College Football Playoff, 2022 National Championship
I was given the opportunity to design as a part of the Social Media Team for the 2022 College Football National Championship in Indianapolis, IN. I was selected as the Lead Graphic Designer for the team and was given the task of spearheading the overall style for the week - working in tandem with CFP Staff - while guiding and managing our design team members - Drew Mathis and Anthony Getz. This was a unique opportunity for me, allowing for experience not only with branding for the biggest stage in college football, but also with team management, communication, quality assurance and creative direction. It was a leadership role like no other and gave me further confidence in my capability to manage a team, specifically delegating tasks to maximize efficiency, communicating style guidelines, and encouraging the energy and production of each team member.
The challenge for me was keeping a cohesive tone across all graphics for the week, while still allowing each team members’ individual styles to shine through. The National Championship is no doubt an incredible platform for up-and-coming creatives to showcase their work, and the nuances and elements of each designer coming through in different pieces is perhaps the most important factor in collaboration. However, the role of the Social Media team is to visually represent the College Football Playoff as an organization, and so I wanted to establish some guidelines as well as an open line of communication and critique to ensure all 3 of us designers were on the same page with theme and style. It was an active example of how to balance personal desire to create ‘what we want’ while also fully understanding that we were here to serve and represent one brand and event - not just ourselves as individuals.
Behind the Design:
The first step to ensuring a cohesive look and set of guidelines for the team was to research the city of Indianapolis and create a style that embodied the culture, visual elements and tone of the area, while setting ourselves apart visually from the many other events and “themes” associated with Indy. I also wanted to incorporate some of the elements previously decided upon for the print and decorative assets by CFP & their design vendor. These are more basic, like shapes, textures and colors, so they were a great foundation to build upon.
Below was my primary example of the style for the week, and served as a visual guide for all members of the team.
