Important Notice: Please refrain from saving my work as well as sharing my work in any other format than this weblink as this was just a fun project I chose to complete for myself and showcase on my site, but I am not at all affiliated or in collaboration with any league, organization, brand or athlete below. I used imagery from multiple, different talented photographers, and I edited free ready-made mockups via Mockup Wold to bring my visions to life. None of my work below is for sale, but I do hope you enjoy!
NOSTALGIA'S PRESENT
I remember being a child and hearing my dad, a rather jovial man, hollering at the screen in agony. My siblings and I would form up in the entry way of whatever room he'd occupy, and we would look from each other, to the TV, to my father and back. He was about two stages before tears and about six beyond the usual displays of frustration.
This was my introduction to sports.
Recently, I found myself wanting to honor my journey through the lens of Sports. As a Cleveland native, I was lucky enough to see the evolution of LeBron James from draft day to now in what has been an incredible run. This is another huge reason I was inevitably roped in. It's pretty hard to ignore sports in general when a generational talent born just a few miles over graces your hometown and vows to bring your city pride. It was from basketball that my understanding and appreciation of sports branched out into new realms, and it's from this lens I wanted to create for myself.
Instead of being nostalgic in the traditional sense, such as creating to commemorate the Cavs’ 2016 Playoffs success, I decided to stay present. I wanted to create graphics and products for a few of my favorite teams, athletes, and media stories that are currently on my radar.
CLEVELAND CAVALIERS
Much of my life took place in Cleveland, so my pride still runs rather deep for the city. Throughout my youth, I believe it was well understood, due to the presence of LeBron James, that the Cavs were most likely the next up to succeed in clutching a victory for Cleveland in comparison with other well known organizations such as the Browns and Guardians. This is exactly what makes the Cleveland Cavaliers such a soft spot for me.
Although the Cavaliers has received a rebranding in recent years with notable jersey and logo changes, I have chosen to lean towards the use of one of my favorite Cavs logos, the "C-Sword." At this time, the "C-Sword" is not included within the most modern release of Cavs logos, but this project was basically requested by my inner child. Thus, I decided to still use it here.
I found this compelling image of the sun setting over Downtown Cleveland from Anas Hinde on Pexels, and from there, I decided to create a cool graphic that I could hang on my wall or showcase on a simple T-Shirt.
Gilded Cavs BADGE
Of all the more recent Cavs colors of the 2000s until today, gold has always been its strongest accent in my opinion. With this, I became inspired by the "Shield" of the Cavs, known as a symbol of those who vow to defend The Land (a moniker of Cleveland). From this concept, I wanted to make gilded badges of honor that a fan like myself could slap on their laptops, notebooks, cups, and more.
One may have noticed that more recent Cavs merch and marketing materials are often void of Navy after the 2022 rebrand, which was a design choice made to signify the start of a new era post LeBron James. I was actually a huge fan of the 2017 incorporation of Black into the Cavs Franchise for a sleeker look, but the deep Navy is still a familiar favorite of mine, hence my inclusion of it here.
216 DNA
I created this poster to highlight the new talent on the Cavaliers roster as well as my own personal Cleveland pride. I felt that displaying the two in unison would be helpful in encouraging Cleveland residents to connect with and further support this new Cavaliers era of talent through their own sense of pride in where they're from.
THE UNDERDAWG
I remember seeing Shedeur Sanders as a child growing up on his father's Reality TV Series, Deion’s Family Playbook. Years later, I observed his college success as a QB with quite an accurate arm, even setting a new NCAA career record for completion percentage. Thus, you can see why his slide into the 5th round of the NFL draft came as such a shock to the football world. Many projected he'd be a 1st round pick or, at the very least, 2nd round. Questions and accusations of mistreatment quickly filled the air. Thus, after being drafted to the Cleveland Browns, support for Sanders began to soar. Despite Shedeur's hard earned college success and status as football royalty in relation to Deion Sanders, he's practically entered the league as an underdog. Despite this anomaly, I'm really excited to have him in Cleveland, and I'm hoping he'll drown his draft woes in heaps of success.
REAL JAG
While Sanders finds his footing in Cleveland, his close friend, previous teammate and the Heisman Trophy winner, Travis Hunter, finds his way to success in Jacksonville, FL. Jacksonville has been my place of residence now for almost 10 years, so once again, I was actually pretty excited for this pick. Working up to the Heisman is certainly no easy feat, so the expectations are heavy. The main question that surrounds Hunter is if he'll be able to continue playing on both sides of the field as he did in College at the most elite level of football. More than fatigue, an increased likelihood of injuries is called into question. While I'd love to see him become a game changer on both sides of the ball injury-free, I'm just excited to see him activate that animal instinct he's known for.
I wanted to highlight Hunter's agility and athleticism by comparing his talent to that of an actual Jaguar's abilities. After some experimentation, I opted for a cleaner look with the help of some geometric shapes and a simple pattern I created.
EAGLES LIX SUPERBOWL
During college, I remember watching NCAA football with my dad on visits home. It was at this time I discovered a distinguished young gentleman with full gold locs by the name of Jalen Hurts. At this time he was doing his best to lead the Alabama Crimson Tide to playoff victory. I vividly remember the decision of Nick Saban to bench Hurts in exchange for Tua Tagovailoa amidst his struggles to perform in the 2018 CFP National Championship game. Following the win, Tua was made the starting QB for the Crimson Tide, and Jalen was demoted to backup. Later on in the year during the SEC championship game, Tua suffered an injury and it was Hurts subbed in on his behalf to lead the team to success. Following this, Hurts transferred to the University of Oklahoma for his last year for more playing time and to further develop his skills before the draft. There he found his own success, even becoming a Heisman Trophy finalist. After being drafted in the second round to the Philadelphia Eagles, I checked on Hurts often and began to notice he was steadily looking more and more like an NFL star after working his way into the starting position.
In 2023, I was devastated to see Hurts and the Eagles lose to the Chiefs in Super Bowl LVII. Many complained that it seemed Jalen and just a few others were the only Eagles that showed up to win. Hurts's performance was phenomenal, and I remember telling myself that if he gets another chance, I'm certain he will not lose. 2 years later, I was right. This second time around, the Eagles completely stomped over the Chiefs to the Super Bowl win, thwarting their rival's dream of a three-peat success in the process. I essentially went to bed in the clouds afterwards knowing that fans were going to paint the nation in green, silver, black and white in honor of the most deserving team and QB.
I wanted to bring emphasis to the Eagles Super Bowl win with the usage of paint to express the spirit of celebration from Eagles fans. I also photographed a pair of hands making a shadow bird which could serve as a nod to the Eagles, one's childhood dreams and the Eagles' hard earned W. While working up to the finished outcome, I also experimented with this heavily painted background. I was intrigued after editing it with the Eagles team colors instead, but it was a little heavy. Thus, I added a few elements to combat the busy background and landed on a very spirited Super Bowl poster for myself to look back on the iconic win of revenge.
THE JOURNEY of RYAN SHECKLER
It is well documented amongst friends and family that I absolutely adored Ryan Sheckler in my youth. After recently seeing him return to the X-Games after 8 years, I was excited to see him burst out of the gate with an ambitious trick. This reminded me of the vibrant, insane skater I've always known Ryan to be, and I wanted to create something cool in remembrance of his journey and my own as a viewer.
I decided to create two posters for two of my favorite skaters, including Ryan, that can double as advertisements for the energy drink brands they are sponsored by.
One of the sickest tricks I've ever seen would have to be Ryan Sheckler's Costco kick flip which of course included a massive drop of around 14 to 15 feet. I first wanted to make a digital poster with exaggerated proportions to highlight this, but it felt more grungy and forced than watching Ryan shred ever made me feel. His skating was lively, fluid and insane, so I experimented until I landed on something with a little more vibrancy, movement and meaning instead. After creating a design that spoke to me, I made some edits to a basic billboard mockup to showcase how well the energy and emotion of the heartfelt piece translates even from a distance.
FREEDOM
Watching a long haired, young Nyjah Huston skate was a special moment in time. Although his approach always seemed very intuitive, focused and smooth, I remember Nyjah being a very high energy, explosive skateboarder. He has the most Gold medals as a skateboarder in X Games history, and his video parts are always electric. His wipeouts on the road to his highlights made me appreciate his successful executions so much more. His bails will certainly make you flinch. In my case, it also made me appreciate whatever is wrong with pro skaters that leads them to commit to a life of daring athleticism at their bodies' expense. As concerning as it may be for some to watch, I can't help but wonder how free Nyjah must feel to go against the grain in consistently manipulating and surrendering to the mercy of gravity on such a massive scale.
Here I completed a couple of mockups for the final ad. After comparing the wallscape to the bus stop location, I felt that keeping the ad eye level in a high traffic, well lit, highly frequented area would likely prove more beneficial in striking curiosity and inspiration.
