★ Team USA Olympic and Paralympic Games Paris 2024
The Olympic and Paralympic Games represent the pinnacle of competition and one of the biggest global stages for storytelling.
For Paris 2024, I assisted in managing Team USA’s design team through an unprecedented creative output delivering 730+ graphics across the Games. Personally, I produced over 150 live-event assets that drove 95M+ engagements and helped grow Team USA’s audience by 2M+ new followers. I also served as a shift lead, overseeing live content creation, designer workflow, and output under intense, high-pressure timelines. In preparation for the Games, I helped hire additional creatives to expand our team to six designers and partnered with BallerFX to develop automated, easy-to-use templates for medal counts and non-star medal graphics, tools the social team could use on the ground to take graphics off our plate while dramatically decreasing turnaround time. Together, our team powered a cross-channel creative effort that kept Team USA’s look consistent, dynamic, and engaging throughout the Games.
In the lead-up to the Games, I managed the full creative preparation, overseeing the development of 50+ templates while serving as Interim Manager of Creative & Brand Design. I collaborated closely with vendors and agencies including Fresh Tape Media, DEPT, and BallerFX, while working alongside Creative Director Corey Nealon and Chief of Brand & Fan Engagement Jessica Park to ensure brand cohesion across every touchpoint. This role gave me visibility and influence over the entire process, from shaping our owned and operated channels to contributing creative direction for in-venue assets at Team USA House, and creating print materials such as athlete credentials to tie together the many details that built a unified Team USA presence at the Games.
Team USA is an athlete-first organization, which we make sure to illustrate in all our graphics. Athletes are always front and center, with their name and sport highlighted for athlete visibility. Additionally, we always choose photos that show athletes’ faces, sport, and/or personality included - they are the reason for it all!
Here is a collection of some of my favorite live created social graphics!
Team USA Team: Katherine Cullen, Marykate Vlcek, Anthony Getz Jr., with assistance from Patrick Perala and Nathan Samel
#ArtDirection
#Graphic Design
#Branding
How to Watch graphics
“Star” medal graphic templates - for athletes that had set photography. Illustrated here is individual and team with close up shots, with the third version available for athletes who had cool full body shota available.
Example of a “Who to Watch” carousel, executed throughout the Games for fans to highlight athletes to watch, what they’ll be doing, and why it’ll be worth watching.
Similarly, we also had “Watch Live” and “Tune In” graphics for fans, to know when to watch their favorite sports, as well as the significance of the event, for example going to the Gold Medal Game!
Every day through the Olympic and Paralympic games, we would post a schedule for the day. This was a personal project of mine to orchestrate with social and digital teams to choose which sports to highlight, their times and channels.
Throughout the games, we would have headline graphics highlighting athlete accomplishments.
A large amount of graphics were made specifically for medal celebrations, highlighting the importance of the medals the athletes earned.
Some more personally more important than others, as a lifelong gymnast and avid fan I had distinct memories of watching Carly Patterson win gold in Athens 2004, it was an honor to make a graphic that highlighted her as well as every All-Around final I’ve seen through my life.
A personal favorite spotlight of mine - the first graphic with Biles and Chiles was made to highlight their 2-3 medal scoring on floor. I was able to find photography to create a type of graphic I had envisioned for years, and was so well recieved it led to me being able to utilize photography in ways to highlight iconic athletes and their accomplishments. These are my three favorite graphics from the Games.
“Tweetstagrams” were a series of graphics where we were able to highlight other Team USA athlete’s sentiments about each other during big moments, or in some cases highlighting the athlete’s voices themselves, establishing to fans the fact that while Team USA is made of the best athletes in the world, they are still a team that supports each other.
Although all our graphics tell stories, we also love to showcase storytelling pieces to explain a further idea. This one shows the evolution and medal count of the GOAT Katie Ledecky through her years in the Olympics.
Another example of a storytelling carousel, the Kristen Faulkner’s unlikely path to winning Team USA gold in an event we hadn’t won since 1984.
Closing ceremony tune in graphics, letting the typography and photography speak for itself.
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