The Challenge

When I joined AD Machico, the club's digital presence was outdated, visually inconsistent, and failing to engage fans. Posts were functional but uninspiring — basic information with no storytelling, no emotion, no reason for fans to care.

The biggest constraint: zero budget for professional photography. Without high-quality assets, creating the cinematic, emotional content that modern sports fans expect seemed impossible.

The Approach

Rebranding the Visual Identity

The first step was rethinking the club's entire visual language. I established a new creative direction — cleaner, bolder, cinematic — that positioned AD Machico's brand at a level far above what's typical for clubs at this division.

Creative Direction & Storytelling

The core of the rebranding wasn't a tool or a technique — it was a shift in philosophy. I moved the club's content from purely informational to narrative-driven. Each post became a piece of storytelling: building anticipation, creating emotion, giving fans a reason to engage.

It's not about giving information — it's about giving emotion.

Solving the Asset Problem

Rather than accepting lower-quality content, I integrated generative AI as one of several tools in my workflow. Combined with Photoshop compositing, real match photography, and strong art direction, this allowed me to produce cinematic-quality visuals within zero budget.

The AI didn't do the creative work — it gave me more raw material to execute my vision. The concepts, compositions, brand consistency, and storytelling were all mine.

Content Types

Every content type serves a purpose within the broader narrative. The system covers the full matchday cycle — from anticipation through to results — plus institutional announcements and youth football.

Institutional Announcements

Beyond matchday content, the visual identity extends to all club communications. Coaching changes, player transfers, and institutional moments receive the same premium treatment.

Youth Football & Scheduling

The brand system extends across all youth teams. Weekly training calendars and fixture lists received the same visual treatment — clean, on-brand, consistent — ensuring every age group's families felt connected to the club's identity.

Results

Posts went from ~4K views and ~50 likes to consistently 10K+ views and 200+ likes — a 2.5x increase in views and 4x increase in engagement.

387,973 total views in a single month. 22,497 accounts reached per month, with 36.3% from non-followers — organic audience discovery.

Top posts consistently hitting 16K–32K views, with the championship celebration reaching 32,695 views. For a 4th-tier club, these are numbers that many clubs in higher divisions don't achieve.

Tools & Workflow

Key Takeaway

This project shows what happens when strong creative direction meets real business constraints. With no budget, no team, and no professional assets, I built a visual identity that turned a small local club into one of the most visually compelling brands at its level in Portuguese football.

The results weren't driven by any single tool. They were driven by understanding an audience, telling stories that matter, and executing consistently for 9 months.

The Challenge

Unlike the AD Machico project where I had full creative freedom, SOCCA came with strict brand guidelines. Every regional league follows the same visual framework — colors, typography, layout structure — to maintain national brand consistency across Lisbon, Porto, Coimbra, Viseu, Açores, and now Madeira.

The Madeira league runs two divisions: Liga 1 Madeira (the top tier, branded in red) and Liga Acesso Madeira (the access league, branded in white/grey). Each has its own visual identity within the SOCCA system, and both needed consistent content every week.

The temptation to play it safe was real. With templates and rules already defined, the easy path was to simply fill in the blanks each matchday. But that would produce content that looks the same as every other SOCCA region — functional but forgettable.

The Approach

Working Within the System

I respected and followed SOCCA's brand guidelines for all standard content — fixture announcements, results, and league standings. These templates maintain the consistency the brand needs across regions and ensure every division looks like part of the same family.

Liga 1 Madeira — Standard Templates

The top division's content follows the red-branded template system. Jornada fixtures, Resultados, and Classificação are published weekly, maintaining the rhythm fans expect.

Liga Acesso Madeira — Standard Templates

The access league follows the same structure but with its own white/grey visual identity, distinguishing it from Liga 1 while remaining part of the same brand family.

Pushing Boundaries for Key Moments

For the moments that mattered most — finals, cup matches, big rivalries — I deliberately pushed beyond the standard templates. Using cinematic AI-generated compositions and bolder visual treatments, I created content that gave these fixtures the weight they deserved.

The cup final graphic with the trophy, banners, and dramatic lighting. The vintage poster aesthetic for a semi-final. These weren't random creative choices — they were strategic decisions to elevate the most important moments while respecting the brand's foundations.

Season Finale

The championship celebration posts brought the season to a close — real photography combined with bold typography to capture the emotion of the moment for both divisions.

What I Learned

This project is the counterbalance to AD Machico in my portfolio. Where Machico shows what I can do with total creative freedom, SOCCA shows I can deliver quality work within someone else's framework. Both skills matter — and the discipline of working within constraints made me a better designer.

What's Next

I'm currently developing a proposal to evolve SOCCA Madeira's visual direction — maintaining the brand's core identity but modernizing the execution. Cleaner layouts, more contemporary typography treatments, and a more dynamic feel that respects the guidelines while pushing them forward.

Tools & Role

The Opportunity

Madeira Island attracts over 3 million tourists per year, but the souvenir market is dominated by generic fridge magnets, mass-produced postcards, and low-quality keepsakes. There was a clear gap: no premium, locally-designed art prints that tourists could take home as a meaningful memento of the island.

I saw an opportunity to create something better — illustrated prints that capture Madeira's most iconic locations with a distinctive artistic style, printed locally, and positioned as affordable art rather than cheap souvenirs.

The Product

Each print illustrates a different Madeira landmark in a bold, contemporary travel poster style. The collection covers the island's most visited and photographed locations — from the volcanic pools of Porto Moniz to the black sand beach of Seixal to the traditional A-frame houses of Santana.

Every print is designed to work both as a standalone piece and as part of a collection. The illustration style is consistent across the range, creating a cohesive visual language that's immediately recognizable as The Madeira Gallery.

The Brand

The Madeira Gallery brand was built to feel premium but approachable. The compass-rose logo references navigation and discovery — fitting for a product that celebrates travel and exploration. The brand identity extends across print backs, tote bags, and packaging, creating a consistent touchpoint at every stage of the customer experience.

The logo itself has an origin story: it started as a design for a Visit Machico competition entry. It didn't win, but I saw its potential elsewhere — and it found its true home as the identity for The Madeira Gallery. That kind of resourcefulness is part of how I work.

Business Model

The prints are sold through local retail stores in tourist areas across Madeira, using a consignment-based distribution model — zero risk for retailers, which makes getting shelf space significantly easier.

The pricing strategy balances accessibility for tourists with healthy margins, and the first batch of 11 designs is already in production with retail placement planned for March 2026.

What Makes This Different

This isn't a design project that stopped at the mockup stage. I handled everything end-to-end: market research, illustration, brand identity, print production, pricing strategy, retail negotiations, and distribution logistics. It's the full journey from identifying an opportunity to getting a physical product into stores.

Tools & Process