SE Casal special kit, a basketball jersey design

S.E. Casal, a basketball club in Vilafranca del Penedès, wanted a special kit that was more than a uniform. This basketball jersey design tells the story of the game, of the club and of the Casal’s deep bond with the town.

The challenge

A sports kit is usually a functional piece: team color, crest, sponsors and a number. S.E. Casal wanted something different, a kit to celebrate basketball that would also make it clear it belongs to Vilafranca. Vilafranca del Penedès is the main town of the Penedès, the wine region southwest of Barcelona. The piece had to work on two levels: as technical clothing to play in, and as an object the people of the club would want to wear and show off.

The challenge was to find a graphic language that combined the movement of basketball with the elements that make the town recognizable, without overloading the piece or losing the legibility of a number or a name on the court.

The process: the shirt as an illustrated piece

We treated the shirt like a poster. On the front, a player mid-jump among the letters of CASAL, large and in a cream tone, about to dunk. Behind him stand Vilafranca’s church and, at his feet, the vineyard, so a single image holds both the game and the place. The illustration uses flat, geometric shapes in a palette of greens, ochres, blues and cream that contrasts with the background.

Maroon is the base color of the whole kit, the club’s color, and we worked it with a grainy texture that adds depth and carries through the rest of the kit, shorts included. On the back, a large cream number 10 with the club name above it. There is a space for each player’s name, which appears in the mockup as “El teu nom” (“your name”). That detail makes the piece customizable without breaking the drawing.

The remaining elements follow a restrained hierarchy: the S.E. Casal crest on the chest and on the shorts, and a sponsor logo, Mastinell, in white and at a discreet size so it does not compete with the illustration. In the presentation, pink rays over the maroon background reinforce the sense of energy.

The result

The result is a kit that brings the place onto the court and basketball into the town. It is a piece made to be remembered: a player, a church and a vineyard that could only belong to Vilafranca, on a jersey that can be worn in a game.

For us this project shows how design can work with a local club: take the symbols people already recognize and arrange them into a single piece that is useful and festive at the same time. It also shows how a kit can double as merchandise with an identity of its own, for a sports club that wants its colors to be seen beyond the match.