During my time with Wayne State’s Sports Information Department I was asked to create updated videoboard backgrounds. They wanted two for football and one for volleyball. Since I was not well versed in this type of design I researched many other schools videoboard graphics. By doing so I came up with a few ideas, and alternates that were needed for each sport. My goal was to create something that would not age too quickly and represented the team and school well. I needed two version of a background for football so they could separate offense and defense.

For the football graphics I made multiple ideas and mocked them up as shown. I needed to make sure to include space for the player’s name, year in school, height, weight, position, and hometown. I found inspiration from our school’s mascot being a wildcat. I created a tear in the background to mimic the look of a claw mark. My other ideas included a cornfield in the background because our school is located around a few of them.

I also mocked up a version with a football play and field behind the player. Making these ideas come to life took time and hard work. It was not easy for me to have many ideas and turn them into something I was happy with. Through my struggles I kept working on each graphic until I felt it was good enough to show the sports information department. Once I sent the mock ups, the SID and football coach picked their favorite design.