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 desi...
Dec 31, 2022•1 hr 19 min
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...
May 13, 2021•1 hr 13 min
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 w...
Jan 13, 2021•1 hr 17 min
"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 b...
Oct 09, 2020•1 hr 16 min
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 th...
Sep 23, 2020•1 hr 8 min
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 des...
Aug 26, 2020•1 hr 1 min
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...
Aug 03, 2020•1 hr 39 min
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...
Jun 16, 2020•1 hr 33 min
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 s...
May 10, 2020•1 hr 4 min
“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...
Feb 16, 2020•1 hr 12 min
“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 Univer...
Nov 02, 2019•31 min
“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 creativi...
Aug 20, 2019•1 hr 17 min
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 moti...
Jun 29, 2019•1 hr 8 min
Simon Dent shares his thoughts on the future competition of sports teams as it regards to selling attention and tickets.
Mar 26, 2019•39 sec
"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 , ...
Mar 24, 2019•58 min
"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 colleg...
Oct 03, 2018•1 hr 11 min
"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 ex...
Aug 07, 2018•1 hr 24 min
"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 f...
Jun 11, 2018•1 hr 37 min
Chris Do elaborates on why creative people should value their services more and charge accordingly without feeling guilty.
Feb 28, 2018•5 min
"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 stud...
Feb 27, 2018•1 hr 22 min
“The Internet is a great tool but you can only learn so much. Actually going to a place physically where you have someone that has [designed] at the highest level, you learn so much more…that experience is invaluable.” FYI: Sneakers are a passion of mine. It's no secret. This episode is quite nerdy on the sneaker talk. Xavier Jones , footwear designer at Reebok, joined the podcast to discuss the footwear design industry and his path to designing for athletes like Shaq and Allen Iverson. Xavier's...
Feb 04, 2018•1 hr 24 min
"Share your story, share your process; there might be somebody out there who's like you trying to find out where to start and you might have some insight they can use. Don't be afraid." Britt Davis , senior designer for AMB Sports + Entertainment (i.e. Atlanta Falcons, Atlanta Utd. F.C., Mercedes-Benz Stadium, joined the show to discuss her quick climb to being one of sports design's most notable designers. Her story begins with a creative childhood, supportive family and an undergraduate degree...
Jan 15, 2018•1 hr 50 min
On this episode, we have a crossover episode of sorts as I bring you the raw and uncut audio from a Q&A on SportsLogos.net I conducted with Brian Gundell of Brian Gundell Graphic Design Co. and Brandon Moore of the Miami Dolphins regarding their open branding freelance project for Baseball New Zealand . We discuss how the idea came about to publish a public log of process work for branding a sports organization like Baseball NZ, as well as chat about the challenges of working across 3 timezo...
Jan 09, 2018•56 min
"I think that the best design is design you don't notice most of the time, so I have no problem just putting up a beautiful photo if it's a beautiful photo." Marissa McClain , Sr. Designer/Brand Specialist for the Boston Red Sox joined this episode to discuss her passion for fine art & photography, and how it led to a gig with the Red Sox. We discuss her past as a student photographer for the Michigan Wolverines and an intern at Complex Media; as well as how she ended up shooting the Boston ...
Nov 15, 2017•1 hr 14 min
"The main job of a typeface is obviously to convey some information; but the second part of that is that it has to convey information with a specific tone or a voice." Tal Lemming , the designer of the sports industry's favorite typeface , joins the podcast to talk typography, designing fonts and type's role in sports design. Having got his start as a graphic designer in the agency scene in Baton Rouge after gradating from LSU, Tal eventually moved to Delaware to become a print designer at renow...
Sep 28, 2017•1 hr 55 min
"At the end of the day, I consider myself a creative person. I've taken the time to grow these skills slowly over time and I want to have as much fun as I can on all aspects of a project—whether that's design, animation, etc., to me it's all fun. That is what is going to stop me from burning out." Shane Seminole Mielke does many things—from coaching big-time high school football, to being a Crossfit athlete, to being a designer, developer & animator; he is a jack of all trades. Shane is not,...
Aug 16, 2017•1 hr 26 min
On this week's episode, I bring you a front seat at MLC Connect 2017 for "The Future of Sports Design" panel with Chin Wang (Creative Director, ESPN the Magazine), Todd Radom (Designer/Illustrator, Todd Radom Design), Joe Bosack (Creative Director, Joe Bosack & Co.) and Jon Contino (Creative Director, Jon Contino Studio)—all former guests of Makers of Sport. The panel is short (about 30 min.), but a lot of knowledge and experience is shared as the panelists touch on how they build relationsh...
Jul 24, 2017•50 min
"In the past designers were thought of as craftsmen only and were the 'make it pretty department'. We have an uphill battle to convince other people...I think our job and obligation is to showcase the fact that we can be involved in much more than the 'make it pretty' projects. That involves us having different tools in our toolbox and craft shouldn't be the only one." As design director at The Coca-Cola Co., Alex Center has had quite an interesting journey. His story begins with passing up an i...
Jul 11, 2017•1 hr 27 min
"It's a right of passage to know that you're good at executing, but also challenge yourself to understand that at the very root of what we do as designers—whether our medium is physical, digital, websites, billboards or t-shirts—at the end of the day, design is a method of communication, and the design is a manifestation of that communication." riCardo Crespo is a world-class creative director and he is very secretive online. In fact, you won't find much on him at all and he prefers it that way....
Feb 07, 2017•1 hr 19 min
"As a designer, we think as a brand...so I always try to make myself a brand." Olivia Brestal is a multi-talented midwestern creative that grew up in the soccer capitol of the U.S., so it's only fitting she has spent the entirety of her post-grad career creating for professional soccer clubs. As a sr. designer & photographer for Sporting KC , Olivia joins the podcast to discuss how she developed her work's aesthetic, her inspirations in illustration and sports photography, and her move to Te...
Jan 11, 2017•1 hr 30 min
