinance - has obviously served the state well. It’s the perfect inspiration for the California Shirt.

The California Shirt is a rich, earthy brown, with a golden-tan Grizzly lumbering across the face of the shirt. He moves, appropriately, both upwards and towards the west. The bear is a simplified version of the beast found on the state flag (which is actually quite detailed) and where he crosses the Clean Sheet crest, the green, white and red stripes of the flag bleed through. The flag’s lone red star doubles as the star atop the crest.

The shirt ends up simple, defiant, and beautiful. A fitting start, I hope, to this undertaking.

Vermont

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I grew up only a couple minutes from the Vermont state line. In my experience, there are a few states that just “feel” different as soon as you cross the border, and Vermont is one of them. The roads look different. The landscape changes in subtle ways. Things really do seem a little more quaint, a little more pastoral, and a little more communal. Upstate New York does grey-and-dreary quite well; cross over into Vermont and that same weather immediately feels like “let’s get a campfire going!” weather. I’ve never been able to figure it out.

So, we have a bit of a theme going here; kind of like California, Vermont has the “state of mind” thing happening in spades. Also like California, bands of roving revolutionaries shaped the state’s history. Vermont’s, of course, go back a few generations before California’s do, all the way to the American struggle for independence. As far as Revolutionary celebrities go, you have your inner circle – the Founding Fathers, Betsy Ross, Benedict Arnold, etc. – that everybody learns about in school. But then there’s another tier: a mix of meteoric figures, local legends, and fondly-remembered b-listers that comprised the bulk of the heroic citizen response to the British threat. At the top of this list: Vermont’s Ethan Allen, a key American Revolutionary who is well-celebrated regionally but doesn’t always get top billing in history books.

I’ve always loved the image of the hardscrabble American revolutionary soldier, hiding in bushes and scurrying over rocks, fighting against lines of regimented, over-disciplined, over-dressed British infantry. Some of that is fairy tale, sure – the official Continental Army was pretty kitted out itself – but it was most true in remote outposts like Vermont. Ethan Allen and his band of Green Mountain Boys were the essence of this American image: they were a roughly-organized, roving, carousing posse of troublemakers. I can't help but think of Allen in the Tyler Durden role and the Boys, his Project Mayhem. The Green Mountain Boys were actually formed well before the Revolution, to protect their land (not yet called Vermont) from interests in New York, New Hampshire and Canada. From Wiki:

With several hundred members, the Green Mountain Boys effectively controlled the area where New Hampshire grants had been issued. They were led by Ethan Allen, his brother Ira Allen, and their cousins Seth Warner and Remember Baker. They were based at the Catamount Tavern in Bennington. By the 1770s, the Green Mountain Boys had become an armed military force and de facto government that prevented New York from exercising its authority in the northeast.

Catamount Tavern? De facto government? Remember Baker? Somebody’s got to make this movie. As they were an established force by the time the war for independence arrived, the Green Mountain Boys were well-suited for action. They defended their land. They captured important forts from the British, and then plundered them for liquor instead of handing them to American forces. For the hell of it, they invaded Canada. (Why not?) And when all was said and done, they helped establish the Vermont Republic - an independent country that lasted 14 years before Vermont decided to join the Union. Quite a legacy.

The Green Mountain Boys congregated under their own colors: a beautiful green and blue design that looks like a determined Vermont interpretation of the Colonial flag. I’ve used the colors and shapes from the Green Mountain Boys’ flag as the basis for the Vermont Shirt’s design; the green field becomes the green base of the shirt, and the deep blue star field - complete with patchwork stars - is rendered as a sky stretching across the shirt’s body. The stars rise, of course, above a depiction of green mountains.

That’s my tribute to Ethan Allen, the Green Mountain Boys, and the fiercely different state of Vermont.

Louisiana

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…Good Pelican, wash me clean with your blood, One drop of which can free the entire world of all its sins. – Adoro te Devote, by St. Thomas Aquinas

When I set out to make a Louisiana t-shirt, I did not expect to learn about the mythological aspects of the pelican. But then, this is kind of why I love these projects – it’s impossible not to learn weird stuff. The last wild grizzly in California, Monarch, died in 1911 and is taxidermied in a flag-inspired diarama. Ethan Allen once had a healthy tooth pulled just to show a nervous woman that the procedure wouldn’t hurt. And the pelican, come to find out, has deep symbolic significance to several cultures. The bird has been worshipped by native people in Australia and South America. It's nature has been referenced by Shakespeare and Keats. When the Spanish contolled California, they named the island of Alcatraz after an arabic phrase for “water vessel” - a nod to the many pouch-beaked pelicans who nested there. 

And then there’s Christianity – a religion which never mingles more easily with mythology and native lore than in the manner by which it’s practiced in Louisiana. In Christian myth, the bird has special meaning; along the pelican-rich Gulf Coast, it is especially revered. Most Christian pelican myths center on a particular trait - the bird's devotion to its young, and its willingness to sacrifice itself for their nourishment and care. There is even a specific trope, “the pelican in her piety”, which depicts a mother pelican wounding itself – piercing it’s own breast – so that its young can feed in times of famine. It’s this exceptional image that’s featured on the Louisiana state flag. The power granted to pelican makes it a powerful local symbol (witness the name of the NBA team) and references to it can be found prominently around the costal region.

I took this arresting pelican imagery and streamlined it. For The Louisiana Shirt, pelican is simplified into a series of waves and casual lines; a lone eye peers out from the hole in the Clean Sheet crest. The three drops of blood drawn from its breast form a small but discernible fleur-de-lis - another important Louisiana symbol. The shirt’s dominant tones, golden yellow, violet blue and white, are both the state’s official colors and are familiar to anyone who has spent a celebratory occasion in that part of the country.

For a a spiritual state, a beautiful, spiritual (if slightly surprising) symbol.

South Dakota

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I really wanted to make my initial selection of states diverse. Regionally, I think I’ve accomplished that - the initial five hail from every corner of the country. I also wanted to take on a mix of states that I had some knowledge of (like Vermont), some that seemed “fun” (like California) and some that I knew very little about. Enter: South Dakota.

I’ve never been to the Mt. Rushmore State. I’ve never even been close, unless flying past counts. My preconceptions were stock: rusty, brown dirt, lots of open space and sky, no people, little culture. A chill, and maybe a barely detectable lonliness, in the air.

As I learned more about South Dakota, I grew to want to visit it. No for tourist attractions, but to get a sense of the psyche of the place. The more I read, the more South Dakota seemed like home to a certain soulfulness – a mecca for natural, creative, resourceful, spiritual people.

Take Dick Termes, resident of Spearfish. He's a beloved local artist – but his art isn’t simply distinctive. He’s a vanguard; a practioner of a form of art that virtually no one else can make, or even attempt. Dick Termes paints Termespheres. His canvases are literally spherical, and his output is painted, perspective-imbued artwork. A typical flat painting uses only one or two vanishing points; Termespheres use six-point perspective. They are both real and surreal representations of the beauty Termes finds around him. They are perfect illustrations of one man’s search for truth and beauty.

How did I start learning about Dick Termes? As is often the case, it all comes back to flags. A few years back, Termes proposed and designed a new South Dakota flag to replace the current model, which has history on its side, but doesn’t read so well as a vexilogical document. It turns out Termes is a pretty good two-dimensional artist and designer when he’s not contemplating spheres, because his flag design is beautiful. It depicted a traditional Native American medicine wheel – a potent symbol in the upper midwest – combined with a stylized verion of the blue and yellow sunburst found on the current flag. (Fun fact: South Dakota used to lay claim to being the Sunshine State before Florida boxed them out; Mt. Rushmore has filled sunshine’s place in the state’s official motto.)

The Termes flag got farther than most private flag proposals; it even had some support in state government. In the end, it wasn’t to be. As I looked to design the South Dakota Shirt, I knew I wanted to incorporate elements of both the existing flag and the Termes design. It also became appartent just how important Native American culture is in South Dakota, and also just how singular and defining Mt. Rushmore is to the state’s identity. I tried to honor each of these ideas.

The South Dakota Shirt features an iconic medicine wheel in leathery, natural brown against a slate rock grey base. Stylized feathers hang from the wheel to honor native culture that continues to shape the state. The brown hues speak to the earthiness of the state, and the grey, the granite rock of Mt. Rushmore, as well as the in-progress Crazy Horse memorial and other beautiful, natural formations in the Black Hills. The Clean Sheet crest is sky blue, and features a sunburst that references the state’s official flag.

Maryland

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When a state has pre-existing visual language as strong and beautiful as Maryland already does, it’s almost a problem for a project like this one. Where can one go from something this striking? You’d think starting with a attractive flag would make things easier; in fact, it means that the bar is already set quite high for visual expression. 

The distinctive pattern is where I had to begin, though; it’s everywhere in Maryland. The state is the only one in the country to base its design on European-style heraldry, and Maryland residents don't miss a chance to show it off. You'll find the pattern flying on the unmissable state flag, of course, but it's also heavily integrated into cultural institutions. It's featured on the uniforms of major local sports teams, the state university system, and on highly visible branches of government like the state police.

The flag’s present incarnation, in fact, is a bit of a metaphor for our nation's history of complicated conflict. Maryland originally flew just the yellow and black segment of the flag - based on colonizer Lord Baltimore’s family crest – as the full design. On the threshold between north and south, Maryland's citizenry was drastically split during the Civil War. Though Maryland officially remained part of the Union during the Civil War, many of its residents sided with the South - and the secessionists indicated their preferece by flying a different flag: the one based on the Crosslands crest featuring crimson and white panels and a trefoil cross design.

After the war ended, Maryland realized that re-incorporating the factions that tore it apart would be aided by visual compromise. So the state flag became half Union and half Confederate, alternating the symbols over four panels. Legend has it that the victorious Union colors got the all-important upper-left quadrant. 

I played with several visual ideas for Maryland, but nothing clicked until I separated the color families and had them play in different spaces on the shirt. The crimson and white space takes over the Clean Sheet crest; the yellow and black checkerboard banner is wrapped around the crest like a scarf. Where the corners of the banner crease, the familiar counter-charged shapes show up to honor the “reversed” look that makes the Maryland state flag and state seal so unique.

Happily, another connection revealed itself as I kept moving pieces around - the very rough, heavily stylized outline of the state’s geography. The yellow and black banner cascades from left to right across the shirt, approximating Maryland’s skinny northern inland border, and then zig-zags south across the crest to represent the seaboard, and east again to capture Maryland’s piece of the Delmarva peninsula.

I love the idea that a visual compromise helped knit a diverse group of opinionated people back together afer a terrible split. Anecdotes like that underscore the importance and power of visual language, and they’re the reason I’m doing this project.

–

And that's our first five. I don't mind saying: I think this was a good start. I'm at @m_willis if you want to leave a comment or give me a piece of your mind. Our mailing list (see the very bottom of this page) is a good way to make sure you get notified about future installments.  Check back soon for volume 2, and until then check out these shirts and more over at the Clean Sheet Co. website.

Author's note: I've written about the Revolution before, taking some time to consider their branding and visual identity, and their place in the landscape of American soccer. This article can be considered a companion to those previous pieces. I've never before broached the topic of where they should play, because I'm no expert on the myriad issues facing the idea of a new stadium for the Revs. But I love to dream, and I love to connect ideas; what follows is a rumination much more than a recommendation. Is what I lay out here probable? No. Is it valuable to consider? Maybe; I know I enjoyed thinking about it while writing. And man, would I love it if it came true. 

Revolution fans - who have stuck with the team as they play out in lonely Foxboro, Massachusetts - know this. They pine for a home of their own. Various neighborhoods, towns, parcels and plans have been dissected by fans who hold out hope for a move into (or nearer) the city; there isn't much to go on besides the occasional interview of a semi-interested public official, or a Revolution name-check in an article centered on other development. Casino initiatives, urban redevelopment - heck, even the Olympics - have been seen as possible catalysts for a Revolution stadium.  Fans have undertaken a lot of tea-leaf reading, a lot of Google-map parsing, and a lot of hoping against hope - but no solid leads have ever materialized. Part of the problem lies in the team's ownership and current situation, which appears, in many respects, far less than ambitious; part lies in just how parochial Boston is and how difficult it is to do anything big near the urban core.

I live in the city's South End, and I walk all over the place - one of the Boston's joys is that it's not so big that you can't learn just about every neighborhood intimately. For years, I've been passing one particular spot that reaches out, grabs me by the lapels, and all but screams the "Seven Nation Army" riff in my face. I want to throw it out there as a place that would make one kick-ass location for a Revolution stadium - and, potentially, a resource the entire city could enjoy.

For your consideration, Revolution, I suggest: the current site of The William E. Carter Playground.

Carter Playground's athletic fields, looking northeast towards the Back Bay. (image credit: Wikipedia)

Where is it? In Boston proper, at the corner of Columbus Avenue and Camden Street, bordered by Boston's South End and Roxbury Crossing neighborhoods, and Northeastern University's urban campus.

What's there currently? A collection of ragged public athletic fields, decent tennis courts, aging playground equipment, somewhat abandoned infrastructure (like crumbling cement bleachers and rusty chain-link fences), and parking lots.

a panoramic view of Carter Playground and athletic fields. (click the image to enlarge)

aging bleachers and the Prudential Center (facing northeast)

the fields, and housing across Columbus Ave. (facing south)

old playground equipment, surface parking, train tracks, and Northeastern University (facing northwest)

What borders it? On the Columbus Ave. side, apartment and student housing. On the Camden St. side, a winding park featuring a community path, and the William E. Carter School (Boston's smallest public school). On the side opposite Columbus Ave., parking lots and a corridor of train tracks (which serve both the local Orange Line subway and the regional MBTA commuter rail). On the side opposite Camden St., a Northeastern University-affiliated building (SquashBusters - a place for youth to learn racquet sports) and a large parking garage.

And beyond the immediate borders? To the east (beyond Camden St.), it's a short two-block stroll down the community path to Massachusetts Avenue (one of Boston's main thoroughfares) and the Mass Ave. subway stop on the Orange Line.

the community path leading to Massachusetts Avenue

The blocks east of Mass Ave, are filled with bars and restaurants in Boston's thriving South End neighborhood. To the south and west, the Roxbury Crossing neighborhood surrounds the parcel; this area just is awakening from years of economic hardship. To the west, it's only three blocks to Ruggles Station, another Orange Line subway station, and one that also doubles as a large bus and commuter rail hub. To the north, Boston's Northeastern University lies just across the train tracks, which opens into the city's vibrant Fenway and Kenmore neighborhoods (including quick access to another subway line, the Green Line).

A crowdsourced map showing "consensus" Boston neighborhoods. Carter Playground appears at the nexus of several. (credit: Bostonography.com)

In general, the location lies at the exact crossroads of several prominent Boston neighborhoods, copious public transportation, and plenty of Boston culture.

Are there any intangibles that make the location perfect? Definitely.

• This spot is at the precise intersection of many important Boston neighborhoods - the Fenway, the Back Bay, the South End, Roxbury, and even Mission Hill. One could argue that, both geographically and demographically, it's located directly at the city's center.

• To further that point: this location is exactly on the border between prosperity and gentrification (the neighborhoods to the north and east) and potential recovery (those on the south and west). This is Boston's cultural frontier - exactly the kind of place where links between success and growth should be formed. A project in this spot has the potential to knit together areas that are thriving (the South End, Fenway, and the University district) with areas that are just starting to come back (like Roxbury and Mission Hill). A popular stadium here would be like a outstretched hand from the parts of the city on good footing to those looking to get back on their feet.

• This goes beyond neighborhood generalities, too - it gets to the core of what being both a Boston citizen and an American soccer fan should be about. The neighborhoods that this project could connect are filled with those on every conceivable economic, racial and social spectrum - the mix of demographics are exactly those that should unite the American soccer community, and should inspire a unique sense of Boston pride.

• This swath of land is one of the largest pieces of underutilized open space within the fabric of the city's neighborhoods - and though it's an active part of the city, it's certainly not being used to its full potential today. Given how valuable and wonderful it could be, this parcel needs to do more for Boston.

• The location has an incredible infrastructure for welcoming visitors - as mentioned, it's adjacent to three public train lines (including a handful of subway connections, a regional train line to the suburbs and even easy Amtrak connections). It's at a convergence of multiple bus lines. It offers easy opportunities for park-and-ride options, and, for those driving all the way in, has a large parking facility already built next door. Direct access to Access to I-90 (for east/west travel) is one mile away; access to I-93 (for north/south travel) is one and a half. And best of all, it's completely walkable for many, many city residents.

• Bars, restaurants and hangouts are already established and waiting to welcome fans. Here's the area within one-mile of the proposed site.

within a one-mile radius of Carter Playground

If you know Boston at all, you'll know that there are approximately 65 billion bars, restaurants and attractions within that circle, including some of the finest pubs you'll find anywhere in the world. A game-day walk to the stadium from all directions would be electric (much like the atmosphere outside Fenway Park is now).

• An opportunity like this would offer a perfect chance to partner with an ambitious Division 1 university, Northeastern, which has no gridiron football program and, thus, no large athletic facilities of this calibre. NU's soccer, lacrosse, and other field sports could live here - imagine the recruiting pitch coaches could give! - and thrive. The university could host regional and national NCAA competitions, and partner with the Revs to host amazing events events like big-time soccer friendlies, outdoor hockey(!), and lucrative concerts, as well as things like school graduation ceremonies. Furthermore, that there are students in immediate vicinity - not just in the area (though there are plenty in Boston), but literally right next door on the Northeastern campus - only stokes opportunities for built-in passion. This would be a huge win for Northeastern as it seeks to build on momentum and differentiate itself in the hyper-competitive Boston higer-ed scene. (And hey, if Husky football ever returned...)

• The area's infrastructure is already getting some much-needed love. Ruggles Station is currently being upgraded to better serve commuter rail riders; and Northeastern already plans a beautiful science and engineering complex on the other side of the parking garage, to the parcel's immediate west (where there is now surface parking). These upgrades will happen regardless of what's next for the Carter site, but they sure would go hand-in-hand with a beautiful new facility.

• Amazing history is on the side of this project. Within a few feet of this exact spot, Boston's athletic legacy was born. Various incarnations of the hallowed South End Grounds - which played host to Boston's first baseball teams (including birthing the club that still plays, over 130 years later, as the Atlanta Braves) - were built on this location in the late 1800s. Cy Young pitched here. The most fondly-remembered version of the Grounds featured an unmistakable peaked-roof grandstand, which could and should be referenced in a new stadium's design.

the South End Grounds, circa 1890 (photo credit: Boston Public Library)

the Grounds' famous second deck (photo credit: Wikipedia)

Also worth mentioning: the Red Sox' first home, the Huntington Avenue Grounds, was formerly located just across the train tracks from this spot...

the Huntington Avenue Grounds (photo credit: Boston Public Library)

...and Matthews Arena, the oldest indoor multi-athletics stadium in the world - and first home to the Celtics, Bruins, and every notable local college hockey club - still stands next to the site and plays host to Northeastern University's renowned Huskies hockey team. Heck, even the Whalers got their start here.

Matthews Arena (photo credit: Boston Public Library)

This exact location truly is the cradle of Boston - and New England - sports.

Could a stadium fit? It wouldn't be easy. But with some creativity, I think so. The key would be partnering with both the MBTA and Northeastern - the former, to secure developmental air rights over the train corridor, and the latter, to serve as a land-use partner, to help with managing, utilizing and scheduling the facility.

acreage necessary for a stadium plot, including over rail corridor

This would provide just enough space - a bit less than 10 acres - to fit a modern (if modest) soccer-specific arena, on the order of 20,000 seats - on the parcel. For instance, here's New York/Harrison's 25,000-seat Red Bull Arena (to scale), superimposed on the site:

A tight squeeze, no doubt - but of course, this particular arena is slightly larger than might be practical for the Revs, and of course was not designed or engineered to fit inside the the exact contours of our parcel's street-scape. For another perspective, here's Philadelphia/Chester's 18,500-seat PPL Park, also to scale, on the same land. (I certainly prefer a more enclosed option, but a stadium with the merits of either would be fantastic.)

Ten acres is the absolute barest minimum to shoehorn a structure like this into a parcel this size; no extra development around the grounds would be possible. Much like Fenway Park, this stadium would need to be woven into the fabric of the city itself, and rely on built infrastructure to handle "other stuff" like people-moving, game-day services, office space, and the like. It's not an easy proposition, especially in this day and age. But it's not strictly impossible, either. 

On the design side, a roof encircling the crowd would both help contain noise (for the sake of neighbors) and enhance atmosphere on the pitch. I would hope the architectural approach would be something that paid homage to the city's long history of famous urban athletic facilities (from the South End Grounds to Fenway Park to the Boston Garden). Ideally we'd get a bit of the timeless red brick Boston style that the surrounding neighborhoods showcase, but I'd also like a few modern touches - something that wasn't simply an exercise in retro styling. (To be clear: I wouldn't want something as sleek as Red Bull Arena dropping in to this location; it would look like an alien pod landed in the city. Something that worked with the street-scape, on a scale and with a style that blended into the surroundings, would be perfect.)

Building over the exiting rail right of way would also serve the wonderful function of knitting existing neighborhoods together; instead of needing to find pedestrian bridges and bypasses, one could simply stroll from Kenmore, through Northeastern's campus, to (or past) the stadium, and on into the South End or Roxbury areas. This has benefits for Boston that go beyond the facility itself - it would help make the city a more livable, beautiful and connected place.

What are some of the challenges? They would be both plentiful and non-trivial.

• The cost to acquire the land and development rights would, of course, be prohibitive; accordingly, getting the Krafts (or whomever owns the team when the time comes) to contribute to the funding would be a huge challenge. In a perfect world, the team's owners, the city, and Northeastern would work out a mutually beneficial deal.

• You'd need to make sure local neighborhood community groups were on board; there is sure to be more noise, more traffic, and some craziness to deal with (much like Fenway residents co-exist with 35,000 Red Sox fans all summer). There are community-minded approaches that can help win hearts and minds here.

• There's also the loss of open public space to contend with; even though the current space isn't beautiful or well-realized, it still belongs to the people. Here's where the Krafts (or the appropriate party) would need to step up, especially in more impoverished neighboring communities like Roxbury. Helping to make nearby parks even better - including the Jim Rice ballfields and other smaller local playgrounds and community centers - would help. With the right approach, appropriate mitigation (and the opportunity for fantastic contributions to Roxbury in particular) could leave everybody in a better spot.

• In general, there would be challenges forging as many partnerships as the entire project would require. Entities would include neighborhood groups, a university, regional agencies and a host of state and city regulatory bureaus. Not to mention, the new mayor (who may just be a bit of a soccer fan?). If anyone can make this happen, it's a figure like Bob Kraft.

• Engineering a stadium to be partially built over an existing (and open) stretch of rail tracks can't be easy. It can be done, but it's not a cut and dry job. Likewise, fitting a 20,000-seat stadium into 10 or so acres would leave very little leeway for anything but a perfectly executed design. 

• Beyond building the stadium itself, there is the task of readying nearby infrastructure to accommodate increased auto and human traffic. This isn't quite on a Fenway Park scale (either in terms of attendance or game frequency), but it is significant.

• There would be an inevitable loss of tradition to contend with - including less obvious space for tailgating. This could possibly be addressed by designating a tailgating lot at a park-and-ride lot for such purposes, using trains or busses to get people from lots to the games. Like the Red Sox, Celtics and Bruins, however, tailgating culture would necessarily be less prominent (and use of local bars, restaurants and parks, more prominent) as the game day shifts from a suburban to an urban experience. I'd be ok with this, but many might not be. 

• Gritting out the many years it would take to see a project like this through to completion would be almost too much to bear. Of course, Revs fans have had practice at this.

But just imagine... if the obstacles were surmounted, and perfect Revolution stadium rose in this location, how completely amazing it would be.

• Imagine walking from a local pub in the Back Bay to the stadium on game day with an electric atmosphere all around. Or marching in from a supporter's bar down the street along with hundreds of Fort members.

• Imagine grabbing a snack on the Common and then jumping on the Green Line for a quick trip over to the park.

• Imagine taking in a Red Sox / Revolution double-header, walking from Fenway, to a nice late lunch, and then over to the stadium. Or maybe a Revs / Bruins double with a quick Orange Line ride in between.

• Imagine taking the Acela train up from Manhattan to Back Bay, hopping off, and walking a a few blocks down a community path to the stadium.

• Imagine parking at any node on the MBTA system - Alewife to the north, Riverside to the west, or Braintree to the south, particularly - and having an easy one- or two-train ride that deposits you feet from the stadium. Anyone in the MBTA commuter rail catchment area could take advantage of train-only travel to and from games.

• Imagine the thrill of 20,000-plus Boston fans, doing what Boston fans do, urging the Revolution forward, with the cityscape looming over their heads.

Boston's Carter Arena (The Cahtah!) at the Kraft-Northeastern Athletic Complex. Home of the New England Revolution and their mighty fans.

One can dream.