Project Overview
Iverson was a transformative product launch and campaign for Viola Brands. My team was tasked with creating a brand identity for famed NBA player Allen Iverson, who wanted to be represented through his legendary career and love of cannabis. Leveraging my deep understanding of the brand's identity, my team and I crafted a visually stunning and cohesive branding framework that resonated with the brand’s ethos and has become a staple of the brand itself.
Team
Art Direction & Design | Myself
Ideation and Production | Najee Tyler
Project Manager | Stephanie Young
Web Development | Adam Wolfson
My Contribution
Creating the now famed brand mark that is Iverson came as naturally to me as the crossover does to AI. An emblem, coated in the mesh of his uniform, but unique in form as a tribute to the resilience and change-making tactics that made Allen Iverson the legend he is today. I then gathered inspiration from various forms of graffiti art to the elemental aspects of a “Where’s Waldo” type of pattern to create a seamless pattern that incorporates odes to his many achievements. Working with a talented illustrator, the brand came to life. I then directed a team of designers to build out the suite of marketing assets. From billboards all over the mid-west to in-house visual toolkits for partnering dispensaries, we build a fully scaleable launch campaign in over 15 markets.
Ideation, branding & design.
The process of creating the branding and subsequent packaging design for Viola’s celebrity collaboration with famed NBA player, Allen Iverson began by searching for mediums to hide meaning in. We knew that any fan of Viola would be a fan of Iverson and we wanted to capture the legend that Allen Iverson’s career left on the sports industry and in black culture. And so the base of this brand became a custom pattern illustration, in which we weaved elements of his legacy through characters, and his iconic namesake logotype which I created to reflect his impressive presence and to call back to his roots on the court.
A full-spectrum campaign
Including and since its initial launch I’ve both designed and directed all subsequent digital and print marketing material for this successful sub-brand. We’ve also launched a second-generation version honoring his title as MVP in the year ‘01. Each strain has been launched in several states and Iverson’s iconic branding spans every medium including a few super-fan’s tattoos.
