Smokies Combo Dangler Signs at Smokies Park

A few more signs of mine have been hanging up at Smokies Park over the past couple homestands. The team recently introduced three combos to the concessions menu, and there needed to be a way to advertise them to our fans.

When I began designing these dangler signs, I recalled the look of circus attraction signs and trying to make these combos become the "attractions" of the concessions stands. Because of that thought process, I turned to the most basic of all color triads: red, yellow, and blue. Since red and blue are already a part of the team's color scheme, I knew I wanted to include them and then use the golden yellow area to let the info about the combos stand out. This basic color scheme is also a pretty good staple of many the fast food chain and really does a nice job of drawing attention to itself. I kept the background behind the food white because I really wanted the viewer's taste buds to beat their eyes to the piece and draw them to their potential orders.

Overall I really enjoyed working on these pieces and they became a nice set. The next time your at one of the Smokies main concessions stands, be sure to look up to see these delicious options!

Sports Design: Why I Love What I Do

To many people, this photo would be just another sports photo. Just some fans, just some players, and just some posters.

However, this picture is a lot more for me. It's why I love designing for sports.

The poster in this picture is the schedule poster I designed for UT-Chattanooga's 2012 football season, and it's becoming a memory for each person that is getting one signed by all the Mocs players. It's a time capsule of that season, that event, and that day.

I stumbled across this photo while putting together the covers for UTC's 2013 Football Media Guides (a work in progress that will be up on this blog down the road). I paused for a moment, and after taking in the whole photo, I cracked a small smile. I imagined the whole scene taking place, from the kid getting his poster signed to the player in the middle of the photo (#9) talking to another fan. So many interactions just like these occurred at this event where my poster was one of the focal points. That was a powerful feeling for me. Even from far away, I was an integral part of this day, of bringing this fan base out to connect with their team.

The greatest joy I get from each design I create for any team I work for is the fact that each one, whether it be a poster, ticket, billboard, or anything else, could become a memory for their fans. It could even be some young fan's first memory about a team. That thought drives me to make sure each design I make is my absolute best. As Joe DiMaggio said: "There is always some kid who may be seeing me for the first time. I owe him my best."

I owe each project I receive my best. Each one comes with its own set of challenges and problems to solve, but they all have the chance of creating a moment like the one pictured above. That chance is enough to keep me pushing to become a better designer with each piece. Here's to every project that comes my way and every memory I can help create.

Smokies Ad on Ballpark Digest

Ballpark Digest is one of the leading guides to everything baseball. From leagues to teams to parks and more, it's a one-stop shop for all your baseball news, and I was very excited to see an ad I created for the Tennessee Smokies now up on their website. As the team looks to fill a couple staff positions, it is awesome to see my work getting such large exposure on a nationally-renowned baseball site.

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.