Obscure Sports Network

For my senior thesis project at the Cleveland Institute of Art, I created a sports broadcast graphics package for a self-branded theoretical sports network called the Obscure Sports Network or "OSN" for short. I began by researching a current need within the sports industry and proposed a solution to that problem in the form of a dynamic graphics package highlighting various obscure sports.

I knew that I wanted to attempt a thesis that was unconventional and based around motion graphics as well as sports. And because the very nature of my thesis was unconventional, I decided to look towards areas within the sports industry that have rarely been a focal point.

The idea of OSN started with ESPN 8 The Ocho, which began as a joke appearing in the movie Dodgeball, and transformed into an entire phenomenon and community that ESPN broadcasts a couple times a year in which ESPN is transformed into ESPN 8 the Ocho for an entire day, broadcasting the wackiest and most unknown sports in the world. Although it had real representation of these sports, It isn’t consistent and only appears a couple times a year.

So, with an idea in mind, I looked towards other avenues of sports graphics that contained very unconventional styles. Things like the X games and Disney XD which portrayed a very different energy than the more typical look of networks like FOX sports.

And then, also taking inspiration from different patterns and shapes, that when used alongside with modern graphics, creates something unique and appealing. Things like halftones, and sharp patterns mixed with geometric shapes. So I took inspiration from the 3D comic book style of Spiderverse, shows like Now or Never, and abstract pattern collages from the 90s.

To give you an idea of the absurdity of some of these sports, here are some of my favorites, which include: Death Diving, Chess Boxing, Headis, and of course Face Slapping.

The initial phase after coming up with this idea was to figure out what exactly the brand was going to be. Establishing an engaging brand statement, target audience and list of adjectives was important to drive the look of the brand moving forward. The brand statement begins with highlighting the target audience, which are: obscure sports fanatics and neglected sports audiences, and introduces their needs, which are: graphic and broadcasting attention. The statement ends with describing how the brand separates itself from others, in this case: highlighting the absurdity and entertainment of uncommon sports. From there, I used descriptive adjectives that I could refer back to when developing the brand further. Words like: dynamic, energetic, wacky, amusing, and obscure.

The next phase was to identify the consumer by building user profiles. These are the people who your brand is catered to and built around with their wants and needs in mind. My two examples, Tevin and Jazmine, focus on young adults exemplifying the traits of an extreme fanatic and daredevil. Their backgrounds, goals, and pain points are different, but they still point to the same reason as to why the brand should exist. 

With the foundation of the brand in place, I took all of that information and began the visual development process beginning with a logo design to represent the network. I spent most of my time making sure the design of the O was very graphic and unique because it would be the main focal point and brand identifier in a majority of my graphics. I also made a simple progression from a detailed logo to an icon so that the logo could be used for multiple situations depending on the circumstance.

It was important before diving into concepting, that I had a deep understanding of what all went into a broadcast package. So I watched a ton of sports, and took screenshots every time a new graphic was introduced from beginning to end. This allowed me to understand not only the types of graphics that are essential to a broadcast, but the pure scale of a project like this.

From there, I took that knowledge and rough sketched many designs for graphics that I could later translate into 3D space. Everything from lower thirds, team match-ups, replay transitions, intros and outros, player profiles, and stats.

And then afterwards, I took those initial concepts and put them over game footage to see how they would translate and move on a screen.

I then needed to establish a universal font and color palette that could be used across the package. I chose a font that was sporty enough to fit the concept, but malleable enough to be used for headers as well as text. The blue and green color palette works together in a way that feels very retro and different, but doesn’t create visual overload with heavily contrasting values.

The next step was to create a library of pattern assets that could be used throughout the graphics and give them a sense of consistency. I decided to combine halftones and geometric shapes with sharp abstract shapes for contrast and visual intrigue. Doing a series of pattern tests helped me figure out what shapes were working together and what weren’t.

With the visual development of the brand completely established it was time to begin the 3D process. And with motion graphics, camera moves generate a majority of dynamic animation. So I spent time building a slider based camera rig that would be capable of handling heavy scenes and very complex movement.

I then modeled my scenes, keyframed rough animation to get a sense for timing, and began to develop the final rendered look through texturing and lighting. This was probably one of the longest stages in the process, translating the graphics into 3D, building an environment, and animating both the camera and models.

And throughout this process, I was also thinking about the community of these fans and how it largely exists on forums. So I came up with a prototype app solution that combines the sharing elements of social media and the functionality of a traditional sports app to establish a home for this community of dedicated fans that currently have very limited options.

For the more 2D focused graphics, I designed individual style frames before any animation occured to make sure the graphics were strong and visual enough without any movement applied. It was important to nail the consistency of the design before the consistency of the movement.

Once the animation process was completed, I focused on the functionality of the graphics, making sure that anyone without knowledge of animation programs like after effects, could simply change the basic stats using a template system. This streamlines the process, making it so that you don’t have to continuously render out the same graphic with different details.

Then finally, after rendering the animated scenes using Redshift and applying post effects to generate these dynamic environments, we have the final look of the 3D portion of the graphics package.

Here’s a fun little process progression from concept, to rough, to render, to final.

Below are a collection of stills from the entire package.