IBM Sports & Entertainment Partnerships

2024

We teamed up with IBM to celebrate its partnerships with some of the world’s most significant sporting and entertainment events, showcasing IBM’s transformative role through visually dynamic and emotionally resonant visuals. The work interprets data in innovative ways, highlighting IBM’s contributions and celebrating progress and innovation. Through a seamless blend of storytelling, design, and motion, the project elevated each partnership — connecting audiences to the deeper impact of data.

The challenge was to create a visual system that effectively communicates IBM’s complex data-driven contributions while remaining adaptable across various partnerships and platforms.

The materials needed to balance abstraction and realism, presenting data in a way that felt accessible and emotionally resonant. By leveraging refined 3D assets, minimalist 2D illustrations, and carefully art-directed elements, the materials served as both storytelling devices and functional assets. Each piece was designed to maintain visual consistency, reinforce IBM’s brand identity, and adapt seamlessly to diverse applications without losing clarity or impact.

Blending Emotion and Data: A Cohesive Visual System

The project combines hero assets for emotional, narrative-driven moments with supporting assets focused on structured, data-driven visuals. Flexible illustrations bridge abstraction and representation, aligning with each partnership’s themes to create a cohesive, engaging system.

IBM transforms partnerships by turning data into something beautiful, helpful, and insightful, creating experiences greater than the sum of their parts. This construct also serves as a benchmark for success, ensuring every deliverable — from animations to illustrations — effectively communicates IBM’s impact.

Color

Deliberate color application balances realism and abstraction with restrained, purposeful hues, creating contrast and distinction. Combined with finely art-directed props and minimal materiality, this approach embodies IBM’s signature style. The use of refined, singular subjects ensures clarity while enabling assets to adapt seamlessly across backgrounds, photography, and 2D elements without losing design integrity.

US Open

The trajectory of every shot — a point, game, or even set — is captured and visualized as a graceful, sculptural form for the US Open. By making almost everything else invisible, the focus is drawn entirely to the ball’s movement, transforming each arc into a striking visual narrative.

Wimbledon

Inspired by the shared language of Wimbledon’s floral motifs and the sweeping arcs of a serve, echoes of balls and rackets capture the past, guide us through the present, and envision multiple futures.

Masters

For The Masters, we used iconic elements like clubs, balls, and the flagstick to map each player’s journey across the course, visualizing strokes as informative and graphically striking timelines. These sequences capture the flow of the game, with each club representing a moment in play, culminating in visual narratives that elegantly tell the story of each round or the tournament as a whole.

GRAMMYs

For The GRAMMYs, we translated the energy and drama of the main stage into a compelling visual system of illuminated panels, combining light, motion, and intricate patterns to reflect the rhythm of the performance. Close, intimate framing and a warm palette of golds, purples, and magentas brought a sense of musicality and vibrancy to the designs.

Fantasy Football

Fantasy Football is driven by data, emphasizing customization, decision-making, and adaptability. A reactive football field composed of adaptable blocks visualizes the modular and strategic nature of the game, reflecting the control players have in shaping their experience.