2013 UTC Football Poster

For the third year in a row I had the pleasure of creating the schedule poster for UTC football (here are the links to the posters from 2012 and 2011). The theme for this season is "Tried & True Blue" so the poster takes its overall blue tone from that. I let the blue on the players' jerseys shine through and also gave them a few rough blue photo effects to enhance their look a little bit. I carried the rugged look into the beat up steel plate of the schedule section on the bottom half of the piece, doing a little bit of an arched schedule to go along with the shape of the background as well. As usual, I had a blast creating this piece, and I am currently working on the media guide covers to compliment it. Be on the lookout!

Southern Miss Fan Infographic

How awesome are Southern Miss fans? Here's how awesome...

It has been way too long since I have posted some work on the old blog, but I finally have a minute to bring this puppy up to date. I wanted to start with one of the more challenging projects I had to work on over the past month. As I mentioned on my first infographic I did earlier this year, I believe these projects are some the toughest to complete. There are so many directions to go in and somewhere in the swamp of information you have to find a way to clarify everything.

With this project, the answer started to show itself once I started grouping the different statistics. Ticket sales and donors dealt with money going towards the school, so they worked together as a pair. The website and social media statistics showed fan interaction on the internet, so they obviously then were paired. That left the registered alumni which worked well on its own, especially when the idea of using the states in that section to showcase all the different places Southern Miss alum settle.

As for the long vertical layout, I wanted to this piece to reveal itself piece by piece. It is divided into the 3 sections, and I wanted each to have their own little moment along the way. I then really wanted something at the bottom for the fans because without them, none of these stats would have even been possible. Therefore, a simple "Thank You Fans!" caps the whole piece off, letting them know just how awesome they are.

Smokies Program Ad and Youtube Channel Art

Above is a little versatility in advertising. I recently wrapped up an ad for the Tennessee Smokies that will appear in the Tennessee Valley Fair program this year. I loved the idea of using a city scape of Knoxville to the mountains as the bar to hold the info at the bottom of the page and I think it turned out really well...

...and then we needed new channel art for our YouTube page. I thought this design also worked well there as it transferred very well to the horizontal format and still kept the simple tagline.

Tennessee Smokies Knoxville Opera Ad

Above is a fun little project I got to work on for the Smokies. The team got an ad in the Knoxville Opera's program and I had the challenge of coming up with an awesome generic ad to promote our team. I saw this really cool style of the heavy outlined graphic like you see above while surfing the internet and thought this would be a good project to try it out on. The paper texture outline works in harmony with the deep rich background to make the piece a cohesive unit.

Rise to the Top: A Southern Miss Splash Page

Football season may be a few months away, but that doesn't mean that ticket sales aren't in full gear. Southern Miss' renewal deadline is fast approaching, and I created this splash page graphic for their website to reminder their past ticket holders of that fact. They wanted to play off their "Rise to the Top" campaign for this upcoming season, and I think it works well as a slogan to get people to renew.

New Smokies Park Stadium Signage

There's a new look going up around Smokies Park...my signage! The team has been updating the stadium signage this season to reflect new names for certain areas of the park as well as to give the stadium a general facelift. Being the graphic design assistant for the team, I have played a major part in this. You can see several examples of my work below.

I tried to keep some unifying element between all the signage to make sure each sign ties into the next and that they all feel like they belong together. The curly border lines were carried over from the main entrance signs and adapted for use along the baselines. I then stuck with the team's color scheme to once again keep some signage unity.

This has been one of the most full throttle projects I've ever had the chance to work on and there is definitely a part of me that feels lucky to have had the chance to create these signs. With any luck, these signs will be up for years and years and become part of the memories of so many Smokies fans. It is that chance of creating lasting memories that drives every project I do and continues to push me to make each project better than the last.

BASELINE DIRECTIONAL SIGNS:

CONCESSIONS DIRECTIONAL SIGNS:

BACK-LIT CONCOURSE SIGNAGE:

Tennessee Smokies Gold Glove Series Bobblehead Box Design #1

The Smokies just wrapped up a series with the Huntsville Stars this evening, capping off the festivities with a patriotic postgame fireworks show. However, on Saturday evening, the team had its first of three bobblehead giveaways this season.

Three former Smokies won Gold Gloves in MLB last year: Carlos Gonzalez of the Colorado Rockies, Yadier Molina of the St. Louis Cardinals, and Darwin Barney of the Chicago Cubs. Because of that, the Smokies are releasing a Gold Glove Bobblehead Series this season, and it was up to me to design the boxes for them. Each of the players will come in three differently sized boxes based on the bobblehead heights, so I had to create a design that could easily transfer between all three.

As you can see above, I went with a double swoosh design where the white area on the front and back of the box is reversed. On the front, this allowed for a perfect spot to put the name of the player at the top and then the title of the bobblehead series along the side. On the back, the white area worked well to include a biography of the player as well as highlight the sponsors at the bottom.

I used the two side panels to highlight the "collect-ability" of the series, using one side to highlight which one of the set this bobblehead was as well as when the other two will be given away.

This was my first major dip into designing for a 3D object, and I am very pleased with the results. I can't wait to see the other two boxes and the complete set all together at the end of the year. Be sure to come on out to Smokies Park on Saturday, July 20th, to get the second bobblehead in this series as well as a little piece of my portfolio!