Saturday, October 26, 2013

Chicago White Sox Poster 1983

If you're a baseball fan you're aware that it's World Series time in the US and as the St. Louis Cardinals and the Boston Red Sox battle to see who'll be the champion of Major League Baseball I'm reminded of a something I created way back in 1983. At the time I was in business with a friend and we were involved in printing posters based upon college and professional sports teams. We did pretty good too and if I'd have been more mature and knew what I was doing we could have kept it going.

In any case one of the teams we approached were the Chicago White Sox which is the team closest to my old neighborhood and which I root for. That year as it happened they won their division and there was a lot of excitement as they made it to the playoffs. They were known as "Winning Ugly" that season as they fought hard to do what they could to achieve success in the game.

We were able to get a license from the ball club to market this design...


The original was painted in acrylics and is pretty big at 40 inches tall which is over a meter. The print was smaller. This was based upon the brand of the team at the time which I didn't care for much but provided a good base for the composition...


I was trained in fine art and illustration and in those days I was coming up with ambitious works. I was excited about painting and still am. Maybe I'll get the chance to get back to it again.

Incidentally the company we formed was called Maverick Productions. Years later after we disbanded we were really surprised to find that Madonna had taken this name for her own production company.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love the colors! You are amazing on painting!

SimplyMark said...

Insta-Fav!

Unknown said...

Hey Charles, love the colors displayed on the poster!

I'm a Baseball fan myself and I mostly root for the Yanks. Did you provide illustrations to other professional MLB teams also?

Charles Z said...

Thanks guys. Glad you like it. This art goes back to the days when most of what I was doing creatively was painting.

Pat - The teams I did during my Maverick Productions days were mostly college football teams. Notre Dame, Michigan, Nebraska, Illinois, etc and then I though of moving into pro teams like the White Sox. I painted one for the Cubs but it wasn't approved as I think they didn't like the way I made the character look. He was too cute and they wanted something more aggressive. All these years later and I don't think an aggressive looking cubby bear would make a difference with that team.

Anyway, I migrated away from this over time and got more involved in animated projects.

Brian said...

Charles,

Is there any way to get a copy of this poster? I came across this blog by chance and was reminded that I had THAT poster as an 11 year old living in Chicago.

Hope all is well!!!

Brian

Charles Z said...

Hi Brian. Go to TheAnimationAcademy.com and click on the Contact tab. You can email me that way. Mention the White Sox poster. I'll follow up.