Marvin Lewis Football 101

Event branding for a Cincinnati Bengals football clinic built for women

Role

Graphic Designer

Client

Cincinnati Bengals

Services

Event Branding, Art Direction, Award Design, Apparel, Print, Merchandise

Website

Cincinnati Bengals

Overview

Marvin Lewis Football 101 was a clinic for women who wanted to understand football better, hosted by former Cincinnati Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis with members of the team's coaching staff. Sessions covered strategy, rules, terminology, and technique. I redesigned the event branding, from the medal and lanyards to the tees, banners, and signage.

Challenge

Football 101 had to read as real Bengals football without tipping into the aggression of game-day marketing. The audience was women arriving with every level of football knowledge, so the system needed to be welcoming and instructional at once. It also had to work on very different things: a brushed metal medal, a printed lanyard and badge, a trifold brochure, tees and totes, retractable banners, table tents, and a directional sign.

Approach

Four things carry it: heavy condensed athletic type, Bengals orange and black, a torn claw-stripe lifted from tiger markings, and a brushed metal finish held back for the medal. Three icons do the teaching, a play diagram, a whistle, and a football, under Learn Strategy, Know the Rules, and Master the Fundamentals, so the same lesson reads on a shirt, a brochure panel, and a slide.

The medal is the center of it, shaped like a hanging tag with a wide round cutout, printed black and orange on brushed metal, hung from a claw-striped lanyard that repeats on the attendee badge. Everything else scales out from there, to banners, table tents, and the balloon columns at the entrance.

Print / Trifold

Clinic Brochure

Black outer panels with an off-white center panel holding the medal.

Credential / Printed

Lanyard

Black badge with an orange attendee block, on a strap that reverses side to side.

Award / Brushed Metal

Commemorative Medal

Brushed metal tag with a round cutout, printed in black and orange.

Apparel / Tee

Attendee Tee

Black V-neck tee with orange claw stripes rising from the hem.

Outcome

The Bengals identity carried the whole event, from the balloon columns and welcome signs at the entrance to the event banners, the classroom slides, and the flags around the field. Attendees wore the tees and lanyards throughout. The winning teams of field events went home with the custom medals. Proceeds benefited the Marvin Lewis Community Fund.