3 answers
aubrey
Student
Bay City, Michigan
1
Question
Updated
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How do I get myself into the design community as a college student?
I am a college sophmore majoring in graphic design. My dream would be to work for a football team like the Detroit Lions. What should my next steps be?
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3 answers
Andrew Dixon
Graphic Designer
8
Answers
Kenosha, Wisconsin
Updated
Andrew’s Answer
Hi Aubrey,
Congrats on your education and desire to work in this particular field. If you would like to work for the Detroit Lions, perhaps develop a portfolio of designs specific to football. Get in contact with the Lions Organization. See if they have any internship opportunities. Follow personnel on LinkedIn. If you can gain entry, get a feel for the culture and see if it aligns with your values and beliefs.
I hope this helps,
Drew
Congrats on your education and desire to work in this particular field. If you would like to work for the Detroit Lions, perhaps develop a portfolio of designs specific to football. Get in contact with the Lions Organization. See if they have any internship opportunities. Follow personnel on LinkedIn. If you can gain entry, get a feel for the culture and see if it aligns with your values and beliefs.
I hope this helps,
Drew
Ashleigh Lay
Marketer
2
Answers
Indianapolis, Indiana
Updated
Ashleigh’s Answer
Hi there! It’s super exciting that you already have a goal in mind like working for the Detroit Lions. Having a clear target this early in college is a huge advantage!
To start building your network, looking into local groups like CreativeMornings or your area's AIGA chapter is a great first step. Chatting with your professors is also a smart move, since they often have connections to alumni working in sports or higher-level design roles.
If you really want to dive into the sports side of things, a lot of that community hangs out online. Following creative directors, team designers, and sports agencies on X/Twitter and Instagram is a really casual way to see what they’re working on, leave thoughtful comments, and start making friends in that niche.
As a sophomore, you have plenty of time to experiment, too. You might want to try creating some mock Detroit Lions graphics—like gameday posts or schedule reveals—just for fun to add to your portfolio. Reaching out to your own school’s athletic department for student design gigs is another low-pressure way to get real sports experience on your resume before you graduate.
To start building your network, looking into local groups like CreativeMornings or your area's AIGA chapter is a great first step. Chatting with your professors is also a smart move, since they often have connections to alumni working in sports or higher-level design roles.
If you really want to dive into the sports side of things, a lot of that community hangs out online. Following creative directors, team designers, and sports agencies on X/Twitter and Instagram is a really casual way to see what they’re working on, leave thoughtful comments, and start making friends in that niche.
As a sophomore, you have plenty of time to experiment, too. You might want to try creating some mock Detroit Lions graphics—like gameday posts or schedule reveals—just for fun to add to your portfolio. Reaching out to your own school’s athletic department for student design gigs is another low-pressure way to get real sports experience on your resume before you graduate.
Jason Goméz
1
Answer
New York, New York
Updated
Jason’s Answer
First, you'll want to familiarize yourself with the types of deliverables a team produces. A graphic designer for an NFL team could be working on marketing materials, social media posts, event branding, web design, and email design, among other things. Scrolling through the team's Instagram page will show you what their look and feel is like for the current season. I recommend checking Behance to find a toolkit put together by a solo designer or a team of designers, so you can see how their branding looks within a well-defined, unified system. Some inspiration, you know?
This project done for the Chargers is a great example of a scalable system that unifies digital, print, social, and other channels.
https://www.behance.net/gallery/205882419/zro__g-x-los-angeles-chargers-2024-art-direction
From there, try your hand at doing your own team rebrand, or mocking up different in-season assets in your own style!
Client work in a portfolio is important, but so is the exploratory and personal work that shows how you think and how you solve design challenges. So when you include these pieces in your portfolio, you'll want to make sure you explain why you made your design choices, what problem you were trying to solve, and, if applicable, any metrics/results involved.
Make sure to practice your layouts, typography, information hierarchy, and contrast. Grid systems can really help with layouts and composition. You want to show the Lions that you get what they're about and can deliver work that looks and feels like the Lions, whether it's a social media post, a billboard, an email, or a printout. Composition will always matter more than an artsy design - at the end of the day, what you're doing is communicating :)
In short, "learn the rules and then learn how to break them."
This project done for the Chargers is a great example of a scalable system that unifies digital, print, social, and other channels.
https://www.behance.net/gallery/205882419/zro__g-x-los-angeles-chargers-2024-art-direction
From there, try your hand at doing your own team rebrand, or mocking up different in-season assets in your own style!
Client work in a portfolio is important, but so is the exploratory and personal work that shows how you think and how you solve design challenges. So when you include these pieces in your portfolio, you'll want to make sure you explain why you made your design choices, what problem you were trying to solve, and, if applicable, any metrics/results involved.
Make sure to practice your layouts, typography, information hierarchy, and contrast. Grid systems can really help with layouts and composition. You want to show the Lions that you get what they're about and can deliver work that looks and feels like the Lions, whether it's a social media post, a billboard, an email, or a printout. Composition will always matter more than an artsy design - at the end of the day, what you're doing is communicating :)
In short, "learn the rules and then learn how to break them."