US Open

This year I was charged with the look and feel of the digital and print assets for Wilson’s number one event in tennis, the US Open. It was a very open ended creative brief so I essentially got to do what ever I wanted. There just needed to be an athlete and product component to this media kit. This was very special for me because I pitched a little bit of a different direction than Wilson is used to taking and they let me do this idea. The idea being that we treat our athletes in a little more of a glamours way. Letting New York, the city the US Open is held in, be more of a prevalent ‘character’ in my visuals (SNL Style), and letting me hire a freelance photographer to shoot our product in Time Square, as we could not ourselves being based in Chicago.

Tennis balls

Every year Wilson shoots their athletes with a tennis ball ‘drop’ background and they’re usually in an action pose. This year I wanted to treat our major athletes more as stars with in this tradition. So I had these balls composted over their ‘beauty shots’ to really give them a ton of attitude and a fashion look and feel, much like the feel of the people in New York City.

An Authentic Product Shot

I tried every which way to composite a shot of the US Open product onto a NYC street but nothing was authentic enough. With limited time and resources I pitched the idea of hiring a freelance photographer based in New York to shoot our product in Time Square. The Marketing Director approved my idea and I partnered with some other Creative Directors at Wilson to hire a photographer named Rob Tringali . In the spirit of the NYC attitude Rob went out and shot the US Open product in Time Square for me. These shots became web banners, print ads, and content for social media and eblasts. It was a new experience for me to hire a freelancer and manage their work from afar, but I think it worked out really well!

Digital Banners & Eblast:

All Campaign copy written by Kevin Granato
Street photography by Rob Tringali // Art Directed by Myself
Athlete Photography by Dustin Snipes // Art Directed by Tim McCaffrey

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