Full Sail University•Master of Fine Arts Thesis (2021)

During my time as a graduate student at Full Sail University, I was tasked to create a master's thesis campaign for a fictitious minor league hockey team. The only thing that we were given was a creative brief describing the SWAT analysis of the problem, the city, and the name.

The process of gaining an understanding of the Las Vegas Hockey Organization stems from the authenticity of the target audience that helps build the brand personality. The main aspect of the organization’s brand personality was the landscape of who exactly are these people who live in the city. In 1905 the San Pedro, Los Angeles, and Salt Lake railroad arrived in Las Vegas, connecting the city with the Pacific and the country’s main rail networks (History.com Editors, 2009). The city was built on the backs of the investment of the railway and rail workers that would help lay the groundwork for what was to become known as the entertainment capital of the world. People who call the city house live both inside and outside the city limits, in some form, are hard-working people who contribute to the advancement of the city. This hard-working attitude feeds the organization in all aspects of branding, design strategy, and marketing materials used. An example of understanding this specific brand personality can be seen in the current adaptation of the slogan “Strength in Numbers” used by the Golden State Warriors Basketball Organization in 2016. The team’s strong fan base was unparalleled in the league, and its bench depth from that season was tremendous – two strengths of the Dubs that are due to large amounts of people, or “numbers” (Kozai, 2016). Another aspect of the personality of the brand depends on the opportunity to gain a community of like-minded people who can draw a sense of belonging to something greater than themselves while knowing the contributions they make. Brand personality is about the humanity of a company’s brand and how it lives in the world, what it stands for, and what it stands against (Cheinman, 2019).

Gaining a storytelling theme from this hard-working community has allowed the creation of visual and non-visual elements of the brand to highlight its underlying emotions. The public can get a sense of whom the organization is without identifying a hockey reference, which makes for a memorable brand trait. An example of this is Red Bull's advertising. One of the company's main selling points can be seen within its online presence. In fact, their website isn’t directly about their product, the energy drink, at all, but is dedicated to telling stories that build their underlying theme (Marketing 360, 2016).

Based on the momentum of the voice and tone of the brand, the brand look and feel were designed with the target audience in mind. The colors red, navy, and silver have strong ties to the Las Vegas community. The official flag of Las Vegas consists of a blue background with a diagonal gray stripe that goes from the top of the lift to the bottom of the fly. The blue within the flag symbolizes the blue sky of Nevada and the gray bar is an allusion to Nevada’s nickname “Silver State” (Rezaei, 2021). The choice of red involved understanding what could benefit the organization from having a psychological advantage against the opposing team. Red is identified as a color of aggression and power that can help the team wear it and the opposition can feel. But numerous sources have cited that teams wearing red sports uniforms are more successful than those wearing other colors. For example, Hill and Barton conducted a study regarding combat sports and concluded that red had a higher success rate than blue (Todd, 2018). Similarly, 33% of MLB teams have a red and blue color scheme, compared to 20% in the NBA and 12.5% in the NFL which echoes the idea that red is a dominant color in professional sports (Williams, 2017). These colors were then translated into the vision board along with the emotional elements of the brand personality.

The development of the organization’s logo was contributed by workers who paved the way for the railroads and the construction of the Hoover Dam. Silver bars represent Hoover Dam columns that help protect the city from water sources. The symbol of the worker served as the mascot or the ambassador for the brand. Mascots are great for companies that want to create a wholesome atmosphere by appealing to families and children (Morr, 2019). The decision to have the worker pointing and facing to the right was because the main logos of most professional teams do as well. Additionally, the mind represents time as unfolding from left to right, so things facing right give the impression they are moving into the future and making progress (Shrira, 2013). Processing this information led to the information that continued the narrative of building on the foundation left by those who helped trail blaze the city's vision.

The media choices were chosen to be distinctive towards the target audience by captivating the emotional bond they have for the organization. Humans are attracted to those who think and feel similar to and who share the same values (Schäferhoff, 2016). For example, The University of Oregon might be the most recognized college team in the Pacific Northwest due to their brand their products teaming up with Nike, one of the world’s most successful and recognizable brands to create memorable uniforms, footwear, and advanced technology for athletes and fans to wear (Davis, 2017). The university also gained this representation by contributing to the insignificant things that cannot necessarily be perceived. Things like this include how the brand can be perceived without a physical person explaining the idea behind the brand. The main goal was to attribute to having a brand that can live on its own. This also plays a key role in understanding that fans are walking advertisements that will be seen all over the world (rctadmin, 2021).

Thus, the process of implementing design solutions has all contributed to the underlying narrative of what the organization was based on. Throughout the organization, the audience can feel the aspect of hard work, community, and passion. From the fans to the front office, everyone has taken the mindset of an attitude that contributes to the progress of the organization.