Over the past few months, I've had the opportunity to be brought onto Oakland University Athletics Creative Department as a Graphic Design Intern. I have been fortunate enough to be joined by colleagues that are skilled in a variety of design software that have equipped me with the necessary tools to better my skills as a graphic designer. Through the use of the Adobe Photoshop and Adobe InDesign, I deal with formatting the layout for graphics, posters, and flyers that are needed for the various Athletic teams at Oakland University.
Swim & Dive Mitten Toss Fundraiser: Towards the beginning of October of 2024, I was given the task of creating a flyer for the annual fundraiser that the Oakland Swim & Dive do. This year, they decided to have fans, friends, and family bring in several mittens/gloves to account for their ticket into the Swim & Dive meet between Oakland University and Grand Valley State University. I created a simple flyer with important information about the meet.
Oakland University Performance Staff Poster: More recently I was given the task of creating an informative poster detailing the Student Athlete Performance Staff apart the athletic department at OU. The goal of this poster was to grab the attention of student athletes at OU to inform them on the available resources they have from the athletic department that can ultimately attain goals of becoming better athletes. I had a lot of fun making this poster as I wanted to highlight the importance of having a balanced diet as well as having positive mental health, two things that I often reflect on quite frequently.
Men's Basketball Opening Night Graphic: Oakland University is home to a large selection of Division I sports that students and coaching staff have helped put OU on the map as a big contender in the NCAA. The Men's Basketball team are more primarily known for being the underdogs in the March Madness Tournament this past March 2024.
To help kick things back up again and to most importantly hype of fans, I was tasked with creating a graphic that was released a day prior to the opening night of the Men's Basketball season. In creating this graphic, I kept in mind keeping it simple and to the point which then helps grab the viewers attention in a timely fashion.
Holiday Social Media Graphic: For this graphic, I was tasked with creating a graphic for the Oakland University Athletics Golden Grizzlies Instagram page. I fashioned this graphic with holiday elements including: ornaments, pine needles and pine cones. I wanted to ensure that the branding was on synonymous with Oakland University's branding so I included OU's mascot Grizz as well as a background photo of the Michigan Upper Peninsula Porcupine Mountain range located in Wilderness State Park. I initially wanted to make the design more in line with gold text, but I ended up going the route of it being more aligned with silver.
New Year's Social Media Graphic: Likewise to the holiday graphic, I was given the task of creating a graphic centered around New Year's Day. I fashioned the graphic with fireworks which I was able to find through a YouTube Video. I then used a Hue & Saturation layer to manipulate the color of the fireworks to make it gold and added some finishing touches to Grizz with the Camera Raw filter. I was ultimately really happy with the second design turned out as it parallels the silver holiday poster with varying shades of gold.
Women's Soccer Schedule Graphic: Prior to the upcoming spring season for women's soccer I was given the opportunity to design a schedule graphic for social media account for Oakland University's Athletic program. I placed a mountain background for the graphic as I personally believed it fitted our branding. The background of this design was a picture that I had taken during my time in Gatlinburg, Tennessee in February of 2024 at the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The view of this mountain ridge fits the aesthetic that I was initially going for when I started creating this graphic for social media.
Men's Soccer Schedule Graphic: Similar to the women's soccer schedule graphic, I was given the chance to of create a graphic that is centered around promoting the upcoming spring schedule for men's soccer. In order to differentiate the two pieces from one another, I placed a dark moonlight background featuring a mountain range. To further the appeal of this graphic being soccer related, I desaturated a soccer field to place on the bottom portion of the image.
Macy Smith - 100 Career Three Pointer Highlight: Every so often, Oakland University Athletics likes to highlight the career achievements of both student athletes and coaching staff alike. I was given the opportunity to create a graphic centered around highlighting the basketball career achievement of player #12 - Macy Smith who made her 100th Career Three Pointer.
Tennis Schedule Graphic: Similar to the women's soccer schedule graphic, I was given the chance t create a graphic that is centered around promoting the upcoming spring schedule for women's tennis. My end goal for this project was to keep a consistent with Oakland University branding by implementing a topographic overlay to the skyline above the mountain range.