The New York Red Bulls — one of the flagship professional soccer clubs in the New York metropolitan area — have always been more than just a sports team. They’re a community fixture, a cultural engine, and a brand deeply committed to giving back to the region they represent. For someone like me, who genuinely thrives in the energy of sports and entertainment, collaborating with them was the kind of assignment that hits both the creative and emotional parts of my brain.

During the 2016–2017 seasons, I stepped in as Assistant Art Director, joining forces once again with Michelle Cruz, a trusted collaborator from my Madison Square Garden days. Michelle has always had an impeccable eye for creative talent and a strong instinct for who can handle the intensity and pace of sports-driven production. When she pulled me into the Red Bulls’ orbit, it felt like a natural extension of the collaborative rhythm we’d built years earlier — only this time with the full dynamism of Major League Soccer behind it.

My core assignment was ambitious: create a 350+ page media guide spanning both print and digital channels — a massive undertaking involving player bios, stats, photography, editorial layouts, brand behaviors, and dozens upon dozens of cross-functional stakeholders. It required the discipline of a seasoned production artist, the vision of a creative lead, and the flexibility of someone used to the breakneck pace of live-sports environments.

I dove into the build using every skill and shortcut in the Adobe Creative Suite — InDesign for long-format pagination and cross-referencing, Illustrator for custom player-bio artwork and positional graphics, and Photoshop for retouching, correction, and establishing a unified visual tone across hundreds of images. Before any of that, I crafted a cohesive look-and-feel system that served as the foundation: a robust, modern style guide that defined type behavior, grid architecture, color strategy, hierarchical treatments, and spacing ratios that could hold up across 350 pages of content variation.

And then came the daily grind — the kind of organized chaos that only sports creatives really understand.

“This photo, not that photo.”
“Do we have a reshoot of this player?”
“What’s the updated headshot?”
“Is this the right jersey version?”

Every question required fast reasoning, faster decision-making, and deep brand instinct. I loved every minute of it.

I had the autonomy to make real-time design decisions, collaborating closely with the club’s social, PR, editorial, and internal design teams. It was exactly the kind of environment where I thrive: high stakes, fast turnarounds, constant adjustments, and the shared excitement of building something that will be consumed by media outlets, broadcasters, analysts, and fans. There’s a unique satisfaction in creating something that sits at the intersection of sport, storytelling, and visual identity — and this project gave me all of that in spades.

With clear direction from leadership and trust from the organization, I transformed a massive volume of raw content into a polished, accurate, and engaging media guide that represented the Red Bulls with pride. It was one of those projects that reminded me why I love working in sports and entertainment: the energy is unmatched, the collaboration is intense, and the creative output becomes part of the real-world pulse of the game.