ASSOCIATE CREATIVE DIRECTOR,
DESIGN DIRECTOR
NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE
As NFL design director, and later, associate creative director, I oversaw brand design and visual communication for the league and its entertainment, marketing, sales, and consumer products divisions, as well as team identity design and development for individual clubs.
HIGHLIGHTS
Team Identity Development: Directed the creative development of team brand identities, in collaboration with individual team ownership, including the Houston Texans, Atlanta Falcons, Arizona Cardinals, Tennessee Titans, Cincinnati Bengals, and Seattle Seahawks.
Worked closely with NFL legal to ensure trademark viability, and NFL consumer products division in developing the team uniform and specifications.
Team Naming: Oversaw the extensive research and creative exploration for the Tennessee Titans and Houston Texans name development, in close collaboration with team ownership. More to come…
Super Bowl Branding: Supervised a team of in-house designers and art directors as well as the seasoned environmental graphics firm, Infinite Scale Design Group, in developing the identity and look for Super Bowl XXXIX and Super Bowl XL. Our goal was to reimagine the Super Bowl brand experience to a level befitting the nation’s premiere sports entertainment event.
NFL League Branding: In 2004, we partnered with Landor Associates to define and codify the NFL’s brand positioning and values, and develop the tools and guidelines needed to assist the League and its partners in creating relevant, on-brand communications. Over the course of 18 months, I worked closely with Landor through the NFL identity refresh, development of the NFL brand book, and house style guidelines.
At the same time, we had undertaken a brand identity “refresh” to strengthen the NFL shield, while reducing the number of stars to reflect the number of divisions in the league. In our research, we could not determine the rationale for the number of stars in the earlier logo iterations. But reducing the number had the added benefit of easing reproduction and improving readability.
The final identity “refresh” launched after Roger Goodell was named Commissioner in 2006, which explains why the initial brand guidelines utilized the earlier shield.
NFL Playoffs Identity System: Guided the design development of a cohesive NFL calendar event identity system, designed for maximum impact and visibility on field and in network broadcast applications, with the ability for seamless co-branding across all 32 team markets. The system is central to the NFL’s ongoing efforts to increase the value of existing League assets, while creating greater marketing opportunities for League sponsors and partners.
