MAJOR LEAGUE SOCCER

Role

Creative Lead: Animation, HTML5 and Video, Senior Art Director

Period

2017-2019

Platform

Print, Digital, Video

Lift

360 Evergreen Sports Campaign

The Brief

The Rundown

Headquartered in Midtown Manhattan, Major League Soccer is a men’s professional soccer league sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation, which represents the sport’s highest level in the United States. The league comprises 29 teams—26 in the United States and 3 in Canada—since the 2023 season.

With Major League Soccer, I was digital and print visual designer for the 2017-2019 seasons. My “goal?” Taking media from all corners of the organization “talk“ to each other cohesively through style, messaging and balance to consistently evolve and elevate the MLS brand. Across all platforms, everything needed to be congruent and consistent to standards. Structured to build each season to a crescendo, the “Our Soccer/Nuestro Soccer” campaign was the new driving force for the 2018-2019 seasons. With many departments contributing to the multifaceted parts of the campaign, there might be a print asset from one department, video footage held by another team, social assets in development by the social team and so on. It was down to me to work with marketing to implement one or all of those pieces into a concise, clean, animated and marketable digital asset.

Many designers at MLS used at most two to three of applications from the Adobe Creative Suite per day—in my position I ran the entire gambit from Illustrator to After Effects. LED In-Game perimeter boards. Environmental graphics and stadium dressing. Animated screens for a takeover of a hosting city’s paid media in airports, streets and subways. One day was never like the other.

The Charge

Assisted the Creative Director to improve the Creative group’s technical and creative performance
Promoted a culture of creative quality and accountability and ensured creative deliverables meet both our clients’ expectations and our own standards of excellence
Extended client relationships and explored new ways to deliver value
Designed comps, storyboards, initial graphic concepts, and final deliverables
Developed and evaluated creative concepts, copy and art, at pre-determined points and providing direction prior to review by account management

The Team

Special Promotional Game Banner, NYC Rivals | 728x90

2018 MLS All-Star Game Banner 2 | 728x90

2018 MLS All-Star Game Banner 1 | 728x90

Kick Childhoood Cancer Banner 2018 | 728x90

eMLS Console Gamers Tournament Banner 2018 | 728x90

HTML5 Banners (Adobe Animate & Google DFP)

Weekly tune-in web banners raising the MLS online presence and briefing soccer fans of dates and times of events
Conceptualized, designed and coded/programmed multiple captivating animated weekly rashers of assets for upwards of 40+ banner ad versions per week from 320x50 to 160x600 pixels
Due to size contraints, 728x90 pixel ads shown left

MLS is Back Digital Takeover (App and Stadium)

A paid media sponsorship request was secured to promote the opening of the 2018 MLS season, with the target being to drive fans to the MLSSoccer.com website via a mobile screen takeover and drop-down ads. Both sizes included the sizzle reel of the 2017 season with the messaging of “MLS is Back”
Conceptualized, designed and animated two various sized promotional digital takeover screens with ad spend in SB Nation with embedded video promoting the season restart
This cut was also leveraged to season-start phone takeovers in-stadium and in-app

eMLS Gaming Platform

Twitch assets to drive to the emlssoccer.com/emls platform
Pax East gaming festival with live gaming competition both locally and globally

Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL) Digital Takeover

With the MLS All-Star international friendly match set to take over Atlanta proper, I was tasked with the digital side of the OOH takeover of the city. The first point of entry for many was this flagship of American airports that not only was dressed along with the stadium, but every screen had a digital takeover of various screens within every terminal. Almost wonderfully overwhelming, fans flying in from the U.S. and abroad was automatically engaged with kinetic video to pump them for the match and drive local sales awareness
A screen takeover of the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, utilizing cycling through each terminal and common area of the facility to promote The MLS All-Star Game for which fans and players flew in both nationally and from abroad
Digital takeover of the airport piqued demand for ticket that were already sold-out months in advance
The positioning and exposure elevated the MLS general ticket sales and viewership

LED Perimeter Boards

Conceptualized, designed and animated LED perimeter boards for MLS stadiums across the national league
In-Game tune-in and ticket banners elevated the MLS ticket sales and viewership.
Every animation was team-specific both by theme and perimeter board specs/size