We took time out of our design genius Alex Grim’s day to ask him how he creates cards for Matchday and Matchday Champions.
Name: Alex Tomescu
Role: Senior Visual Experience Designer
Q: Walk us through the process of creating a new edition of Matchday Cards.
Alex: Creating a new edition of Matchday Cards is not just about hitting design milestones. It is an intricate dance of creativity, collaboration, and technical finesse. I work closely with the community team and data scientists, coming together to jam on ideas and create a moodboard or ‘moodscape’ before we start designing anything. Our art direction is clearly established, so each visual translates our core pillars into a final product. After rounds of revisions and feedback from the community team, data scientists, and art direction leads, we move on to the actual design work. Because we have already aligned on the moodboard, the final result is something that anyone could trace back to its inspiration.
Depending on the type of edition we’re working on, we might stick closely to our branding elements or break away slightly. For example, a Matchday Basic edition will always feature our signature deko doodz. However, special cards like Halloween may include elements outside of our regular branding while still matching our visual style.
Deko Doodz - far from being based on the diminutive former Chelsea star - refer to Decorative doodles. “It's basically our visual branding graphics - Alex Grim”
Q: What are the three most important things on your mind while creating the designs?
Alex: Good question. I’m my number one fan and my number one critic. First and foremost, I need to like what I’m creating. But as I craft, I always keep the user in mind. Will they like it? Will they see and appreciate this details? Will it spark excitement and pride in owning this card? I want them to feel part of our community and be proud of their collection. This mindset adds the right kind of creative pressure that pushes me to go beyond my limits.
Q: Where do you find inspiration for your designs?
Alex: I’m very seasoned now. A couple of years ago, I would spend hours on Behance, Pinterest, and similar platforms searching for visual hooks and ideas. But something changed. Maybe it was accumulated experience, the amazing creatives I’m surrounded by, or just being in a new environment. Now, I find inspiration everywhere.
For instance, the smoothed-out ‘premium plastic’ feel of the deko doodz geometry came from the casing of an old iPod. Sometimes, when I want to make something a bit goofy, I think of John’s French bulldog, Potchi. Inspiration is all around me. I’m lucky that I was curious enough to step outside the typical designer’s approach of just scrolling through Pinterest or Instagram.
Q: Can you describe your work-from-home setup and how you start your day?
Alex: I won’t send photos because I just moved and my studio isn’t fully set up yet (read - he hasn’t cleaned it up properly). But because I genuinely love what I do, I almost never disconnect. I’m always on Slack, partly because the team is so fun to work with. My day starts pretty early when my son wakes me up at 6 a.m. with a big hug and tells me he loves me very much. My daughter follows, asking to play, and we have a family hug that includes my wife. It’s a positive way to start the day and gives me a lot of energy.
After that, I dive into work. I use a MacBook Pro M2 Max paired with an Apple Studio Display. My mouse is the MX Master 3S, and I have Elgato key lights and a Shure SM7B microphone for calls. My camera setup includes a mirrorless Fujifilm with a 35mm lens at f/2. For UI, Figma, and Photoshop, that’s my main setup.
When it comes to 3D work, I remote into my PC using Parsec. This machine is a beast: RTX 4090, 128GB RAM, Ryzen 9 processor, and NVMe drives. Most of our artwork is designed in a 3D space, and because Blender and Keyshot are part of my process, Apple’s silicon isn’t fully supported yet. The PC lets me work faster and render on the GPU, which is why Parsec is a must for me.
Special thanks to Alex Grim for taking time out of his increasingly busy schedule to discuss his work processes. In his spare time, Alex likes collecting retro game consoles and staring wistfully at them, remembering the days he used to have time to actually play them. We feel you Alex.
If you want to know more about cards, or anything regarding Matchday and Matchday Champions, you can get in touch via [email protected], on Discord or across social media on X/Twitter, Instagram or TikTok. Let us know what you think and help shape the Matchday experience!
