Products for the NFL, NBA, MLB and NHL plus 50 collegiate universities designed by Steve Hall
Over the years, in addition to packaging designs, I have designed dozens of products each beginning with a prototype. A prototype is a realistic version of the product that can be reviewed, further modified or, if perfect, used as a master from which final production molds and packaging can be created. Besides sculptural abilities, I am a skilled with various molding and casting techniques as you can see in these shots.
Here on this page are a few photos from products with national distribution in Wal-Mart, Target, and many more stores. Products I designed were licensed with the National Football League (NFL), National Basketball Association (NBA), National Hockey League (NHL) and National Baseball Association (NBA), plus approximately 50 major American universities for their football, baseball, softball, basketball and soccer teams. The soccer balls were also sold by several soccer teams abroad (they call them "football" teams out there as you know).
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Here are just a few samples of my collegiate products. The basketball, football and soccer were sculpted by me and manufactured in China based on my prototypes (see below for more on 3-D sculpting). The product is a 3D window decal.
Back of the ball packaging. I also shot all the photos, of course.
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Products for Bass Pro and Cabela's designed by Steve Hall — Largemouth Black Bass
This Largemouth Bass decal was launched in 2006 and won 1st place in the September/October Issue of P-O-P Design Magazine. I designed the decal, packaging and painting details on the fish. The fish itself was molded from a taxidermist's model.
The product was sold in Cabelas, Bass Pro, and through numerous other catalog and online retailers such as Ebay.
The product was designed for fishermen to apply to the rear window of their vehical to promote their favorite sport.
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| Bass packaging card, front | Bass packaging card, back |
Whitetail Deer Window Decal
I designed Whitetail Deer product, decal, card and blister packaging in 2005. The packaging used a blister (preform plastic cover for the deer head) is not shown here. You can see how the actual deer was sculpted below.
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| Deer packaging card, front | Deer packaging card, back |
| In March of 2007, I was asked to travel to China to coordinate with production staff in five factories and ensure the designs for the deer, bass, football, soccer and basketballs were faithfully replicated. |
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Product & Prototype Sculpting in 3-D
3-D Deer Decal Product Design
This next product was a 3-D Deer Decal that was sold in Cabelas, Bass Pro and more. I came up with the idea and developed and desisigned the prototype, a unique blend of 2D and 3D art. I also designed the packaging, of course and oversaw production.
We also produced a fish (largemouth bass) for fishermen. For that we used a taxidermist's model, molded from a real fish.
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| This is the original clay sculpture I did of a whitetail deer. A rubber mold was made from the original clay piece. |
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| Then from the new mold several exact copies were cast in plastic. I used an airbrush to paint two plastic copies in realistic detail. Here are some more views. |
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| I later decided the ears were a bit too long and so I adjusted them in the prototype. |
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| Here you can compare the original hand-painted master (bottom) with a production sample (top) made at our factory in China. They don't have whitetail deer, so they had to depend on my prototype to get the painting right. You can see some simplification, but it's still pretty darn good. |
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| Next, I designed background art: the deer's body in the wilderness. This arc-shaped decal is what the deer's head is bonded to. Then the whole assemply goes on the back of a hunter's window. |
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| They were sold in Bass Pro, Cabelas, various other sporting/hunting stores, and are still sometimes available on Amazon.com. |
Football, Basketball and Soccer
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| In this sequence, I created a series of products involving a soccer ball, basketball and football that were sold in Wal-Mart, Target, and many other stores. In this sequence, the original sculpture was created in plaster, then carved and sanded. |
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| Automotive Bondo was used to correct any imperfections until the master was 100% perfect. |
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| A rubber mold was is created using light purple silicon rubber. We will use the cardboard box for a mold. |
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| Into the silicon mold, we pour resin around a styrofoam ball to make an exact duplicate of the original master. At this point I am working on the basketball version. |
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| The new duplicate casting is freed from the mold. |
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| And of course it is a perfect copy of the original. |
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| Now the excess styrofoam can be removed from the shell, so as not to confuse factory workers in China who were contracted to mass produce the product. |
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| The prototype is painted using an air brush. |
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| It requires several coats. |
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| Fine details are added with a paint brush. Now the original master and a painted copy showing how the paint looks can be sent off to the factory for production. |
3D Ghost and Bat Product Design
I produced these prototypes for the Halloween industry. They were 3D decals to decorate windows. The Ghost, coming to haunt you, appears to be drifting through the glass. While the blood-thirsty bat has crashed through the glass to get at your neck!
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| The project was a series of seasonal products. |
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| These prototypes were made of clay. This is still the rough stage. |
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| With all those interlocking teeth, the bat's lower jaw had to be molded separately from the head. |
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| The final plastic casting is a perfect copy of the original master. |
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| Next a decal was made of the Bat's body and wings. Here it is on a glass door. Yikes! |
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| Needs some tweaking. Don't care for the red eyes. |
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| Finally set on attractive corpse-like gray eyes to match his wings. With the paint completed, the prototype is mounted to an acrylic sheet for review and mass production. |
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| "Nice bat. Go 'way. Far away. We've got no blood here. It all drained out in the 4th Quarter of that last Cowboys game." |
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| "Yes, yes! That's it! Fly away. Try Washington DC! You'll find more of your own kind there. Besides, that's where all the blood from the whole country goes!" |
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| Here's the mold created for the Ghost, which is pictured here upside down of course. This is what's left of you after the bats get through. Here, the first plastic prototype has just been de-molded. A special spray called "mold release" is used to keep the plastic from sticking to the mold. |
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| The Ghost will drift through the window. But first we need to make some adjustments. |
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| The folds don't line up yet so we'll have to adjust the 2D art for the decal. |
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| Now that's how to spook up anyone getting in your Kool-Aid. Below is the final design uniquely combining 2D and 3D elements and patented to scare you. |
