Here it is, trade deadline time and I haven’t posted since before the season actually started. Perhaps the retched season the Giants are putting together has kept my interest off the old diamond. I gotta keep up the tradition, though, so here’s a look at my 2026 Pennant set.

Keeping things simple with this retro design like I have in the past, this year is definitely more photo-forward than some of the previous sets. A rounded team-color frame houses the team name and player position leaving a space for a big, blocky player name in the team secondary color just above the photo. A circle on the bottom right corner to house the team logo finishes things up. I did add a little noise and tweaked the colors on the images to make them look a little retro, along with a not-quite-white border around the whole card. It’s a little reminiscent of 1964 Topps with also maybe a little 1988 Fleer Basketball in there.

Now that I’ve got the ball rolling, let’s move on to the next set in the 2026 Spirit line-up: Clubhouse.

The design here is a bit “extra” but in a good way, imo. The big crossing panels on the left side set the tone colored panels framing the player image. Having some part of them break the edge over into the color field in the upper left corner was essential for maintaining balance. Plus it’s always fun when the player interacts with the design. The name and team logo lives in a colorful bar along the bottom. The position rests in a little bubbly triangle just above that. Like on the Matt Olson card, it has the opportunity to interact with the player cutouts if needed.

Since the Clubhouse designs are always a bit “fun” and colorful, I felt like some of the extra stuff here was appropriate. It was a challenge finding images that fit into the open space but also overlapped into the left side without making the whole thing unbalanced. Overall, I think I did a good job of that.