I’m thrilled to share that I took home a 2020 Hermes Creative Awards Gold in the Logo Design category for the rebrand of an international professional racquetball tour.
The project, titled “We Changed the Face of Professional Racquetball,” was a full redesign of the league’s visual brand, along with a visual system that worked across everything the tour produces. I worked with the league over the 2018–19 season on the entire rebrand, which was finalized and launched the following year.
Why this project mattered
This one was personal. I had always wanted to work in sports branding and marketing, and sports are especially challenging. You are representing a game with a long history, and you are answerable to the buy-in of a whole community of fans, players and partners; in this case, fans all over the world. The identity had to feel modern without disowning that history.
It was incredible to be recognized for excellence while competing against more than 6,500 entries from Canada, the United States and several other countries.
About the Hermes Creative Awards
The Hermes Creative Awards are administered and judged by the Association of Marketing and Communication Professionals (AMCP), an international organization of several thousand marketing, communication, advertising, public relations, media production and freelance professionals. AMCP oversees awards and recognition programs, provides judges, and rewards outstanding achievement and service to the profession.
AMCP judges are industry professionals who look for companies and individuals whose talent exceeds a high standard of excellence and whose work serves as a benchmark for the industry. Winners are selected from more than 200 categories across advertising, publications, marketing, branding, integrated marketing, public relations, electronic media and pro bono work. A list of winners is available at hermesawards.com.
What brand work teaches a CMO
Identity work like this is where positioning becomes visible. The same discipline that produces a strong logo, deciding what a brand stands for and saying no to everything else, is what I now bring to fractional CMO engagements. See my approach or the rest of my work and recognition.