Makers Of Sport Podcast

There is perhaps no better way to end Makers of Sport's podcast then to provide what may be the most inspiring story in its history. Ali Rahmoun—3-D Designer, Creative Director, and Founder of Sports Templates, a digital asset company whose products are used by #smsports creatives in the NBA, NFL, NHL, and more—joined the show in 2021 to share his inspiring story. A native of Syria, Ali discovered the Internet in a war-torn, Isis-occupied country and began teaching himself graphic and web design as a teenager there. Initially, he fell in love with interacive Flash websites and frequented the niche platforms millennial creatives often found ourselves on during that time such as DeviantArt, Dribbble, and Behance. Overcoming many hardships, including once having to power his computer via a truck battery due power outages from war so he could meet the deadline of a client, Ali developed a strong instinct to learn under intense circumstances and persevere. His eventual passion for creative entrepreneurship

Jessie Kavana (aka JKav) is a Senior Graphic Designer at BSE Global, the company that owns the Brooklyn Nets, NY Liberty, Nets GC and more. She joined the show to discuss her career and evolution as a creative. A native New Yorker with a passion for hoops and a dream to work in sports marketing for the New York Knicks, Jess began her journey at Skidmore College as a college basketball player. Stints in college athletics and ESPN would finally lead Jess to settle down in Brooklyn to work for the 'all black everything' Nets. It has been in there where Jkav has really found a home and has caught her stride as an in-house sports designer. Along with previously discussing her career path, we discuss how Jess has gained trust with her leaders and ownership group and it has allowed for her to take on some high-profile projects within the organization such as working on uniforms with Nike, designing the player entryway, and more. Jkav touches on how the Covid-19 shutdowns led her to experiment with a new discipli

Dexton Deboree, Founder & Chief Creative Officer of Falcon, and director of the award-winning documentary, "Unbanned: The Legend of the AJ1", joined the podcast to discuss storytelling, entrepreneurship and the role of filmmaking in sports culture. A lost youth in Florida, Dexton didn't have a path. He was unsure of his future; however, a revelatory moment in the middle of the night in college changed him forever and led him to creative pursuits and a transfer to a film school. Obsessed with the idea of being a screenwriter, Dexton became fixated on writing—almost to a fault—believing that if he wasn't writing he wasn't pursuing his destiny. This caused him to nearly miss out on a breadth of experience he would later gain as a P.A., which led to a wealth of knowledge about the business of film. Listen in as Dexton shares stories about the early years of his career and how his unorthodox path led him to eventually buy and rebrand a studio, and later leave that studio to found Falkon®. Dexton shares the

"Apply what you learn [online] and actually do something—even if it's not for making money—just make something. Do something with what you're learning and practice it." Matt Halfhill, founder of Nice Nicks, is not a monolith or a cliche ‘sneakerhead’. The son of college professors who moved to California from the Midwest, Matt played in a Dixieland Jazz band as a kid, fell in love with sneakers in the Caribbean in Grenada, and dropped out of college to start the Internet’s first-ever sneaker blog. Today, what started as a blog has become a digital media brand that is one of the most trusted in the footwear industry with over 4 million followers on Instagram. From experimenting with web development in the late 90s to learning to sell overstocked sneakers on eBay from his first job, Matt developed a love of technology and digital communication as a youth. Halfhill joins MoS to discuss the story of Nice Kicks, its mission to be inlusive of all folks wanting to become a fan of sneakers no matter their level of

Tori Boykins is a creative with many layers. A boxer, entrepeneur, graphic designer and gritty midwesterner, Tori joined the show to discuss her long journey breaking into the sports design scene, first at the Kansas City Chiefs, and currently as a graphic designer with the Kansas City Royals. From majoring in interior design at a Big Ten university known for engineering, to starting a business in college and running it six years, Tori has had quite an eclectic career. We attempt to peel back the many layers of her story beginning with a love of art and geek culture as a kid in Cincinnati, Ohio. We discuss how she got sucked into "old school mentality" choosing to attend community college to get an associates in graphic design after already obtaining a Bachelors in Interior Design years earlier and founding a small business. Tori also elaborates on how a black-owned design studio in Texas gave her a chance as a design intern, as well as how pitching free projects to real, underserved sports brands such as

A bonus episode for your enjoyment. On Episode 25, Joe Bosack of Joe Bosack & Co. turned the mic back on my tell my own story. This was a few years ago and Makers of Sport® was just getting off the ground. Considering I have many more listeners and the podcast has played such a big role in my life since then, I figured it was time for an updated story about the host of your favorite podcast. Enjoy the listen as I joined Sports as a Job Podcast to tell my own story of running a freelance design studio and starting a long-running podcast. Mentions Include: T/A Martin Studio T/A Martin Studio on Instagram Makers of Sport® My next guest is Tori Boykins, a talented graphic designer for the Kansas City Royals. Tori has had a fast rise to becoming one of the most talented designers in professional baseball. Sign up for the email newsletter for updates, discounts on future products and exclusive content for subscribers. You can also show your support and keep the podcast sponsor free by joining the member co

Dan Simon, Creative Director of Studio Simon in Louisville, KY, joined the show to discuss his lengthy career as a sports designer. Dan began his career at a west coast design studio who allowed him to freelance at night using their equipment. Him and an account rep wanted to pursue sports branding and ended up creating some mocked up work with acual sewn jerseys and it eventually led Dan down a 30-year path of designing for sports. We discuss how tough it is, even today, to win quality clients in sports design, why he chose his name for his studio instead of a made up name and why the former is important. Dan tells the story of working on three Super Bowl logos, including the patriotic XXXVI logo of the 9/11 season. Finally, we discuss how the industry has changed, burnout, and how to run a studio in a commoditized design industry. Dan is a treasure trove of stories and was the first-ever in-house sports designer for a profesional sports franchise. Listen along as he shares his story. Mentions Include:

Dane Storrusten, Senior Creative Director at the NFL, joins this episode to discuss his multidisciplinary design career and path to "The Shield". From majoring in illustration in art school, to designing products at Microsoft, robot interfaces, and NFL brand identities, Dane has had quite an eclectic career. He believes in saying yes to every opportunity and how doing so can lead to amazing opportunities to learn and experience new things; something that has proved to be true for his career. We discuss the value of being multidisciplinary versus specializing, starting and running a design studio, and more; including how doing side projects Dane was passionate about led to a call from the NFL with a newly-created position for him in Los Angeles. Dane gives us a peak into the creative heirarchy at the NFL between the L.A. and N.Y. offices, as well as how the teams collaborate on various projects, and the importance of breaking down creative silos in large organizations. Lastly, Dane spends some time sharin

William Peebles, Founder & Maker at Huntington Base Ball Co. in Boston, joins this episode to discuss industrial design, being a maker in the sports product industry and turning his love of baseball into a lifestyle business. We begin with William's time in art school which led to working as a designer at Reebok during their prime when endorsers were athletes like Shawn Kemp, Shaq, Allen Iverson, Frank Thomas and more. It was here he decided to take a crack at making his own baseball as a side project. It was not good. In fact, it was so bad he thought he'd never make another one again and moved onto working in other industries for a decade. A couple of economic downturns and layoffs over the next 10 years would force Peebles into making taking a second chance. He read, he researched, he practiced; 11 years later, William's passion for revitalizing relics from baseball's past has turned into a business and well-crafted brand at Huntington Base Ball Co. Listen along as William shares his story. Mentio

“We got in early on the digital brand stuff. We found it extremely important for us to know why we are who we are and tell that story consistently over time." Jordan Gielser, Creative Services & Brand Manager of Super Bowl LIV Champion Kansas City Chiefs, joined the podcast to discuss his lengthy career working for a historic NFL franchise. Jordan found his way into the Chiefs organization after majoring in commercial art in college; however, after a seasonal gig with the team he would find himself leaving sports design for a b2b industrial gig. Eventually, he returned to the Chiefs and would climb from junior graphic designer to creative services & brand manager which is his role today. The Chiefs had many successful campaigns this season including their 2019 Mexico City Campaign; which we discuss in depth. Jordan also touches on developing the creative for the historic 60th Season of Chiefs Football and how they were able to balance a completely different look for the season paying homage to the

“Fear is good, you can feed on it and it makes you work harder to be good and be better. If you get too complacent and happy, that's where you get in trouble.” A special episode from MLC Connect 2019 with two of the keynote speakers, Amy and Jen Hood of Hoodzpah Design of Southern California. Through their studio the duo have worked with companies ranging from small California businesses to major brands like Google and Target. Jay F. Hicks, a digital strategist and content lead at Bayler University Athletics and also the host of Sports Creatives Podcast, joined me to co-host in the MLC media room in the Atlanta Braves' stadium. Listen along as Jay and I chat with the Hood twins as they share how they began their company,imposter syndrome, how they developed soft skills and emotional intelligence, managing imposter syndrome, how they collaborate seamlessly with one with another and more. Mentions Include: Hoodzpah Design Hoodzpah Design on Twitter Hoodzpah Design on Instagram Jay F. Hicks on Twitter My

“Working with people is something you need practice with. Everybody has their own agenda, everybody has things that are important to them. You have to respect that but there’s times you have to fight for what you believe in.” Insung Kim joined the show to discuss his cross country journey from enivironmental design in Southern California to Kansas City to now working in the South as Senior Creative Director for the Atlanta Braves. Insung discusses how his immigrant parents supported his creativity leading him to attend art school and eventaully find a job as a designer in environmental graphics at a company where he stayed 15 years. Looking for a change, Insung moved his family to the middle of the country to work for internationally-known sports & entertainment architectural firm, Populous (formerly HOK Sport). While designing graphics for the Braves new Atlanta stadium, Insung struck up a relationship with Braves executives and was offered a job as Creative Director where he now leads a team of creat

Damer on getting work: "You have to be a hype machine. You have to create hype around yourself and most artists are very uncomfortable doing that because they feel they are bragging or they feel like they are going to get made fun of online." Barton Damer, founding artist and creative director of the boutique 3d animation and motion design studio AlreadyBeenChewed, joined the podcast for a chat about his career and how he has grown his company into one of the leading studios for producing motion content in sports and entertainment. Barton reveals how an injury skateboarding—a sport and culture he has always been passionate about—pushed him to learn graphic design and motion so he could continue to hang out with his skateboarding buddies. Damer touches on how he moonlighted nights and weekends for years while having a full-time job because he was the sole income supporting his family of 5 and how fourteen years into his career he began getting his first big brand work from sneaker companies as he developed

Simon Dent shares his thoughts on the future competition of sports teams as it regards to selling attention and tickets.

"On a Saturday afternoon when every sports fan is going to watch their chosen sport, there are thousands of brands barking at them whether it's a print paper, online, in stadium on LEDs, in the matchday program; there's all these messages and presumably only the best are going to get taken home with fans and that's what our job is: to be the best messengers." Simon Dent is a former sports business lawyer & agent turned creative agency founder in the U.K. As managing partner of Dark Horses, Simon leads a team of world-class creatives working with brand such as Peloton, PUMA, City Football Group, Southampton F.C., Under Armour, Nissan and more. Whilst working as an agent, Simon realized that brands were missing opportunities to better engage fans via athletes he represented, so he founded an advertising agency. Simon discusses the emotional aspect of sport and how consumer brands can leverage those emotions to engage consumers in a more authentic way rather than simply sharing a logo on the scoreboard.

"It's 100% about relationships. Probably the most important part of Mitchell Bat is the people I've met along the way that I consider true friends or trusted advisors." Jeremy Mitchell, agency creative director, web designer and most notably founder of Mitchell Bat Co., joined the podcast for episode 100 to discuss his passion project; a company that provides custom, hand-painted wooden bats to passionate & passive baseball fans, corporations and brands alike. Jeremy discusses how his college degree in sports management, playing in a band in college and a crush on a graphic design major (who eventually became his wife) eventually led him to pursue a post-grad career in design. A passionate baseball fan, Jeremy created a mockup of a hand-painted, striped bat one night and posted to his Instagram. The post got some likes and requests on where to purchase the bat, whom fans thought was a real physical product. Thus began the quest to start Mitchell Bat Co. We discuss the social mission of MBCo, how a con

"There's so much emphasis on people getting a job right after they graduate and getting into the workforce. You'd be hard pressed to find a lot more real life lessons than working at a restaurant...the real life world lessons and the things that you learn by serving people is something that can refine skills." Starting a business as a young person takes a lot of courage. You are often looked down upon by older professionals as having too little life & professional experience and too great expectations. It takes grit, perseverance and hard work. These are the key traits of an entrepreneur. Adam White has those traits. The founder & CEO of Front Office Sports joined the show discuss how a failed goal to be a member of the U.S. Coast Guard eventually led to starting one of the sports business's leading online publications. Adam tells the story of how FOS began as a schoool project and later scaled to a much greater audience demanding more content. He also touches on how he worked full-time at a UMiami

"What makes a successful brand from a brand identity and visual language standpoint is having consistent style that can also be fluid and flexible where not everything necessarily looks exactly the same but everything should "feel" the same." Sam Silverman, assistant director of creative media & branding for Ohio State Football, joined the podcast to discuss his work with one of the nation's top football programs and how classic typography inspires his work. Sam touches on how his passion for cars & sneakers and how they led him to a degree in the prestigious industrial design program at Ohio State University. We discuss his transition to graphic design, learning typography skills and being inspired by historic design movements such as Swiss typography and the Bauhaus Movement, and how he is applying these things to the football brand at Ohio State University. The ethics in sports design are a very hot topic in this episode as Sam & I chat about respecting and knowing the history of the discip

Chris Do elaborates on why creative people should value their services more and charge accordingly without feeling guilty.

"Designer as maker is what is celebrated in school, not designer as entrepreneur; designer as business problem solver. To me, when you're in the mechanics, when you have your hands in the work, it's all production and I make no distinction between doing that versus becoming a brick layer." Creative therapy. That's how I refer to this episode as it takes us down a path MoS hasn't been on before. Chris Do, Emmy award winning creative director, entrepreneur and founder of TheFutur & Blind studio, joins the pod to share his views on many topics including higher education, entrepreneurship, money, self-worth, depression, and how designers can win the battle of business. We come in hot discussing the often divisive topic of higher education and wonder if a college degree is important any longer. Chris also discusses the value of time and we why should understand that value is in the eye of the beholder and oftentimes, we aren't the beholder of the work we create. Lastly, we discuss the modern state of desi