Bulldogs launch Club's first Indigenous Guernsey

[chef]

Re: Bulldogs launch Club's first Indigenous Guernsey

Yep. Take it to PM if you want to argue.

[ratsmac]

Re: Bulldogs launch Club's first Indigenous Guernsey

I think the jumper is awful. Thank God it's a once off. I like the art work on it's own but not on a footy jumper. Hopefully the real life version is so harsh on the eyes.

[SonofScray]

Re: Bulldogs launch Club's first Indigenous Guernsey

I don't like it when we wear gimmick jumpers. I understand it is ultimately a cash grab through merchandise sales but I would rather we didn't tinker with our kit too often, certainly not mess with the colours.

[bulldogtragic]

Re: Bulldogs launch Club's first Indigenous Guernsey

I don't like it when we wear gimmick jumpers. I understand it is ultimately a cash grab through merchandise sales but I would rather we didn't tinker with our kit too often, certainly not mess with the colours.

This. Aside from embracing our indigenous brothers and sisters, which is a very good thing, the big brands like Collingwood don't play with the main visual branding, being the jumper. I would prefer we didn't either, surely there are more effective ways to assist the most vulnerable areas of society.

[soupman]

Re: Bulldogs launch Club's first Indigenous Guernsey

Surely there are more effective ways to assist the most vulnerable areas of society.

Impossible. Nothing makes such a meaningful contribution to an underrepresented group of people in the AFL than a themed match or round with all too frequently forgettable or regrettable playing guernsey adjustments and a half arsed pre-match message on the banner.

[F'scary]

Re: Bulldogs launch Club's first Indigenous Guernsey

Impossible. Nothing makes such a meaningful contribution to an underrepresented group of people in the AFL than a themed match or round with all too frequently forgettable or regrettable playing guernsey adjustments and a half arsed pre-match message on the banner.

Are you saying its a variant of "Slacktivism"? Other more widely known variants are "ribbontivism" and "clicktivism"

The critique juste of these isms is that they afford an easy opportunity to feel good about oneself without really doing anything about the social ill in question.

[Ghost Dog]

Re: Bulldogs launch Club's first Indigenous Guernsey

Agreed it's an artistic piece and it's doing what artistic pieces do and that's stimulate debate. The oval makes it for mine and is what actually makes it unique.



Well it wouldn't be a Bulldogs jumper with just the art would it.

All great artworks stir debate? Perhaps some do but now always. A good artwork has a sort of universal appeal that strikes a chord with not all, but quite a few people, the moment you glance. The jumper lacks that 'zing'. Doesn't really strike me as a 'classic'.
Is anyone on here Indigenous or have friends who are? Do the jumpers have an important role to our Indigenous friends or it's dismissed a bit. Like to find out.

[Webby]

Re: Bulldogs launch Club's first Indigenous Guernsey

All great artworks stir debate? Perhaps some do but now always. A good artwork has a sort of universal appeal that strikes a chord with not all, but quite a few people, the moment you glance. The jumper lacks that 'zing'. Doesn't really strike me as a 'classic'.
Is anyone on here Indigenous or have friends who are? Do the jumpers have an important role to our Indigenous friends or it's dismissed a bit. Like to find out.

I know we’re all footy fans here, but put any art on a footy jumper and it instantly becomes ever so slightly kitsch. So beyond that point, if you absolutely have to do it, less is, indeed, more.

Put this artwork on a canvas and it would look good. I’d have no problem hanging it in my house. I have no issues with the artist. The Mona Lisa is a masterpiece which was painted by a genius. However, slap it on a WBFC Guernsey with red and white hoops around it, and it’d look pretty ordinary. Of that I’m quite certain. If I saw it and stated as much, rest assured it does not mean I’m calling da Vinci a hack..

This is a product of the (paid) marketing department of the footy club (and AFL). They’ve tried to shoehorn a big canvas of work onto a Guernsey and, unfortunately, it looks terrible. (In my opinion). I am at pains to stress once again, it looks terrible as a football jumper.

It is said that a camel is a horse designed by committee. This jumper is a good example of that. So that’s a disappointment in itself. As an added layer of disappointment, I know our marketing slogan is “Gather the pack”, however this particular endeavour smacks ever so slightly of “Follow the pack”. There’s no originality in the gesture at all. As someone says, it reeks of ‘slacktivism’ and is a token gesture at best, or a money grab at worst. Every single NRL club now has an Indigenous Guernsey. Richmond (from memory) were the first in the AFL, and we’re, once again, at the back of the pack. I’d have preferred if we came up with something more original, sincere and less commercialised. Instead, it's kind of a "Well everybody else is doing it, so I guess we should too..!"

I suspect that the Indigenous community (as with many token gestures) probably see through it. An artist will be happy to take the money (and why not?!), but I think the broader Indigenous community would be pretty under-whelmed. The club, no doubt, anticipated to sell a number of these at $120 a pop… If they manage to sell more than a hundred or so, they’ll be lucky. So the whole ‘initiative’ (an I use the term lightly) will be both a missed opportunity to differentiate ourselves, as well as a commercial failure.

Having said that, I hope there’s a bit more to it than this Guernsey and I’m proven wrong.....And perhaps I should lighten up, but I'd like the club to show more bold leadership and initiative. That's how success is ultimately achieved.

[Ghost Dog]

Re: Bulldogs launch Club's first Indigenous Guernsey

By the sounds of it, they should have had a comp on here to come up with a design. There are some very talented designers on this board.
Or at least vetted it with the expert brain-trust at woof.net haha

[1eyedog]

Re: Bulldogs launch Club's first Indigenous Guernsey

All great artworks stir debate? Perhaps some do but now always. A good artwork has a sort of universal appeal that strikes a chord with not all, but quite a few people, the moment you glance. The jumper lacks that 'zing'. Doesn't really strike me as a 'classic'.
Is anyone on here Indigenous or have friends who are? Do the jumpers have an important role to our Indigenous friends or it's dismissed a bit. Like to find out.

No I didn't say all artwork I was generalizing. My wife was an artist pre-kids and I've lostt count how many times I've heard contesting views on pieces - I would say that art is one of the most polarising topics I've ever come across and that is what I was getting at.

I'm Indigenous and a member of the local Wurundjeri Tribe. The designs are meaningless and are often painted in a style not endemic to country. This particular design has no relevance to Wurundjeri land of which Footscray the suburb is a part of. As far as I know the symbols used on the jumper are not relevant to Victoria or anywhere else in Australia - they are not universal. They are simply the individual work of an Indigenous artist. As Webby suggested it's an opportunity for Anzak to make some cash and exercise artistic licence and I believe he put three options before the club and they chose this one.

[1eyedog]

Re: Bulldogs launch Club's first Indigenous Guernsey

By the sounds of it, they should have had a comp on here to come up with a design. There are some very talented designers on this board.
Or at least vetted it with the expert brain-trust at woof.net haha

I'm not sure that a non-Indigenous person designing an Indigenous jumper is what the club had in mind for Indigenous round but you're right, there are some very talented designers of WOOF.

[soupman]

Re: Bulldogs launch Club's first Indigenous Guernsey

I’d have preferred if we came up with something more original, sincere and less commercialised. Instead, it's kind of a "Well everybody else is doing it, so I guess we should too..!"

Every club is doing one so I'm not sure it's so much us "following the pack" as the AFL telling us we are participating. At least ours isn't as half arsed as Geelongs, even if I don't particularly like ours... at all.

[LostDoggy]

Re: Bulldogs launch Club's first Indigenous Guernsey

Well, I think we'll just have to agree to disagree on this one. Critiquing a piece of art is NOT disrespecting an artist. There is a distinction. I could make a pretty strong argument to point out quite the opposite. It is also plainly NOT disrespectful to the club - which I happen to love and support.

As with critiquing Will Minson's form, or Matty Boyd's disposal, this is not disrespectful to them or the club. As a paid up member and supporter of the club (who, in part pays the wages of said players, marketing staff and commissioned artists), I think I have every right to say that a jumper looks good, bad or or indifferent..

The club's heavily rumoured to be launching a new logo next year. If & when I see it, if I don't like it, I'll say so! And don't expect me to pen a letter of apology to the graphic artist whose wages members like myself will have effectively paid! It's fair game.

Sorry to blow on the embers of this particular argument, I just wanted to say that being a graphic designer is not about just delivering what your client wants. At some point the client needs to either accept your style or do it themselves. So I'm all for giving this guy free reign, and sticking by what he's come up with. When you hire a graphic designer, you're not just agreeing to pay them.

Impossible. Nothing makes such a meaningful contribution to an underrepresented group of people in the AFL than a themed match or round with all too frequently forgettable or regrettable playing guernsey adjustments and a half arsed pre-match message on the banner.

But it's raising awareness!

[Ozza]

Re: Bulldogs launch Club's first Indigenous Guernsey

Gee whiz....a 4 page thread on a once off jumper! 3 and a half pages more than I expected!

[Ghost Dog]

Re: Bulldogs launch Club's first Indigenous Guernsey

I'm not sure that a non-Indigenous person designing an Indigenous jumper is what the club had in mind for Indigenous round but you're right, there are some very talented designers of WOOF.

You make sense in regards to creating something more informed. I'm not sure about design background and culture.
If we were only allowed to use designs limited to our culture, what fun would that be.

However I am sure that a Wurudjeri or other tribe member would be able to create something more meaningful than what we have. As you say, putting in some symbols in it in regards to the Western region.
Interesting to hear about your background 1eyedog.

Hope they get Archie Roach to play on the day.