Wisconsin Football RecruitingA multi-year recruiting design system built to evolve with the program, season after season.
Role
Lead Designer
Focus
Recruiting campaigns, visual systems, environmental graphics, print production, digital design, event materials.
Timeline
2014–2022
Scope
Season-by-season creative systems across recruiting campaigns, campus visits, event materials, presentations, social graphics, mailers, large-format wall wraps, framed jersey displays, and vendor-produced print collateral.
My Contribution
As the sole designer dedicated to Wisconsin Football Recruiting, I created and evolved season-specific visual systems across print, digital, event, and presentation materials — giving each year its own look while keeping the work aligned with the strength, tradition, and competitive energy of Wisconsin Football.
Designing year-by-year recruiting systems for one of college football’s most recognizable programs.
From 2014–2022, I served as the sole designer for Wisconsin Football Recruiting, creating season-specific visual systems across coaching staffs, recruiting cycles, and event needs. My work spanned digital, print, environmental, presentation, and event materials — including large-format wall wraps, framed jersey displays, recruiting mailers, visit collateral, and vendor-produced print pieces — helping the program communicate with recruits and families in a polished, consistent, and emotionally compelling way while staying rooted in the strength, tradition, and competitive energy of Wisconsin Football.
Wisconsin Football
The Challenge
Wisconsin Football Recruiting needed to communicate with athletes and families in a way that felt personal, polished, and worthy of a major Big Ten program — across hundreds of touchpoints that changed constantly throughout each season.
The challenge was creating work that could feel custom and emotionally meaningful, while still being efficient enough to support the pace of recruiting. Each year needed its own visual direction, but the full experience still had to feel unmistakably Wisconsin: strong, disciplined, tradition-rich, and competitive.
The work also had to function across a wide range of formats — from social graphics and visit folders to large-format wall wraps, framed jersey displays, event signage, printed collateral, and presentation materials — often involving different departments, students, vendors, timelines, and approval paths.
My Role
Lead Designer, Wisconsin Football Recruiting
From 2014–2022, I served as the sole designer dedicated to Wisconsin Football Recruiting, creating season-specific visual systems across coaching staffs, recruiting cycles, and event needs. My work spanned digital, print, environmental, presentation, and event materials — including large-format wall wraps, framed jersey displays, recruiting mailers, visit collateral, photography, and vendor-produced print pieces.
I worked directly with the Head Coach, Football General Manager, and Director of Recruiting, while also partnering with Athletic Communications, university teams, print and production vendors, student designers, and recruiting assistants to bring each season’s recruiting experience to life.
Strategic Approach
My approach was to build each year around a distinct visual direction that could flex across the full recruiting experience.
Rather than treating every asset as a one-off design, I developed season-specific systems that could support both high-impact moments and repeated needs. This helped create consistency across digital, print, event, and environmental materials while still allowing room for personalization.
I also built practical workflows around the volume of work. I photographed games, edited imagery, created core visual systems, directed student designers, mentored junior creative support, and collaborated with recruiting assistants on repeatable production tasks like custom lanyard labels, visit folders, and event collateral.
The goal was always the same: make every touchpoint feel intentional, polished, and emotionally connected — whether a recruit was seeing a graphic on their phone, walking into the facility, opening a mailer, or standing in front of a custom display during a visit.
2021-22 Brand Assets and Vision
The 2021–22 Wisconsin Football recruiting materials were built around a simple idea: coming to Madison meant coming to the 608. Inspired by maps, travel, plane tickets, buses, and arrival signage, the creative system turned each recruit touchpoint into part of a larger destination experience.
From visit signage and lanyards to player graphics and printed handouts, the materials connected the energy of gameday with the identity of the city — helping recruits feel welcomed, oriented, and part of something bigger the moment they arrived.
2020-21 Brand Assets and Vision
The 2020–21 Wisconsin Football recruiting season was centered on personal connection. With visits, events, and physical touchpoints paused, the creative had to carry more emotional weight — so I leaned into a hand-illustrated system that felt personal, tactile, and intentionally made.
Across recruit graphics, family touchpoints, NFL Draft pieces, and fan-facing content, the visuals combined custom portraits, hand lettering, hometown references, team details, and textured paper elements to make each piece feel specific rather than templated. That same approach carried into Dream Season, a campaign created in lieu of live football, where classic Wisconsin games were replayed for fans. In a year without the normal rhythm of the sport, the creative helped Wisconsin Football stay connected to recruits, families, alumni, and the greater fan base.
