Multi-sport Billboard for...Southern Miss!

Yes folks, my design services have trickled on down into Southern Mississippi. I have recently started doing some projects for the Golden Eagles and this is the first one we've wrapped up. It's final size when you see it while driving down the road is 10.5' tall x 36' wide. I always find billboards interesting to work on because it is a piece that your "audience" is not just going to stand in front of and focus one. You have to get your message across quickly and directly. I love doing them because you get to be very loud and bold with the output. This was quite a fun piece to work on and I hope to be posting more stuff for USM soon!

Tigers Win Piece

The Tigers notched their second win of the season last night, so I created the following piece to send out to recruits to recap the victory. It's always nice to start the week on a high note, and I had a little extra fun creating this one by adding the backdrop of the Liberty Bowl behind the 3 players I mention in the Stat Tracks at the top. Hopefully they can grab a couple more wins before season's end!

U of M Women's Basketball: Stationery Designs

As part of my work with the women's basketball team, I have been working on some new stationery designs for the hand written items that the team sends out to its recruits. Below are a few different items I have done so far:

Fold-Over Cards to go inside a #10 Envelope:

7x5 Card to go inside an A7 Envelope:

Fold-Over Cards to go inside an A2 Envelope:

U of M Women's Basketball: Meet the Players

I have been working with the University of Memphis' women's basketball program along with their football program for the past few months now and wanted to start uploading some pieces I have done for them. Above is a series of pieces introducing the Seniors, Juniors, and Sophomores to their recruits. I left a blank spot in the middle of each piece for them to insert a typed letter to the recruits. This has been one of my favorite pieces I have done for the basketball team up to this point so far. I've really enjoyed using smoke as a texture on the pieces I have done for them. To me it adds a cool mystique to the piece.

Personal Piece: Wedding Invitation and Program

It's been a little over two weeks now since my wife and I got married, and I wanted to take one of the posts on my blog to show our wedding invitation and program. I designed both based off our wedding site in Gatlingburg, TN, wanting to highlight our mountain setting (which was absolutely beautiful on our wedding day). The picture on the front of the program is the walk up to our wedding site. It was a wonderful wedding and I enjoyed designing both the invitation and program for it as well. Plus, the Dr. Seuss quote on the back of our programs summed our relationship up perfectly!

A Couple Items for the CF Foundation

I recently started doing some design work for the the TN Chapter of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation and figured I would put up a couple pieces I've done for them over the past month.

The top item is a new logo I created for the East TN chapter for their annual Martinis and Movies Gala. The foundation is switching to a new branding system at the start of the year so I only had the three colors you see in the logo to work with. I think it turned out very well, as the film strip worked very nicely as a frame for the martini glass.

The bottom item is a poster I did for the TN Chapter showcasing their 3 Blind Wines event in November. They were working with earlier version of the poster where the wine glasses dominated. However, I went the route of letting the title of the event stand out. I took the wine glasses from their original poster, tweaked them slightly and let play a secondary part at the top of the poster. For some reason as I was designing this poster I kept seeing a sunbeam in the background in my mind, so I included it in the poster as well.

Kicker U

So it has been a while since I have updated this here ol' blog. I guess it's time I fix that.

Up first is a piece I did for the Univ. of Memphis a few weeks back promoting their success in the kicking game in hopes of recruiting some more special teams players to the Tigers. I wanted to post it because it is rare that anyone ever highlights their kickers, so why not throw it up on my blog as well?

Characteristics of a Champion - A U of M Series

This is a series I finished up about a week ago for the University of Memphis football team. I had a particularly good time with it because it was an idea that I threw to them and they let me run with it. I am quite pleased with the result.

I wanted to take the "TIGERS" nickname and relate each letter in it to a characteristic of a champion. By doing so, I wanted to show that those characteristics define the Tigers program as well, showing their dedication to becoming a championship caliber program. I made each piece into a little mini-poster wit the definition of each characteristic going front and center. I really loved using the curly brackets to frame the definition as it gives a little elegant flair to an otherwise gritty series.

I thought the modern serifed font worked well to give that dictionary feel to the definitions and the subsequent blurb below each one as well. I contrasted it with a nice sans-serif headline font for the title to balance the type in the piece.

I had to let each image reflect the definition being described or else the whole piece would fall apart. I also added a little overlaid texture and high contrast blacks in the background to make them a little more than simply photographs. I also toned their overall density down a little as well in order to help the defintions pop out more.

As I said before, I really loved doing this series and am very pleased with the results. I hope you enjoy the series as well!

UT-Chattanooga 2012 Football Schedule Poster

I was fortunate enough that UTC came to me again this year to work on their football schedule poster. This time around they had a photo shoot for the poster, which made the pictures extra sharp for me to use. I really enjoyed putting this one together. I wanted to play with a vertical schedule on a horizontal layout and I think it worked out well. I also wanted the attention focused mainly on the coach and players with the schedule playing second fiddle, and I believe that is happening in this poster as well. All in all it was a fun piece that produced an awesome result. I'm waiting to get a few of the printed posters from the university, at which point I will post those images up here as well.

U of M 2012 Season Invites

If you can believe it, another football season is upon us, which means it is time for the Tigers season invite to their home games. I did one version for coaches and one for players. All the information is basically the same on both, the only big change being the player picture at the bottom. I had fun with a few filters to get each picture to have the super glossy-gritty combination look on both. It was a fun project as always. I really enjoy working on schedule layouts and hope that this one gets a few players to come to some games!

Double MiLB Mascot Madness! (Muddy & Orbit)

 

Not only was it my fiancee's birthday this weekend, but it was also Orbit's. Therefore, I got the above drawing wrapped up in time to celebrate his awesomeness. I use to have a stuffed animal of him from my first Aeros game that I always loved. I was born in Akron so I have always rooted for the Aeros.They have one my favorite logos in sports because of their unique nickname, intense use of color in their primary mark, and the insane italics in their wordmark. It was a lot of fun to put this drawing together.

I also recently wrapped up this drawing of Muddy, the mascot for the Carolina Mudcats. The Mudcats have replaced the former Kinston Indians as the Indians' High-A Affiliate this season. Muddy was fun to draw because it's not every day you see a catfish walking on two legs in full baseball garb. Also, the Mudcats are the only Indians affiliate close to my neck of the woods here in the southeast, so I had to make sure to represent them well in my continuing quest to draw all the Indians affiliate mascots.

(Disclaimer: Representations of team logos appearing on uniforms are there to capture the mascot as close as he/she appears in real life and I'm not claiming those logos as my work. All credit goes to the designers who have created them.)

Come on down...and meet Skippy!

I've learned something about myself over the years: If your mascot is lime green, then I'm automatically a fan.

I don't know what it is about that color. It must be the perfect mascot color or something. Therefore, I was insanely excited that one of the Indians' affiliates, the Lake County Captains, had such a mascot, Skippy. Obviously, his lime green pudginess was my favorite part of drawing him. However, I must tip my cap to the team branding as well, as I think their logo set is pretty awesome. I love the lighthouse as the "I" in the Captains wordmark. It fits so seamlessly in the logo that it acts as both an "I" and lighthouse simultaneously. Perfection my friends.

(Disclaimer: Representations of team logos appearing on uniforms are there to capture the mascot as close as he/she appears in real life and I'm not claiming those logos as my work. All credit goes to the designers who have created them.)

Mahoning Valley Scrappers Mascot...Here's Scrappy!

I'm trying to go in order of minor league level in completing my Indians' affiliate mascot drawings. Therefore, first up is Scrappy, the mascot of the Mahoning Valley Scrappers. He's always been one of my favorite mascots and I had a lot of fun putting this drawing together. I particularly enjoy the chain-link necklace and hardhat. It's those little quirks that really help define a mascot and make it just a little different from the rest.

(Disclaimer: Representations of team logos appearing on uniforms are there to capture the mascot as close as he/she appears in real life and I'm not claiming those logos as my work. All credit goes to the designers who have created them.)

A Little MiLB Mascot Sketching

I don't know how you spent your 4th of July, but since it was so wonderfully hot and muggy here in Knoxville I decided to stay inside and sketch a little. More specifically, I decided to sketch out the mascots of my beloved Cleveland Indians' affiliates (yeah, I love the Tribe that much). I plan on coloring each one over the next few weeks.

From L-R*: Scrappy (Mahoning Valley Scrappers), Skippy (Lake County Captains), Muddy (Carolina Mudcats), Orbit (Akron Aeros), Lou Seal (Columbus Clippers)

*In case you were wondering...yes, I was nerdy enough to organize my sketches by minor league class from Rookie-AAA. What can I say? I love the absolute plethora of teams and mascots in minor league baseball.

Memphis Women's Clinic

Here is a piece I recently finished for the U of M. It is an invite to their first annual Women's Clinic to help raise awareness about Tiger football. It was quite a challenge to bring a little femininity (say that one five times fast) to a sport that has a largely masculine following. I think overall it turned out very well, as the sans-serif fonts standout on the faded flourished background. I wanted the background to resemble one of those designs you see on purses and handbags, but I didn't want it to be too bold as it would clash with all the information they were wanting to get across. I used the inline font for the title and date to give a little bit of flair to them. I also made them both a shade of pink to highlight them as the main info of the entire piece.

If you'd like to learn more about the event, check out the story (and my piece on the Tigers website) here!

Orioles Magic...Feel It Happen

I realize that I am posting this illustration while the Orioles are in the midst of a 6-game losing streak, but maybe this guy will turn their luck around. It is a drawing I decided to do for my younger brother as he is a huge Orioles fan and we are also headed up to Baltimore at the end of June to watch the O's take on the Indians at Camden Yards. I had a lot of fun drawing this one, as it was my first full-on illustration I've done in a while. Plus, I just think the Oriole Bird is a pretty awesome mascot.

A Roar Like Never Before...

This is the introduction piece I did for the "Roar Like Never Before" series we are gong to start detailing the many changes within the U of M football program for the recruits. I did the intro kind of like a movie poster to make it act like the preview you see before the whole film, the still shot that (hopefully) makes you want to see more. I'm interested to see where it goes and will definitely be posting the subsequent pieces in the series!

Another MiLB Mascot...

Here are a couple drawings I did this past week of Oggie, the mascot of the Ogden Raptors. I thought he would be a fun challenge since he was a raptor, which you don't see every day in the sports world. All in all it was fun to work on. Who knows where I'm headed next...


(Disclaimer: Representations of team logos appearing on uniforms are there to capture the mascot as close as he/she appears in real life and I'm not claiming those logos as my work. All credit goes to the designers who have created them.)

A Few Mascot Drawings

Sluggo - Eugene Emeralds

Over the past few weeks--to keep up my illustration chops--I've been doing some mascot drawings of from different sports that I thought provided some different challenges. With baseball in full swing and hockey in playoff mode, I've concentrated on those tow sports.

The biggest challenge was the image at the top. Cool Ray is the mascot for the South Carolina Stingrays, the Caps affiliate in the ECHL. The challenge? He's a stingray on skates. It's not exactly a mascot you see everyday, so I wanted to go at trying to get him in action and I think I captured it well.

Stormy is the mascot of the Carolina Hurricanes. Once again, it's an "ice hog" on skates, which I just wanted to try and capture. I spent quite a while working on that drawing, but I think it did a great job of capturing that "family fun" atmosphere that a mascot brings to a team.

Last but not least is Sluggo, of the Eugene Emeralds. I decided to draw him because he looked like the bear brother of the Philly Phanatic, who happens to be my favorite mascot ever. I mean, he's a lime green bear. What's not cool about that? All in all, each mascot was a lot of fun to draw, and I hope to be posting some more drawings in the future.

(Disclaimer: Representations of team logos appearing on uniforms are there to capture the mascot as close as he/she appears in real life and I'm not claiming those logos as my work. All credit goes to the designers who have created them.)

Another Concept Logo

Here is another concept logo I worked on this weekend. It was for a basketball team. I was really happy with how it turned out so I wanted to post it here. I thought the colors worked well together and that it also translated very nicely into a one-color logo. I also believe the type meshes well with the horse, and for some reason I just love how the mane on that puppy turned out.

 

U of M Camp Brochure

It is long overdue for me to post this project, but here she is... the U of M summer football camp brocure. It was quite the long process to put this one together (including resizing the whole thing at the very end) but I was very pleased with the outcome. The top two images are the computer files I stared at for hours on end, to make sure the poster was truly epic and that all the info was legible on the other side. It was an intense process but I loved getting it in the mail and unfolding the awesomeness!

Dontari Poe Draft Announcement

As you may have noticed last week, Dontari Poe was selected in the 1st round of the NFL Draft by the Kansas City Chiefs. Seeing as he is from the U of M, it was only natural that we did a piece about his selection. I enjoyed working with their color scheme to change things up from my usually blues and grays of most of my U of M pieces. It was fun little sidetrack from my other projects.