Alright, so the other day I had this itch, you know? The Mayweather McGregor fight, massive event. I thought, why not try and whip up a poster for it? Just a personal project, see if I could capture that vibe. It’s been a while since I messed around with something like this just for the heck of it.
Getting Started – The Raw Materials
First thing, obviously, I needed images of the two guys. And not just any fuzzy pictures. I spent a good chunk of time digging online. You’d think it’d be easy, but finding good, high-resolution shots that kinda matched in lighting or intensity? That was a bit of a chore. Finally snagged a decent one of Floyd looking all business, and one of Conor with that trademark look of his. Saved ’em to my desktop, ready to go.
Then I fired up my usual graphics software. Nothing fancy, just what I’m used to. Some people swear by all these new tools, but I stick to what I know. A blank canvas, staring back at me. Always a bit daunting, that part.
Building it Up, Layer by Layer
I decided to go for a darker, grittier background. Didn’t want it too clean. Played around with some textures I had lying around, mixed in some dark gradients. The goal was to make it feel like a big fight night, you know? Intense.
Next, bringing in Mayweather and McGregor. Cutting them out from their original backgrounds, man, that’s always a test of patience. Used the pen tool mostly, trying to get clean edges. Then placed them on the canvas. Moved them around, resized them, flipped one of them. Took a while to get a composition that felt right, like they were actually in the same space, ready to go at it. I wanted that face-off energy, even if they weren’t looking directly at each other in the source photos.
The Text – Always Tricky
Then came the text. This part can make or break a poster, I reckon.
- Fighter names: Big, bold. Had to be. ‘MAYWEATHER’ and ‘MCGREGOR’.
- The ‘VS’: Smaller, but still prominent, right in the middle.
- Event details: I thought about adding a date or venue, but decided against it. Wanted it to be more of an iconic tribute than an actual event promo. So, I just hinted at “The Money Fight” concept subtly.
Finding the right fonts took forever. Switched them out so many times. Something impactful, but not too over-the-top. Settled on a fairly strong, slightly condensed sans-serif. Positioned them, tweaked the spacing. Little things, but they matter.
Adding the Polish (or trying to)
Once the main elements were in place, it was all about trying to blend it together. Played with color correction a lot. Desaturated things a bit, then brought up certain tones to give it that dramatic look. Added some subtle lighting effects, tried to make the fighters pop from the background. A bit of shadow here, a highlight there. It’s easy to overdo this stuff, so I had to keep telling myself to pull back.
I tinkered with a few more things – maybe a slight vignette to draw the eye in, sharpened the key areas. Stepped away from it for a bit, came back with fresh eyes. That always helps. You spot things you missed when you’re too close to it.
The End Result
So, after a fair bit of fiddling, I had something I was reasonably happy with. Is it going to win any design awards? Nah, probably not. But for a bit of fun, a throwback to that crazy fight, it did the job. It was a good exercise, dusting off some old skills. Sometimes you just gotta make stuff, you know? Get it out of your system. And this Mayweather McGregor poster project was exactly that for me. Just a good ol’ session of moving pixels around until it felt right.
