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How We Repositioned an NFL Brand and Drove $1.6M in Revenue in Six Days.
SUMMARY
The National Football League’s Atlanta Falcons have progressed through many memorable evolutions of identity in the franchise’s 64 years – but even the most established brand must reinvigorate its fans and followers.
The 2020 season presented that opportunity.
As Executive Creative Director, it was my was duty to shepherd all stakeholders through the uniform design and brand identity evolution – from the Falcons C-Suite to our partners at Nike and the NFL to my own creative team – and ensure that the end product staked out a new, exciting position for our brand but rang true to our identity.
SCOPE
// Creative Director
// Brand Positioning
// Creative Strategy
// Uniform & Retail Collection Design
CHALLENGE
As Executive Creative Director, it was my was duty to shepherd all stakeholders through the uniform design and brand identity evolution – from the Falcons C-Suite to our partners at Nike and the NFL to my own creative team – and ensure that the end product staked out a new, exciting position for our brand but rang true to our identity.
SOLUTION
A clean and intentional design that boldly marks a new era of Falcons football. The new uniform modernizes the brand, delivers on fan feedback, and overtly connects the team to the city, serving as a badge of pride for all Atlantans.
We analyzed nearly 20 years of fan and player feedback data on what was important to them in their teams uniforms and identity.
The Data
Was Clear.
Fans and players felt the brand needed to mirror the city's modern progression.
We Overtly Connected the Falcons to the City of Atlanta.
It was important to make Atlanta a main character in the Falcons story.
Behind the Design: video provides an inside look into our approach and how we included players throughout the process.
» LEARN MORE | About the Design Approach
Own Red. Bring Back Black.
Black and red uniforms have been a part of the Falcons since they first stepped on the field in 1966, but when it came to feedback both players and fans made themselves heard loud and clear. Their common request?
“Bring Back Black” home uniforms.
Falcons Uniforms 2003-2019
Inaugural 1966 Home uniform
Red is used strategically to draw focus to the uniform's critical visual elements.
01 Falcons Logo
02 ATL Logotype
03 Number Drop Shadow
04 Stoop Graphic
Rise Up Jersey
Targets the Next Generation of Fans.
To reach youth, we had to introduce something the NFL had never seen before. We did that with the Rise Up gradient uniform.
Players Told Us Black Uniforms Make Them Feel Powerful.
We brought back black home jerseys giving the players and the fans what they wanted.
We also reintroduced the classic 1966 jerseys – a nostalgic fan favorite.
( L: Home / R: Classic )
“Theres just a feeling to it I can’t explain, when you see that color [black] in your locker.”
Atlanta Falcons QB // Matt Ryan
Reflect the Modern
Progression of Atlanta
The new uniforms needed to feel at home within the state-of-the-art design of Mercedes-Benz Stadium while also still feeling viscerally like the Atlanta Falcons had come to know and love.
New ATL Logos Celebrate Unity Between City and Team.
As part of the refreshed branding, we developed a collection of new ATL logotypes and lockups.
» LEARN MORE | What Makes Atlanta Special / New Logos and Lockups
Atlanta is more than a city the Falcons play in. It is of unique culture, personality and stories. It is a badge of pride, and now it is sewn into our fabric.
In this AtlantaFalcons.com feature we spoke with Atlanta influencers including Deon Sanders, Ludacris and Mayor Bottoms to understand what makes Atlanta special.
There are a lot of people in this city that ride for the Falcons, and we want to let them know that we're riding for them, also.
Deion Jones // Atlanta Falcons LB
Our Love for Atlanta Sewn into the Team's Fabric, Proudly and Prominently Across each Player's Chest.
The Uniform Design Process
Over the course of 18 months, I was embedded with the Nike and NFL teams orchestrating the uniform design process to ensure the fan's voice was actualized in the final design.
Finding the Future
in the Past
We ensured the uniform design was authentic to Atlanta and the teams history by leveraging aspects of the past to inspire key design elements.
> LEARN MORE | About the Uniforms Key Design Elements
THE STOOP
Inspired by the speed, precision, and the simplicity of a predatory falcon attacking unsuspecting prey and re-imagined as a graphic extension of the team's logo.
RISE UP GRADIENT
Honors the city's historic resurgence – Atlanta as a city on the rise – through a visual pattern made from the eye in the official Falcon logo.
Logo decal 30% larger
Chrome facemask / ATL logo on front bumper
Sleek Modern Helmet Design
The new helmet design mirrors Atlanta’s swagger, featuring a sleek matte black finish contrasted by a 30% larger metallic logo decal and chrome face mask.
Four unique jersey styles with seven color combinations including the 1966 throwback.
The Uniform Collection
New Falcons uniforms that fulfill what the fans want, strip away excessive elements, and proudly display our city’s name across our chests.
In this video we reveal the final uniform design to the world.
> VIEW MORE | Highligfht Videos of Each Uniform
Home All Black
We heard the popular demand from our players and fans, so the team will usher in this new chapter of Falcons football with black uniforms as the primary home look.
Away All White:
A crispy and clean all-white outfit that maintains the same minimal, intentionally sleek design that puts our city front and center and turns the swag up to 11.
Rise Up Gradient:
The NFL’s first gradient jersey targets the next generation of Falcons fans.
The four primary uniforms: Away, Alternate, Home, Classic (L to R)
Additional color combinations that can be achieved by combining different pants and jersey colors.
The NFL’s First Gradient Jersey
We understood that to conect with the neext generation of Falcons fans we needed to design something the NFL has never done before.
We did that with this jersey.
Home All Black - Front
Home All Black - Back
Away All White - Front
Away All White - Back
ALT Rise Up Gradient - Front
ALT Rise Up Gradient - Back
Throwback - Front
Throwback - Back
Jersey Sales Drove $1.6M in Six Days, Making it the Biggest Online Sales Day in Team History.
Sports Business Journal Article
Modernizing a Legacy Brand
On a parallel path to the uniform design, I orchestrated the Falcons in-house teams to redefine the Brand DNA and design language.
The Evolved Identity Design Included:
Developing new logos and brand lockups
Modernizing the brand typography
Designing a tightly-curated graphic toolkit
Clearly defined photo and video styles and standards
Apply new design language across digital and traditional mediums and executions
Authoring sales and brand messaging
Define new brand standards, manuals and training curriculum
Brand Positioning
We repositioned the team as the brand representing the pride of Atlanta.
An early ideation session with key members of the Falcons in-house design team
Through cross-functional collaboration with the Brand and Communications groups, we authored a new Brand Identity Playbook including updated vision, mission, messaging, voice, and tone .
> VIEW | Sample Brand Playbook Pages
Falcons Manifesto
Table of Contents
Brand Messaging
Brand Voice + Tone
Brand Vision
Our Purpose
Be sure to ask me about how, I hosted training sessions with internal Falcons departments, corporate partners, and key vendors and agencies to understand their needs and ensure the new brand identity was surgically executed by various internal and external teams and agencies.
Design Language
Grounded in the uniform design, staying true to the elements that anchor the team to the city.
Anatomy of a core brand asset as defined in Brand PLaybook
A precise, common ‘language’ is applied, enabling those ways in which the brand will be consistently executed across all media and platforms.
> LEARN MORE | About Our Design System
Modern. Bold. Focused. Youthful.
Black as base color
Red to call attention to areas of importance and primary messaging
“Larger than life.” subjects remain unobstructed and compositions uncluttered
Compositions that highlight the ATL on the chest or helmet
All creative must be qualified by a primary logo if it is not visible on the helmet or jersey in photography.
> LEARN MORE | About the Design Language Graphic Elements
New Logos + Marks
Color Story
Our brand colors are an essential part of the Falcons visual identity. Together with our logo, our colors are the signature identifying feature of our brand.
Graphic Elements
In addition to the team logos, we have identified a key set of visual triggers within our design language to evoke a sense of familiarity through a direct connection to the team’s new on-field look.
Rise Up Gradient Pattern: Represents a city on the rise. Used to amplify gradient themed games and retail items.
Stoop Graphic:
Represents speed, precision and aggression
Throwback Stripes:
A direct link to the uniforms from our past. Used to reference throwback games and historic content.
Photo + Video Style
We want photography to tell the right story, so we defined a new set of Photo Pillars to provide a consistent and identifiable image style that fans will begin to subconsciously recognize.
> LEARN MORE | About The Photo Style
We Focused on Three Compositions Styles.
Hero Perspective:
Portray subjects as larger than life
Extreme Close-Up:
Reveal grit, emotion, attitude & personality
Dynamic cropping:
Highlight aggressive & athletic body language
Photo Pillars
Heroic
Larger than Life / Strong / Inspirational / Extraordinary
Dynamic
Energetic / Intriguing / Innovative / Impressive
Immersive
Context, Environment, Community, Details
Authentic
Intimate / Personal / Human and Emotional
Typography
Designed to Compliment the Team’s Uniforms and Graphic Elements.
Working with NFL art directors and type designers we evolved the team’s official brand font to set the foundation for a new new collection of official team logos.
We created symmetry between the official brand font and the jersey numeral system.
> LEARN MORE | About the New Brand Typography
“WINGTIP”
A Modern Brand Font
The Falcons had equity in their current brand font, but it had become dated and limiting by its lack of versatility. Our approach was to maintain the identifiable attributes of the current font, while strengthening letterforms.
New brand font “Wingtip” core letter forms
Evolved Logotype
Tighter letter spacing, bolder and sharper letterforms and aeronautic notches in the counter spaces provide a more versatile and aggressive logo type
Jersey Numerals
A tight radius at the corners, sharp talon-like terminals, and a refined drop shadow resulting in a clean and legible system that reflects the city's modern architecture.
Content Capture
With a clear vision for the new brand identity, I worked with the internal stakeholders to develop a robust two day content capture plan to fuel the media release.
More than 150 Editorial and Broadcast Placements were Secured for a Total of 1.3 Billion Media Impressions.
We made it easy to access our content by providing media outlets with a dedicated Uniform Release Media Hub, which resulted in more then 25k assets distributed in 24 hours.
Media highlights included Associated Press, ESPN, CBS Atlanta, Fox 5 Atlanta, CBS Sports, New York Times, and USA Today accounting for over 1.3B media impressions and over $16M in ad impressions.
Our media hub garnered more than 25k asset downloads in the first 24 hours and amassed more than 150 editorial and broadcast placements for a total of 1.3B media impressions in the first 6 days.
ESPN.com
Application Examples
On Wednesday, April 8th, we unveiled the first comprehensive redesign of the team’s uniforms in 17 years.
Uniform Tease
The “stoop” graphic is revealed for the first time in a letter from team owner Arthur Blank announcing the uniform release date to Season Ticket Members.
Uniform tease videos were released to build anticipation and excitement throughout the week leading up to the reveal.
Out of Home Examples
Digital billboards were strategically identified near areas with visibility during Covid, including locations near grocery stores and hospitals.
Retail Examples
Atlanta Falcons Official 2020 NFL Draft Hat
Atlanta Falcons Official 2020 NFL Draft Hat
The ATL Fan Collection
In Stadium Examples
Record-setting digital audience consumption and engagement numbers
“The Falcons generated some of the highest traffic numbers we've seen for their club web and mobile app with their uniform reveal!”
- Per NFL League Office / NFL Social
Results
Under my direction we evolved the Falcons Brand DNA to introduce a sleek, clean, bold, and youthful uniform designs that connected with the team’s past but were laser-focused on the future.
The new designs exceeded fans’ and players’ expectations, modernized the brand, and generated $1.6M in jersey sales in just the first 6 days – breaking all previous team retail records.
LET’S WORK TOGETHER.
Need a creative leader with a diversified background and passion for brand success and team building? I’m your guy.