Pablander
This was one of the most exciting collaborations I’ve worked on, where I had creative freedom to design a custom golf bag that was produced and went on tour with The Cleeks in Mexico City. I had the pleasure of collaborating with Vessels on the manufacturing of the bag, The Cleeks team on The Art of Gold, and The Rookies, who orchestrated the entire project. Mimaki also 3D printed the golf bag for its debut, which brought the design to life in an incredible way.
My understanding of the Cleeks Golf Club is that they aren’t just about playing the game… they’re about reshaping it. Boldly. Creatively. There’s a kind of rebellious edge to them that sets them apart. So I started thinking… What if we leaned into that? What if the bag itself wasn’t just gear, but almost a kind of cursed artifact… like something alive, barely holding back the chaos inside?
So instead of going minimal or clean, I went in the complete opposite direction: full chaos, full color, and full character.
The concept behind the design is a visual metaphor… a golf bag that feels alive, almost possessed by golf’s most untamed spirit. The creatures and twisted faces wrapping around the bag represent the inner struggles, intensity, and unpredictability that come with competing at the highest level. It’s a nod to the raw emotion and focus behind every shot, every decision. Golf may look composed on the surface, but underneath, there’s fire.
At the same time, I wanted to connect it with the Cleeks' identity, keeping their motto “Tradition Refreshed” in mind. So I approached the design as a bridge between old-school grit and a new creative direction. That’s where the style comes in: hand-drawn, imperfect, with influences from vintage skate decks, underground comics, and punk poster art… basically a reference to individuality and attitude… both qualities I think reflect the team and the fans who ride with them. Kind of like heritage, but with teeth.
This was a chance to transform something deeply personal to the player into a piece of art, one that honors the legacy of the game while boldly pushing it into a more expressive, diverse, and rebellious future.
Here are some images from the real bag on tour:
The real bag turned out incredibly well and supe loyal to the original design and textures. Here is one of the 3D final renders:
All the texturing was done in Substance 3D Painter but the actual coloreful pattern with the 'beasts' was created in ZBrush, photoshop, Krita and Procreate.
I created each monster separately as a quick sketch in 3D to explore ideas and distort the face a bit before adding a quick pass of colour for reference. Here are some examples of the 3D Version before I decided to go for the 2D illustration feel:
When I decided to go for the illustration look and since I already had the 3D bases, I used a cusom material to generate a starting point for the linework before refining it in Photoshop and procreate.
Once I had each concept in linework I put them all together into a single illustration that I then used as a pattern for the fabric sections of the golf bag in Substance 3D Painter. Here are a couple more close-up renders:
But the best part of this project was to acctually see the full design in real life and actually being use in the real competitio...
