‘You can be creative on a canvas and on the pitch’: 3D artist and footballer Elly Wade on her colliding passions

When Adobe was announced in 2023 as the sponsor of the Women’s FA Cup for the next three years, one player in particular was excited by the news. A true multi-hyphenate, Elly Wade is an accomplished 3D artist, a trainer and educator at Maxon (the brand behind Redshift and Cinema 4D), and a footballer at Luton Town L.F.C. At Adobe’s recent panel discussion at Wembley Stadium, Goals & Grit: Voices From the Women’s Game, she described the FA’s partnership with Adobe as her “absolute two passions colliding“. 

While the two careers might sound divergent, they both come naturally to Elly, and to an extent have even combined in recent years. When the club’s social media manager was no longer able to commit to the job, she volunteered to take over; her experience of branding and design making her a natural fit. “Being a 3D artist is my full-time job, she told Creative Bloq. “But I've always played football, and have played for Luton Town for 5 years. This year our social media guy stepped away, and I knew both the girls and the fans were disappointed, so I agreed to take it on because I understand the importance of it."

That importance, Elly explains, is a result of the obstacles and hurdles smaller teams face – many of which are financial. “Being in a Tier 5 team, we have to normally pay to play. But our audience and fans can sponsor individual players, and that's one area where social media really helps. It allows us to connect with the fans more.” As a direct result of this connection, right now none of the players have to pay to play.

And with the advent of consumer-friendly tools such as Adobe Express (now available on mobile), branding and design is becoming more accessible to those who, unlike Elly, don’t have a foot in both industries. “With things like generative AI, or templates, I think what a lot of companies, especially Adobe, are trying to do is make it accessible and easy to get into. I'm a 3D artist, so I use a lot of Cinema 4D, a lot of Redshift, and that comes with a very steep learning curve that can be a barrier. Particularly in football at the amateur level, often people will be doing things on a voluntary basis. They may not even have a design background, but need to start thinking about creating social media content. Nowadays you don't necessarily have to be an artist to make the first step.”

If there are two things that link her multiple careers – creating art, training budding artists to use Maxon’s software and representing the brand at events across the world, and playing football for Luton L.F.C, Elly thinks it’s community and creativity. "On the surface, they're completely different. And in my experience, I don't often come across people who have a hand in both – you often meet people who are artists or people who are sporty and athletic, without obvious overlap." 

"But when you go deeper, a lot of artists will be self-proclaimed introverts, but when you get them together, there's that sense of belonging and togetherness. Women's football is definitely similar. I remember playing for a boys' team and then finally getting to my first girls' team. I thought, oh, these are my people.” 

“Also, we talk a lot about creativity as an artist and a designer, but there's creativity on the pitch. There's an element of showing showing off, doing skills, showing flare.  Chloe Kelly, for example, is a great representation of a really creative footballer. I think we can express ourselves on the pitch with how we play the game, and we can also express ourselves on a screen or canvas.“ 

You can catch Elly at OFFF Barcelona this month, where she’ll be be presenting a hands-on workshop on Cinema 4D and Redshift.