Thursday Night Football.
If I used this intro section to explain the NFL to you, would that count as pop-culture-’splaining? Apologies in advance, but this a portfolio, after all. Amazon bought the exclusive rights to the NFL’s Thursday Night Football (TNF) broadcast starting in 2023, and in order to modernize the brand and make it appealing to everyone who enjoys football (not just the dudebros), Amazon and the NFL developed new branding for the franchise.
To promote this new brand and new network for TNF, I worked with Amazon’s print advertising team to design three looks for their shipper-box campaign. Live in fall of 2022, this campaign was as successful was it was high profile, landing on millions of doorsteps nationwide.
For Amazon Prime Video
Graphic.
The new TNF branding boasts a series of different logo “shields” in different texture treatments. For this first design, which was requested to be designed sans talent, I was inspired to play off the jersey mesh textured shield. With a dark atmosphere and glittering camera flashes, I wanted to capture a sense of scale, and pay homage to the iconic football stadium buzz of excitement and anticipation.
Do you love all the camera flash glitters? I love all the camera flash glitters.
Talent.
This second look was requested to feature three TNF “spokes-players.” To keep the focus on the players themselves, I walked back the texture and used the classic TNF shield in combination with more subtle branded elements. To reinforce a sense of motion, I chose to intertwine the players within a custom text lockup.
Why does Mahomes look so concerned?
Pigskin.
Finally, for a little fun, Amazon chose to let us run with a third underdog concept. Designed as an homage to the football itself, I chose a macro pigskin texture and grounded it with a bit of bright grass. After all, to a real fan, they shouldn’t need any glitz and glam right? It’s all about love of the game, man.
I’ve never been so up close and personal to the texture of a football. Reminds me of chicken skin.