CoSIDA Award Recognition for My Work

I received some very awesome news this past Thursday that I was a part of two award winning media guides from the 2013-14 CoSIDA (College Sports Information Directors of America) Publications Contest. The UTC football media guide for which I created the covers came in second place among FCS schools for Best Football Media Guide. This is actually the second time the football guide has come in 2nd place with my work on the covers, with the other time being in 2011.

On an even more rewarding note, my cover for the 2013-14 UTC Wresting Media guide won Best Cover in Winter At-Large Guides for Universities. It beat out work done by such schools as the University of Kansas and the University of Oklahoma. You can read UTC's write up on the awards here, and you can check out the full list of winners in all categories from CoSIDA here.

I am extremely honored by both recognitions and am very proud to have been a part of both projects. I thank the CoSIDA Publications Committee for both honors and look forward to continuing to create more great work down the road.

UT-Chattanooga 2013-14 Wrestling Media Guide Covers

Front Cover

Inside Front Cover

Inside Back Cover

Back Cover

A couple weeks ago I wrapped up another project for UT-Chattanooga athletics, this time for their wrestling team. I had the pleasure of creating the covers for their 2013-14 media guide for this season. The theme I had run throughout each of them was the metallic title bar, that I now see kind of resembles a stylized boxing/wrestling championship belt. Happy accident, I guess. In my original layouts the bottom half of the front cover was blue instead of gold, but they decided to go with the gold to vary the look a little more between the front and back cover. Overall it was a neat project to work on, especially since I'd really never done anything for a wrestling team before. I was very pleased with the turnout, and hope the team does well this season!

Tennessee Smokies Media Guide Covers

The Tennessee Smokies home opener is right around the corner (Wednesday, April 10th) and I recently finished up the media guide covers for the books that will be used this season. This project was a lot of fun for me mainly because I knew how many other people would have their hands on these books and I wanted to make sure they were holding something awesome.

I've been loving carbon fiber as a texture recently so I used that on both sides along with the red bar to add continuity between the two sides. The same relation can be said about how the names and titles on each side are laid out as well. My favorite part of the piece is the diamond shape on the front on top of the shiny silver background. There is a really nice depth created by the shadow around it that lets that area (and the title and players subsequently) pop just a little more.

As mentioned, with the season just around the corner, I have created some new concourse signage well that should be making an appearance on this blog soon!

2011 UTC Football Media Guide Final

Here are the final covers for the 2011 UTC Football Media Guide. It was a long process finishing these up, mainly because there was a move to Knoxville thrown into the mix in the middle of May. My fiancee and I are settled down now and I am ready to start working as a full-time graphic designer at Image Matters here in town. From top to bottom these are the front cover, front inside cover, back inside cover, and back cover. I hope these are greeted with as good a reception as the poster has had so far.

2011 UTC Football Media Guide Progress

Here are some screen shots of my current progress on the 2011 UTC Football Media Guide covers. The top image is the back cover which is basically finished at this point. The second image is the front cover, which still needs some tweaking. I might be moving the players and coach down further to shrink the black space at the bottom. The last image is the front inside cover. It is the color half of a collage of Chattanooga football. It spreads to the first page of the book, but that part will be in black and white. The only think I have not started on yet is back inside cover, but I should be working on that soon.