Nike Designer Shares Story Behind Iconic Early 90s Kits: Dortmund, PSG and More

Graphic designer Drake Ramberg, who used to work for Nike during the brand's first years in the football business, has shared a number of 'behind the design' infographics on his Instagram.

Amongst the kits designed by Drake were the first-ever Nike football jerseys for the likes of Dortmund, PSG and Lyon. Especially the way the abstract sleeve graphics were created is almost mind-blowing.

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Here’s a little overview of the process for designing the 1992-93 jerseys for PSG and Dortmund. Cut-up soccer ball collage + Motion blur + Pixel dot pattern. This design was before Photoshop so these effects were done using darkroom cameras and halftone filters. #nikedesign #nikefootball #borussiadortmund #psg

Ein Beitrag geteilt von OG Drake (@dramberg) am Apr 17, 2019 um 9:18 PDT

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Another process overview highlighting the story behind the 1994-95 Dortmund and Nigeria kits. Both designs were inspired by eagle wings. For BVB, in my research I found out that the Dortmund city flag had an eagle shield. And then when Nike signed the Nigeria Super Eagles it was a natural decision to use the Dortmund design as a starting point for them. Keep in mind that there was no internet back in the early 90s so I created the wings pattern by hand. The clip art wings in this image were found on Google just to show the idea. I don’t have my original files. ☺️ #Nikedesign #nikefootball #borussiadortmund #nigeriasupereagles

Ein Beitrag geteilt von OG Drake (@dramberg) am Apr 18, 2019 um 9:20 PDT

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Process overview of my first soccer work: jerseys for 1991-92 Dortmund and Lyon, and how the same graphics were applied onto the Nike Premier collection. Soccer ball line art + cut up collage + blur pixel. No Photoshop— just cameras, halftone filters and film. (This clip art is to show the concept, the original film is gone). #nikedesign #nikefootball #nikepremier #borussiadortmund #olympiquelyonnais

Ein Beitrag geteilt von OG Drake (@dramberg) am Apr 18, 2019 um 11:16 PDT

Which of these early Nike football designs is your favorite? Drop us a line below.