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 …

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 Ski…

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 revelator…

"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…

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 universit…

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 st…

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 acu…

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 oppor…

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 we…

By T. Adam Martin

“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 …

“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 …

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 A…

Simon Dent shares his thoughts on the future competition of sports teams as it regards to selling attention and tickets.By T. Adam Martin

"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 m…

"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 th…

"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 …

"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 …

Chris Do elaborates on why creative people should value their services more and charge accordingly without feeling guilty.By T. Adam Martin

"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 …

“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 design…

"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 cl…

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 …

"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 discus…

"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 …

"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 coachin…

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…

"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 should…

"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." riC…

"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…

"Two things that helped us be really successful were that we treated the players like people—like everyday guys—[we] had fun with them and didn’t put them on a pedestal. And the second thing is we got them in and out of there fast." There is nothing better than a good story. And boy does John Costacos of the Costacos Brothers have plenty of them. T…

“I started tinkering with our own processes, embracing an iterative approach and knowing that nothing is finite & complete — everything that we do is always in the hope of iterating and moving forward in an incremental way.” The first ever VP of Digital Products at Major League Soccer (MLS), Samir Gole, joins the podcast to discuss the next wave of…

"You want to have as much control as possible as an in-house design staff...there is so much talent out there and talent isn't exclusive to well-known agencies on the market." Ross Yoshida, Director of Graphic Design for the L.A. Dodgers, joins the podcast to discuss his break early in his career into the sports design industry for his favorite tea…

"I do the podcast for my clients, my past clients and my future clients. If they're listening, then I'm happy...I'll unashamedly say it's a lead generation for Sports Geek." In the first ever crossover episode of Makers of Sport, Sean Callanan of Sports Geek joins the show for Part 1 of a two-part series. Sean tells his story of how he went from pr…

On this week's episode, we go behind-the-scenes at Major Level Creative Connect (MLC Connect) 2016 with a panel that Todd Radom, Brian Gundell and myself were asked speak on called "Ambassadors of Sports Design". We come together for a no-holds-barred discussion on the state of industry, how each of us are ambassadors of sports design and what we c…

"In the environment, things need to be simplified, they need to have a quick read. You scale things very differently in environmental graphics than typical graphic design applications." Amy Lukas, Cameron Smith and Molly Mazzolini—co-founders & creative partners of Infinite Scale—join the show to tell the story of their environmental design firm. T…

"There's money & there's smart money. We believe there is capital, then there's creative capital." Dylan Boyd, Managing Director of the Dodgers Accelerator, joins the show to talk tech startups in the sports industry. Dylan tells his story and how he got into startups beginning with founding a digital agency that he grew to 80 people. We define som…

"For us it's gotta be about innovation across the board...for 'The Tour', we've gotta make sure we're doing everything we can to meet our fans on the platforms where they are and bring them some amazing stuff." Sloane Kelley, Senior Director of Content at the PGA Tour, joins the show to discuss her storied career working in digital for brands such …

COMMUNITY CONTENT PREVIEW A rare public Halftime episode as they are for paid Community members only now. I just felt this initiative is something worth sharing to everyone that may be interested. Many of us have worked hard in our creative discipline of choice to hone our skills and get better project-by-project. We often get frustrated when we se…

"You need to put food on the table. You need to do things you need to do to have a life. But, at the same time you need to feed your soul a little bit too." Brian Lindstrom, art director at Trek, joined the podcast this week to discuss his career designing for physical products in the consumer brand space for brands such as Oakely, Skullcandy and n…

“You should start spending a half-hour a day learning Cinema 4D to advance your design repertoire. It's not hard, it will make you better.” ESPN College Football, Mike & Mike, NBA on ESPN, the 2014 World Cup—do these brands ring a bell? Our guest this week is Tim O'Shaughnessy, broadcast art director at ESPN, and has worked on graphics packages for…

“The best designers are always problem-solvers...[our] job is to figure out how to make this [project] the best it can be.” On this week’s podcast, freelance sports designer Brian Gundell joined the show to discuss his career working in a few different limbs of the sports industry. From agency side to Nike to the MLB to college football recruiting,…

“You can always learn from anyone — you can learn from people older than you, you can earn from people younger than you — always be open. Always be open to critique.” On this week’s podcast, Mekale Jackson from St. John's University athletics joins us to discuss working for New York's college hoops program. Mekale gives us some insight into his bac…

“When you get to work in pro sports, these players are their showcase...the message, putting people in the seats, getting people interested in the team and buying merchandise comes before cool graphics.” On this week’s episode, Aaron Masik joined the podcast. Aaron is a senior graphic designer at The Upper Deck Company. Prior to Upper Deck, Aaron h…

"Everyone is trying to find their own 15 minutes online with their channel...it's not about that 15 minutes, it's about that 15 years and what are you doing right now to build something that lasts..." On this week's episode, Director of Brand Marketing for Adidas Football & Baseball joined the podcast, Jeremy Darlow. Jeremy is also the author of th…

The Internet has given us an uncanny ability to connect to others that share our passions in different regions of the world. Joining online communities is vital for networking purposes, cultivating relationships and professional growth. It has been a long time coming, but today I'm excited to announce the launch of the Makers of Sport Community. Be…

"There's a lot of talented people out there. A lot of smart people. A lot of great writers. A lot of great editors. You gotta work... [Ben on side projects & growth]." On this week’s episode, it's basketball, sneakers and hip-hop as Ben Osborne, Editor-in-Chief of SLAM Magazine joins the podcast. Having been a subscriber of SLAM since 1994, Adam ge…

The world is about relationships. Plain and simple. We have relationships with family, friends and even objects. In our professional lives, building relationships are vital for growth both fiscally and skill-wise. In today's Halftime, I discuss why cultivating relationships over time is extremely important and why the "hard sell" is a downfall of c…

"I take a lot of pictures...I think for designers, drawing and taking photos is so, so important because you can go back to those photos and find some inspiration and find some great idea." On this week’s episode, Michelle Cruz, Senior Art Director of the New York Red Bulls, joins the podcast to talk about her long career in sports design. Being Pu…

Design is about communication. It is about articulating decisions made from a professional perspective in order to sell something, or have a user do something. Other than speaking verbally, writing is the most important skill set to have when communicating ideas or opinions. On this Halftime, I discuss why the people that are the best at their craf…