They’re Chiva-licious!

It started with these three photos. The first time I saw these three photos, I thought to myself “I must find a way to use these.”

Actually, it started way before that. It started back in March, when I was sitting around with ChivaGirls Director Aimee E, chatting about this year’s team photo shoot. Every year Aimee looks for ways to make the ChivaGirls better and better, and she has loads of creative ideas. This year, she wanted introduce some new freshness in the team photo shoot. In addition to shooting the girls in their dress uniforms, she also wanted them photographed in a variety of other outfits, so there would be a variation and interest for the fans. She was leaning toward some kind of hip hop look.

Not that she needed my approval, or even my opinion on the matter, but I was totally on board with her plan. I have probably seen more pro cheerleader/dance team websites than anyone else on the planet, and I can speak with some authority when I say one way to really enhance a site – and therefore the team’s brand/online presence – is to add photos. Good ones. And lots of them. And lots of variety.

A few weeks later, the subject came up again, and Aimee told me she’d had a terrific idea for what the girls could wear for the shoot.

The first thing she said was “tube tops.”

I’ll admit, my excitement dimmed a little. I have a particular issue about tube tops. They make me nervous. When I was a kid, my big sister and I used to visit our southern relatives every summer. One summer, when I was 9 or 10, we were out playing in the street and one of the older neighborhood girls came out of her house in a striped sequin tube top. Someone else had brought a boom box, so we had some tunes going. Tube top girl hopped up to demonstrate a new dance move, and her tube top did what tube tops do. Before I could blink, it was down around her waist. There must not have been any elastic in it whatsoever. All the kids laughed at her (Except for some of the older boys, who were too busy getting an eyeful to produce coherent sounds.) The poor girl yanked up that tube top and ran like her britches were on fire. I was horrified for her. If that had been me, I would’ve just died on the spot.

Ever since then, I have been deeply suspicious of tube tops. I do not trust them. A tube top has no loyalty. It goes where it likes, when it likes, with no regard whatsoever for the feelings of the person wearing it.

When Aimee brought up the tube tops, I kept my mouth shut, and immediately started thinking about contingencies. We’d need doublestick tape. Safety pins. Maybe some of that special butt glue pageant girls use to prevent swimsuit wedgies.

But then Aimee showed me what she had in mind. She reached into her bag and pulled out a red sequin tube top. A silver tube top. A blue tube top. And they were sparkly. I loooooove sparkly. And I knew they’d look dy-no-mite in pictures. Aimee reached back into her bag and pulled out a pair of white capris. Then she pulled out the white shoes, and the red shoes, and the other white shoes. And some striped socks.

Sometimes you just know an idea is really going to work out well.

Aimee said she wanted to take it to another level, and this was for sure going to do it.

(Meanwhile, she got all the stuff in downtown LA for like NO money. You can get amazing bargains downtown. More on that later.)

Photo shoot day was a marathon that went on for more than 16 hours. The girls started arriving around 9:30 am. The photographer, hair, and makeup people arrived and hour or so later and set up all of their gear. Aimee was everywhere at once, making sure the everyone was on the same page and understood what needed to be done. This year she’d asked former ChivaGirls Ariel and Monique to help out, and thank goodness for that. There were 24 ChivaGirls to shoot in one day, each girl in three different outfits, so there were a lot of people and a lot of activity. It could’ve gone chaotic. Soon after we started, the team settled into a rhythm. Aimee was sitting with the photographer, making sure she go the shots she needed. Ariel and Monique styled the girls in their hip hop outfits and brought them to Aimee for approval and adjustments.

Incidentally, Ariel is now a San Diego Charger Girl and Monique just made the finals for the Boston Celtics Dancers. (Former ChivaGirl Tiffany is also in the finals for Celtics. Good luck on 7/14, girls!) Now, if the Powers That Be would please remove their heads from their own rear ends and settle their respective lockouts, maybe we’ll get to see both of these girls perform somewhere this fall.

Aimee’s vision wasn’t limited to the outfits though. She also had a vision of how she wanted these hip hop photos to look. When it comes to the dress uniforms, the idea was for the girls to do “pretty and approachable.” For hip hop, the idea was to be a lot more playful and sassy. She wanted these to be fun photos. She wanted to showcase the ChivaGirls’ personalities.

And that’s exactly what she got.

(These are some crappy screen caps, but you get the idea)

Somewhere along the way, I’d mentioned to Aimee that I was interested in making some ChivaGirls art/wallpapers for the Chivas USA site. I’m self taught on photo shop, so I’m always looking for projects to help me learn more. When Aimee received the photo disks from the photo shoot, she made copies for me. Just made copies and handed them to me. Just like that. She didn’t tell me which photos to use, didn’t tell me to make sure everyone looked good, didn’t tell me to be careful with the disks. She just assumed I would be respectful of the team and that I would make something great. I was pretty much floored. In my world, this is a huge honor. She was basically handing me the team’s image. I could’ve drawn mustaches and devil horns on all the photos (or worse!) and posted them all over the internet. Not that I would, but the fact that she just handed everything over to me like that made me a little sniffly. (I love you, man!)

(Not that I’m untrustworthy, you understand. I’m not an ex-con or anything. I’m no Casey Anthony. I believe myself to be a reliable type of person. But I am also cynic, so it always surprises me when I run into someone who has a brighter, more optimistic, more trusting view of mankind than I do. I’m all “WOW…really??? You’re just gonna hand me these disks like its no big deal…REALLY? What if I break them? What if I lose them? What if I get jacked on the way home? What if someone offers me a whoooole lotta money for them? What if monkeys fly out of my…” Ahem. I think you get my point.)

Aimee gave me the disks while we were in the dressing room before a game. They were practically burning a hole in my pocket. I bolted out of there right after halftime. I could not wait to see how the photos had turned out.

When I got to my computer, I scrolled through hundreds and hundreds of photos, and so many of them were fantastic. I had a moment of “oh, dear, what am I going to do with all of these?” I had tons of ideas for different effects and layouts, but no clue as to whether I could pull any of them off. I didn’t want these wallpapers to look cheesy and low-budget. This was the first thing I’d ever created for a website other than this one, and I was nervous. I wanted it to be really good. Aimee had given me this chance and I didn’t want to let her down.

It was a major challenge to pick just one photo of each girl. There were so many that I really really liked. I struggled with it for a few days, until one morning, I woke up with a fully formed idea in my head. I was going to use two photos of each ChivaGirl, and I was going to keep it simple. I trashed all the swirls and twirls and fancy backgrounds, fonts, textures and effects. I didn’t need all of that. The photos spoke for themselves. I quickly put together a few examples and sent them over to Aimee, hoping she’d love the idea as much as I did.

If she didn’t love it, I was prepared to do some major pouting.

Thankfully, she loved them too!

The end result, I think, speaks for itself. Here are a few examples. (I shrunk ’em down.) You can see all of the wallpapers in full size on the Chivas USA website. [Click Here].

They’re eventually going to put all of the wallpapers on a separate page, along with another set of wallpapers I made of the girls in their dress uniforms. But for now, you have to click each ChivaGirl to see her wallpaper. I’m also working on a banner/poster type thing using other photos from this shoot. I’m not sure exactly what it will be used for, but I’ll share when it’s done.

Anyway, I love these wallpapers, and I’m not ashamed to brag on them.

• I didn’t pick the models – Aimee and the judges did that at auditions
• I didn’t choose the concept for the shoot – that was Aimee
• I didn’t pick the outfits – that was Aimee too
• I didn’t style them – that was Aimee, Ariel, and Monique
• I didn’t pick the poses – Aimee and the girls did that
• I didn’t shoot the photos – that was photographer Mike Nowak

I didn’t do any of the heavy lifting. But I did slap it all down on these wallpapers, and by golly I’m proud of them. I figure I can claim a good 12.5% of the credit for the way they turned out. I’m not usually one to toot my own horn, but in this case I’m doing it quietly to myself. (Toot! toot! …shhhhh…)

Sidebar: Aimee loved these outfits so much, she made a return trip to downtown LA to buy enough capris and red tube tops for the whole team. Hurray! Tube tops for everyone!

The girls wore them during a game in April. (We spent a good amount of time attaching clear straps and safety pinning the crap out of those tube tops so they wouldn’t fall down.) The tops held up like a champ all through the halftime performance. They looked brilliant under the stadium lights, and the fans LOVED them. Sparkles. They’ll get you every time.)