Branding SI Eats
Sports Illustrated
One of the coolest and most challenging assignments of my internship was creating a logo system for Sports Illustrated's newest vertical, SI eats. I had to work with the constraints and limitations of designing within SI's brand, while still coming up with something that has a totally different feel, to match the unique angle of food and sports that hadn't yet been included in SI's brand.
The Process: Drafting
The final logo concept didn't come quickly. I spent several days doing design sprints, where I created tons of digital drafts for several different concepts, and then presented them to SI's design director, special projects editor and product team to gather edits. From there, I refined the better concepts, and executed new ideas that they gave me. Below is a small sampling of logos created during the process.
The Process: Refining
After two days of exploring crazy ideas, we narrowed in on a concept that we all liked. From there, I refined four possible versions for the team to choose between, and presented them at different scales. This helped us to get an idea of what would be most effective on the various different platforms that it would be displayed.
Final Product
Once we agreed on an icon version of the logo, we made a slight color change, and I created a horizontal version of the logo with its tagline that could be used on the desktop and mobile banners on the SI eats webpage. I also illustrated an vector icon set that matched the logo style.
Website Banners
My final task for branding SI Eats was to create a desktop and mobile banner for its page on SI's website. I presented several variations to the team, some with only vectors and others with photos of food. We ultimately chose to use photos to remain more consistent with the banners of SI's other verticals. The banners and logo can be viewed on SI's website here, as well as on Twitter and Instagram.
