2019 ECU Football Poster
We kicked off our look for the 2019-20 year in the spring with the unveil of the 2019 football poster at our annual spring game. The inspiration for this poster came from a number of sources.
First, much of the lore of Pirates is based in literature. Eastern North Carolina's heritage is full of stories of the Pirates that used to roam the seas not far from Greenville and East Carolina University. How does this relate to ECU Football? Entering 2019, the program will literally turn the page and start a new chapter in its history, when first-year head coach Mike Houston takes the field in a revamped Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium after a $60 million renovation. My goal for this was to build excitement by having this new era come to life off the pages, as many feel this fall may be remembered as a turning point for the team.
2019 ECU Soccer Poster
Now that the look for our poster set was determined with the football design, I began to have some fun with new variations for our other teams in building a cohesive branding initiative. I kept the purple and gold skies since it complimented our photographer's lighting so well, and began to experiment with putting the playing surfaces for each sport leading into the ocean, as many coaches want to feature our proximity to the beach.
2019 ECU Baseball Champion Poster
Heading into the fall of 2019, and the baseball team's annual Meet the Team event at the end of fall practice season, the team wanted a commemorative item celebrating the team's regional and regular season conference championships for fans to receive and get signed.
Unfortunately, the budget wasn't there for a true pennant to be ordered, so we got creative and came up with the idea to do a die-cut pennant poster. For this, I added a felt texture, and retro font/wear elements to provide a more realistic feel. Doing a poster also allowed me to fade an image of the team's celebration into the background, which is something not possible on a traditional pennant.
I really enjoyed the chance to test my abilities in designing on a non-traditional shaped piece. I also owe a great amount of thanks to University Printing and Graphics in their assistance in bringing this idea to life.
2020 ECU Lacrosse Poster
Since this was the first season in the young history of ECU Lacrosse to feature a true senior class, I and the coaches decided to feature them front and center.
2020 ECU Baseball Poster
This poster features the four seniors, who are featured on the baseball team's poster yearly per the coaches' request. I reused the grass plane I had created for the fall's soccer poster, however, I then added infield dirt and a lighting effect to create a lip to make the transition from the dirt to grass look more realistic.
2019-20 ECU Men's Basketball Poster
With 11 new players on the roster this year, I was tasked with putting more of a "generic" subject since it was unclear who the key players were going to be entering the season. Luckily, our uniforms with the big "ECU" wordmark provided an eye-catching element, while also placing a focus on head coach Joe Dooley's mantra for this season of wanting his team "Up to the Challenge" of taking the next step as a program.
2019-20 ECU Women's Basketball Poster
For women's basketball, the team wanted to feature a large Primary Icon, similar to the one that would be debuting on our new court design that season. We featured three key players from the previous season in a photo session that captured the tough and determined attitude the team displays on the court each game.
2020 ECU Softball Poster
For this, I featured the team's seniors in various poses while highlighting the water feature further than others we have done.
2019 ECU Volleyball Poster
The volleyball poster for this year provided a number of challenges in order to continue fitting in our brand continuity. The coaches wanted the team's lone senior featured prominently in the pose shown above, while being complimented with the remaining roster around her.
Obviously, it was difficult to achieve this, however in the end we were able to reach a satisfactory result.
Olympic Sports Posters