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!

CF Foundation 30 Under 30 Invite

So I'm not all sports all the time (just most of the time, haha!). Above is an invite I recently finished for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation's chapter located in Nashville, TN (dates and RSVP info changed). It's a fold over invitation that will be 5"x7" at its finished size, and I had a lot of fun putting this invitation together. I especially enjoyed my little trick with the headers on the interior. The two headers work by themselves, describing what is below them, and as a pair with it reading "about the event honoring..." and then your eye heads down to the 30 honorees.

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.

Southern Miss Poster Samples

I recently got samples of the posters I have created for several teams at Southern Miss. I have posted a few pics of each below. I always love getting the finished project!

             
                                                

Tennessee Smokies Promotions Graphics

The Tennessee Smokies just released their promotions schedule for the 2013 season and along with it came a couple graphics I created for the release. Part One of the release centered around the team's year-long promotions (Dollar Dog Nights, Fireworks Fridays, etc.). Since the fireworks are a huge draw I wanted to use them as a backdrop in this graphic. I also thought the sunburst idea would be a cool idea to incorporate as it echoes circus tents, state fairs, etc.--all places people go to get away for a little while and have a little fun. I kept the font on "Promotions" loose as well to go with that theme.

On Part Two of the release I stuck with the sunburst design and an old-timey font to keep with the having fun/"Kids Can Play" (the team's season slogan) theme. With the Gold Glove bobblehead giveaways being the main attractions this year, I used their images as little teases at the top. With them just peeking over the top of the title, it references that there will be a giveaway but at the same time doesn't let you know exactly who will be featured. Thus, you have to click through to the article to find out (the whole point in the first place!).

It was great fun creating these images and hopefully we will have packed stands for all of our promotions this season!

Tennessee Smokies New YouTube Background

If you head on over to the Smokies YouTube page you will see the first creation of our Video Production team for this season as well as the new background created by yours truly. It is a full scrolling background with a nod to the team's club affiliation about halfway down the page. Since I had free reign in terms of design on this one, I experimented a little and stumbled upon the "electrified" logo technique I used in this piece. I combined that with my new love of creating Photoshop lightning and voila!