Southern Miss Social Media Graphics

It's a busy time down in Hattiesburg, and one of the ways they have been getting the message out about all that is happening in athletics is through some of the above social media graphics. I've been creating these graphics for the past few weeks to help promote a variety of athletic events on their Facebook and Twitter pages.

I love that these graphics give a little life to the regular social media post. The addition of the players make them human and connect the fans to the student-athletes. The graphics also allow me to get creative with the display of the game day information, adjusting the line height so that it just runs together. I feel that helps draw the eye to that information and the coloration then helps create a hierarchy. If you check the Southern Miss social media pages frequently, you'll be sure to catch a few more pieces of my work on there.

Southern Miss 2013 Soccer Poster

In the rush of college football getting underway, you might have missed that college soccer is in full swing as well. With that in mind, I am posting my design for Southern Miss' 2013 poster.

I'm trying to develop a consistent feel across the posters I am working on for them this year. The yellow bars and marble look of "SOCCER" echo my same treatments on the volleyball poster I created for the Golden Eagles as well. I did mix up the design of the bars on the bottom as well as a couple other treatments on this poster so that, while relating to the volleyball poster and other subsequent posters, it still has its own personality. Be on the lookout for more posters down the road.

Southern Miss Gameday Central 3D Helmets

As of yesterday, the 2013 college football season is well underway. However, the season doesn't kick off for the Golden Eagles until Saturday night. With that being said, you can head over to their Gameday Central site to see all their matchups this season using the helmets I created (at this point I need to give a shot out to sportslogos.net member davidson for his 3D helmet templates found here). I have never really worked with truly 3D looking objects, so this project was a fun experiment that had some awesome results. Check them out!

Southern Miss 2013 Volleyball Poster

As I continue getting my blog up to date I wanted to share a project I wrapped up for Southern Miss about a month ago. I had the opportunity to work on the schedule poster for the Golden Eagles volleyball team this year and I was very pleased with the turnout.

I tried something new with my title treatment on this poster, going for an indented marble stone look on "Volleyball." I think it turned out very well and the small inner shadow on it makes that area work. The golden flares were a design element put in both for show and to create a holding place for the schedule at the bottom. I plan on trying to incorporate them into the other Southern Miss posters I work on this year as a connecting theme throughout them.

I was also pleased with the secondary title at the top with the "Rise to the Top" tagline that is the mantra of Southern Miss sports this year. By turning the opacity down on it and letting it fade into the background a little, I made sure the viewer's eye was drawn to the brighter title at the bottom and the player photos directly above.

This piece came together very well and I really couldn't be happier with the turnout. Be on the lookout for a post on the printed version in the near future.

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.

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.

#6KatThePete Graphics

The college baseball season is winding down, and with that, Southern Miss baseball is making one last push to end the regular season with a bang. They are hoping to break their single-game attendance record when they take on Ole Miss this next Tuesday, May 14th.. Thus comes the hashtag #6KatThePete and the graphics I created above.

I thought the idea of the empty stadium worked best because it has a calm before the storm feeling to it. It's just sitting there waiting to be jam packed with Golden Eagle fans cheering on the team, and hopefully that all will come true next Tuesday!

2003 Southern Miss Baseball 10 Year Annv. Mini Poster

This poster is fresh off the Photoshop line! I wrapped this piece up for Southern Miss this afternoon to help them in commemorating their 2003 baseball team's tenth anniversary. It is a little treat to go along with the celebration this weekend. I really enjoyed creating the the Quick Facts section at the bottom and had fun adding all kinds of textures and photo filters to the main photo to give the poster a little weathered look. Good times as always!

Bringing Infographics to Southern Miss

This project was a design first for me: my first infographic. Southern Miss basketball has broken/tied a plethora of records this season and wanted a cool way to show their fans just how strong the program has been. That's where I came in and created this little doodad. For my first go around with one of these, I was very pleased with the outcome, as well with the overall solid response it received on USM's Facebook and Twitter feeds.

I wanted the team and individual records to relate in some way, so I used the same basketball graphic between the two sections. Changing up its use and color scheme between the two helped to delineate the two sections along with the horizontal vs. vertical layout. It was an awesome, challenging experience to put this piece together, and I am sure there will be more on down the road!

Southern Miss NIT Announcement: Covering Social Media

It has been a busy Sunday for college hoops as March Madness is now in full swing. Both the NCAA and NIT brackets were announced today and it was very exciting to see the Southern Miss Golden Eagles grab a #1 seed in the NIT! As part of this evening's excitement, I was able to help out by getting the message out across their Facebook and Twitter pages. As you can see from the images above, I worked with a layout that could be easily transitioned from one outlet to the next. The Twitter image will also work as a flyer that will be handed out on campus promoting the game on Wednesday.

It was really a neat experience to be involved with a March Madness announcement. It is a pressure packed day for not only the players, but for those of us behind the scenes as well! With Southern Miss being on the bubble, I had to be prepared to go either route with my design, depending on which tournament selected them. Here's to some crazy tournaments and great college basketball the rest of the way!

Southern Miss Facebook Cover Schedule

"Michael, you can't cram a whole weekend's worth of information into a Facebook cover image!"

Sure you can! And that's exactly what I did with the latest one for Southern Miss Athletics. They have quite the busy weekend coming up and wanted to advertise it on their Facebook page. It was definitely a challenge to get all the information on there in a legible format, but I was very pleased with the end result. I particularly like the extremely faded logo on the textured background behind the schedule. I find that a little texture in the background mixed with some nice shadows gives a good depth to a piece and helps the info pop just a little more.