Brand/Rebrand: NFL on ESPN
11.06.2014
ESPN is known as the "worldwide leader in sports" but the nickname would seem just as apt for the NFL which, recent controversies aside, remains the undoubted powerhouse of American sports. There's simply no other property that comes close to touching it when it comes to fan interest, reach, and of course, money.
It's no surprise then that the design group tasked with re-branding ESPN's full lineup of NFL properties would be undertaking an enormous challenge with high expectations. Enter Big Block Design Group, whose charge was to create a new graphics package that includes show opens, team logos and interstitials for all of the network's NFL-related studio shows housed at ESPN's new 9,000 square foot NFL studio in Bristol, Connecticut.Â
"They're probably the most interactive client we've ever worked with," says BBDG Creative Director Shaun Collings. "We probably called them three times a week to review elements and they flew out [to Los Angeles] once a month."Â
The brand overhaul, which began when BBDG's pitch was accepted in spring 2013, was exhaustive because it encompassed so many different properties. Working with ESPN's in-house team, including Creative Director Chris Mantzaris, Lead Animator Dale Harney and producer Matt Bernabeo, Big Block came up with customized transitions, end stamps, interstitials and punctuations for every show, including NFL Sunday Countdown, NFL Insiders and NFL Live. They also customized the look for popular segments, known at the Worldwide Leader as "franchises" such as "Field Pass," "Where You At?" and "C'mon Man!"
The only football-related property that wasn't part of the re-brand was Monday Night Football, which is currently in the process of its own new design with BBDG and is expected to be ready for the 2015 season.
The thematic elements drew inspiration from superhero films, giving the look a sleek, futuristic feel. The previous design, which ESPN had used for about the last six years, was a tougher, grittier look seen as more traditional for the NFL. For the new look, animators rotoscoped players and images, the process of tracing over footage frame-by-frame, and turned those images into glass.
"They kind of took it into this glass world," says ESPN's Nickerson, who worked closely with BBDG through the entire process. "We wanted to push it into a black onyx world." For elements such as team logos, the minimal look is punctuated by a few bursts of team colors.
"The previous package was broken concrete, dirt, fire, lava," says Collings. "They were like, 'been there, done that.' We wanted to show the NFL as a premium sport."
ESPN asked BBDG to create designs that were malleable so that logos and other features could fly around the set in a layered environment. Â
"What we finally ended up delivering to them is almost like a universe," says BBDG Creative Director Curtis Doss.
Unsurprisingly, ESPN spared little expense, even bringing in award-winning composer Brian Tyler (Fast & Furious, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Iron Man 3) to write new theme music for the NFL shows, adding to the cinematic, superhero feel.
The new studio gives ESPN producers a wide-range of new possibilities to toy with. Graphics fill multiple screens mounted on fluid track systems giving producers almost endless options and formats for things like game footage, stats and charts.
Both the BBDG team and ESPN describe long nights leading up to the launch of the new package for Week 1 of the 2014 NFL season.Â
"I was at work for about 38 hours straight," says ESPN Art Director Lucas Nickerson. "I did a couple shoots leading up to the launch, [and there were] a couple interviews where I looked pretty sleepy. "The last month was really about going above and beyond everything that we had initially planned for. It wasn't 'let's start cutting stuff,' it was 'let's do more!'"Â
Collings says the two design groups were sending files back and forth in the wee hours of the morning before the first episode of Countdown.
Collings wasn't joking about sending over a small universe. ESPN asked for the files of every design element imaginable, giving them the option to alter and spruce up the package as time passes.Â
"I think we have six terabytes of animation on our server right now which was delivered essentially from the summer to week one," says Nickerson.Â
New studio, new look, new music. It's hard to imagine the amount of man-hours and effort that went into re-tooling the gridiron coverage at ESPN. But BBDG isn't done yet. We'll be waiting all year for Monday Night.