Behind the Design: THE KING OF FIGHTERS - 'South Town FC 2024 Season Home' Jersey
Get a behind-the-scenes look at the design!
The design team came up with the idea of producing an athletic apparel line rooted ‘in universe’ for some of our biggest licensed fighting game titles. We looked at a number of professional sports and decided that Soccer would provide the most scope to play with design ideas that encapsulate the multitude of visual references at our disposal within iconic fighting games. And what better place to start than The King Of Fighters, one of the most storied and truly international titles.
Our designers began ideating on fictional sports franchises within The King Of Fighters universe and ‘South Town FC’ was soon realised.
Throughout the history of professional soccer there have been some iconic jersey designs either striking in their simplicity and use of color, or others pushing the boundaries of print technology with complex patterns. The jersey represented a blank canvas for us to try and capture many of the visual cues and references that have been prominent throughout the history of The King Of Fighters franchise.
We started with the club badge. A crest that would need to be instantly recognisable, represent the area of South Town and also still feel realistic within the design space of a soccer team’s identity.
South Town is synonymous with Geese Howard and it is very likely any major sporting franchises would be connected to him in some way. We used the blue tonal color palette for the badge, a note to his iconic ‘Reppuken’ special move.
The bridge is the most prominent landmark in South Town, appearing in many stages throughout the history of The King Of Fighters. We used this as the central design point of the club badge.
Within The King Of Fighters XV, Team South Town returns including the familiar faces of Geese Howard, Billy Kane and Ryuji Yamazake. The team crest features iconography of the Phoenix, so we looked to work that in to the design in the form of raised wings.
The final detail in the badge were the three stars. These represent the most noted aspect of The King Of Fighters: The 3 character teams facing off against each other.
With the badge confirmed we then proceeded to design the final jersey itself. This was where most of the fun was to be had! We looked for prominent visual cues within the game for patterns and textures to use for the shirt design. Immediately we were captivated by the Concert Hall stage in game. Both for its use of the blue hues we were already working with, but also the prominent checkerboard pattern on the stage floor.
Showing similarities to the FC Barcelona home jersey of the 2019/2020 season, we opted for the checkerboard pattern as a base. Certainly a club of great pedigree to take a design lead from for our South Town FC.
We looked at a number of ‘in universe’ corporations to act as a club sponsor. There are a few sponsors visible in Antanov’s Hyper Galaxy Arena for example. None of these really lit a spark. And then we realised SNK itself exists in universe as seen in The King Of Fighters ‘96 Osaka At Noon stage below. The perfect sponsor, and we love the logo!
With the jersey design itself locked in, we had to give the jersey an authentic franchise feel. Who would be better suited as the franchise player than Terry Bogard himself? Opting for the squad number 94 to reflect the year of launch of the first game in the The King Of Fighters series.
When we got the jerseys in hand they really felt like they belonged to a real team! And they look great when worn as either an athletic fit or an oversized jersey! We had so much fun designing these jerseys and the feedback from you all has been amazing. We look forward to bringing you more original designs filled with the same love and care for these games that we know you also hold.
Limited quantities of the South Town FC 2024 Season Home jersey are still available!
THE KING OF FIGHTERS - 'South Town FC 2024 Season Home' Jersey
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