Brent Diskin had heard the rumors through the Timbers Army grapevine a day before the official announcement.
On March 20, 2009, at the Hilton Portland Hotel, Major League Soccer would be revealing that the Portland Timbers would be the league's next expansion franchise.
Diskin couldn't contain his excitement. Bursting with creative energy, the graphic designer wanted to show support for his team.
So, he sat down in front of his computer, pulled up Google Images, and started looking through old advertisements.
He settled on a World War II Uncle Sam poster. He pulled the image into Photoshop and began clicking away at the screen. He edited the poster's slogan to read, "MLS... You're Next! We'll Finish the Job!" He changed the red stripes on Uncle Sam's patriotic outfit to green and the white stars on his vest to yellow. In Uncle Sam's right hand he put an axe.
The next day, hours after Portland's move to MLS was formally announced, Diskin was in the stands at the University of Portland with fellow Timbers fans to watch Portland play the New York Red Bulls in an exhibition match.
Diskin had turned his creation from the night before into 20 postcard-size "Timbers propaganda posters." In the stands, he giddily passed around the postcards to his friends, who were all reeling in excitement after MLS's announcement.
It was the inception of a new passion for Diskin. Five years after he created his first Timbers propaganda poster, he has made more than 900 posters in support of the Timbers and Portland Thorns.
"People started asking, 'Well, are you going to do some more?' and I thought, 'Yeah, why not?' " said Diskin, 37. "It's kind of like an insidious little thing. It just got under my skin and I started enjoying it."
• • •
Diskin didn't know a whole lot about soccer when he decided to attend his first Timbers game in 2007.
His older brothers, Travis, 44, and Todd, 49, were both Timbers fans and Diskin thought attending the matches would help him to reconnect with his family.
But the Salem native quickly fell in love with the unique atmosphere at games and started to bond with his fellow supporters. Soon he was riding the MAX to matches with a pickle bucket in hand and drumming along in the stands as another fan played the bagpipes.
At first, Timbers matches were more of a social event for Diskin, but with each passing game his passion for soccer and the team grew. In 2011, Portland's first year in MLS, Diskin went to almost every game and started to really meld into the Timbers Army. A year later, in 2012, he bought season tickets.
As Diskin's fandom grew, so did the posters.
He would spend hours combing through Google Images, looking at collections of World War II and Cold War propaganda, Soviet Union workplace safety posters and advertisements from the 1950s. He would download anything he thought was striking and save it to an ideas folder. Today, he will sometimes create a poster from an image that he downloaded years ago.
"I think he just felt that energy and that sense of community around the Timbers Army and wanted to do something special," Todd Diskin said. "He has put a lot of energy and a lot of thought and a lot of passion into these designs."
Diskin has even turned some of his designs into patches with the help of brother Travis. They collaborate on an idea, and then Diskin creates the design and Travis works with the PTFC Patch Patrol to produce it. The brothers, who have have designed eight patches, always donate the proceeds to charity.
"It has been a great ride from the beginning until now," said Travis Diskin, who is the owner of Curiosities Vintage Mall in Beaverton. "It's been great how Brent's art has changed and adapted over the years."
Though Diskin still adapts a lot of propaganda images into Timbers posters, over the years he also has created a number of completely original designs.
He used the colors and a rose from one of the Timbers' kits to play off the "Keep Calm and Carry On" meme and create a poster that read, "Get Loud and Carry On." In the offseason of 2011, he played off a computer loading symbol to create a "season loading..." poster. For another poster, he created an "Axe of Many Parts" in the shape of a Timbers "T."
In the summer of 2012, as the Timbers were gearing up to play the Seattle Sounders, a Timbers Army chant stuck in Diskin's head: Build a bonfire, build a bonfire, Put Seattle on the top, Put Vancouver in the middle, And we'll burn the bloody lot.
He started looking at some movie posters by 20th century graphic designer Saul Bass and was struck by the black-silhouetted hands appearing in many of Bass' posters. So, in Photoshop he drew rough versions of similar-looking hands and positioned them such that they were grabbing Vancouver and Seattle's logos.
Then, it hit him. The hands would be placing the logos in a bonfire. He began feverishly clicking and drawing things on his screen, desperate to finish the project.
"I have a stupid idea in my head," Diskin said, "and I'm sitting in front of Photoshop and I can't think straight until I excise that idea."
The "Build a Bonfire" poster is still one of Diskin's favorites. He posts most of his images on social media and leaves them there for fans to enjoy, but this one he printed out into an 11-by-17 poster and donated it to a Timbers Army charity event.
"Brent really has a 'go for it' attitude," Travis said. "His instincts are right on for the most part, so I'm as excited as everyone else when he pops up with a new creation... I was and still am a fan boy for his Timbers art."
• • •
A day before Thanksgiving in 2012, Diskin received an unexpected email from Timbers owner Merritt Paulson.
Paulson had emailed Diskin twice before to ask for copies of particular posters. Two of Diskin's posters have been framed in his office at Providence Park since 2011 — a play on a Scarface movie poster with Timber Joey and his chainsaw that reads, "Say hello to my little friend" and a World War II propaganda poster that was altered to read, "The Army Comes Ashore ... Onward to MLS."
But this email was different.
Paulson and the Timbers organization were starting a women's franchise that would play in the new National Women's Soccer League, and Paulson hoped that Diskin would take a crack at designing the new logo.
The franchise would be called the Portland Thorns.
"I'm a fan of his work," Paulson said. "He's a talented designer that's obviously close to the team and has a good sense of the city."
A few days after receiving the email, Diskin sat at his computer staring at a blank Photoshop document. Finally, he started by drawing a black circle and putting a red placeholder rose in the center. He drew a green border around the circle and serrated the edges to make it look like protruding thorns. He drew matching green thorns in a circle around the center rose. Then, after looking through hundreds of fonts, he chose a version of Bank Gothic and wrapped the name Portland Thorns around the circle. Finally, in an effort to evoke the city of Portland flag, he placed two stars on either side of the logo.
Within 10 days, the logo would be nearly complete. The thorny border was changed to a simple round circle; the "F" and "C" were placed inside the two stars on either side of the logo; the central rose was redesigned. But for the most part, the Thorns organization kept Diskin's original design.
"He got our vision right away," Paulson said. "We had an idea of what we were looking for and he put his own spin on it. We really didn't tweak it that much after that."
For his efforts, the organization offered Diskin season tickets to the Thorns.
So, five months later, Diskin, his brothers and his parents attended the inaugural Thorns match. From his seats in section 209, Diskin looked around the stadium. Everywhere he turned, there was his logo. He couldn't believe it. It was his creation!
"I see it on the little side walls, I see it on the banners that are covering up the north end, I see the video of it and how they make the rose in the center spin," Diskin said. "I started to realize, I made that and that's really cool. Now, when I go to a Thorns match and see the logo and see people with it on their shirts, I do a little internal giggle."
• • •
On Jan. 23, 2013, one month after Diskin finished the Thorns logo, he was laid off from his job.
He had spent 16 years as the multimedia design coordinator at Wellons, a company that provides wood-fired energy systems to the forest products industry.
Diskin, who was living on his own in Vancouver at the time, tried to get by with odd jobs here and there as he looked for a more stable career. But at the end of December, when his lease ran out, Diskin realized he no longer could afford to keep the apartment.
He moved back in with his parents in Salem right before the New Year. He has been living there and trying to find a permanent job ever since.
"I know he's been looking for work in the graphic design areas," Todd said. "I try to direct people to his work all the time. He's so humble. Sometimes he doesn't put himself out there and take enough credit for his work."
In those months before he moved back in with his parents, Diskin was tempted to try to sell some of his Timbers artwork for profit. But Diskin feels that the roots of the Timbers Army were created long before his involvement, and he doesn't believe he should profit from something he does for the sheer joy of supporting his team.
"It just runs counter to what I think the TA ethos is," Diskin said. "Some of these things don't take long and it's never any skin off my back to make them. Yeah, I could use the money, but I can also sleep at night knowing that these designs are there for their purpose, for people to enjoy, and I'm not being part of this encroachment and monetization of something that we love."
Back in his parents' home, Diskin continues to design. Sitting at the computer in the very room where he grew up, he conjures up new creations on his screen.
Over the course of the last year, he made an effort to create a player poster for every member of the Thorns — even Hanna Terry, who played just eight minutes in 2014. As Diskin sees it, every player who wears a Timbers or Thorns uniform deserves acknowledgement.
For Diskin, though, it's not about getting accolades or making money. He's found a way to express his passion for his team, and he only hopes that his artwork offers other fans a few moments of pleasure.
"You kind of know that people enjoy it, but it's nice to know that you are doing something positive," Diskin said. "These have always been meant as tools for people to use and have fun with."
-- Jamie Goldberg | @jamiebgoldberg