NFL PRO BOWL GAMES ‘24 & ‘25 - ORLANDO
key art, logo design, style guide development and applicaiton, illustration
NFL Pro Bowl Games ‘24 & ‘25 - A big shift happened in 2023 where the Pro Bowl was rebranded as the Pro Bowl Games. Instead of a straight forward all-star exhibition match, it’s been reimagined as a series of skill games and a FLAG football match with the AFC & NFC all-stars. I was tasked with updating the event to reflect the new city of Orlando, creating new skill badges for the new games, and focusing in on a unique piece of key art for the Program Cover. I was assigned this event 2 years in row, and each time the idea was to add new assets while keeping the overall aesthetic the same. In ‘24 I came up with a halftone palm frond that was part NFL Flag, part stylized halftone, and part Orlando; which I then expanded into a full pattern in ‘25 the following year.
Program Cover Art ‘24 - This is the biggest challenge of the Pro Bowl Games. We don’t know which players will show up until a week or two ahead of the event. This means I can’t leverage star players in decor. I started with illustration to try and get around player photography. After feedback it morphed into collage and eventually became this insane magazine style cutout with tons of detail and easter eggs. I’m really proud of how it turned out.
Program Cover Art ‘25 - Then how do you reinvent the wheel the next year? Once again I went back to a mix of illustration and collage. But it felt forced and too much like the last year. There has been a massive push by the league with FLAG so, I pivoted and started to riff on ideas. I used 1 lone white FLAG belt that I photographed 20x to create the intial concept of the flag wall, and the rest as they say ...
Badges, Stadium Design, & Other Assets - The skill badges are definitly a big part of the event and provide their own set of challenges. The skills change every year and on a whim durring development so, I try to keep them fairly simple so they don’t slow us down. Stadium and Hotel decor are the last two big pieces. But then sometimes you get asked for emergency illustration of a AFC and NFC football player for life size cutouts for a skill game. Although I love any emergency where I have an excuse to spend my day drawing.