Grinnell College XCTF
I love this work as it ties my creative and strategic interests to my collegiate running. Here, you can see work divided by semesters with commentary throughout. I also created a website for our program that features graphics and newsletters I have crafted, team culture info, a bunch of running-related research projects from my teammates, and more!
Role
Social Media and Communications Specialist
Applications
Photoshop, Illustrator, Premiere Pro
Timeline
August 2022 – June 2026
Spring 2026
This semester, I experimented with combining different typefaces and landed on a combo of Cloister Black and Anton. Grinnell Athletics was wrestling with its visual identity as it prepared to redesign the Honor G logo in summer 2026. I felt this typeface combo gave me some creative freedom before Grinnell began tightening up its athletics identity. I also explored the halftone filter to add texture. I was happy with how this body of work came together for my final semester working in this position.
Grinnell’s All-American sprinter, Lucas Fadden, qualified for the DIII Indoor Track & Field National Championship this spring. This meant 2 meet-day graphics, each with elements that followed the season’s storyline and matched the championship’s location.
Fall 2025
This season, I wanted to create meet day posts that felt fresh and familiar, not just reminders to followers about the meet. Each meet day post followed the visual identity I created at the beginning of the season and included elements from our uniform and spikes. I enjoyed playing around with “Grinnell,” taken from several different singlets during our media day shoots. I got the idea from several NFL teams that used players’ numbers and nameplates as stickers in their graphics. I wish we had more elements to pull off our uniform and use for graphics. To cut off the bottom of the large individuals, I used the geometry of the Grinnell College logo—a set of laurel leaves. I am really happy with how this subtle detail turned out. The lack of an approved logomark for Grinnell Athletics makes the creative process more challenging. Hoping to have a new logomark and wordmark by 2026!
Here are a few of my other favorites from the season. Again, I used the geometry of the Grinnell College laurel leaf logo in some of these graphics. The 2025 All-Midwest Region graphic series is one of my favorites that I have made for GC XC.
Grinnell’s distance standout Hannah Roark qualified for the DIII Cross Country National Championship this fall. Hannah finished 254th on a hot day in South Carolina! As I do for National Championship meets, I created a unique meet-day graphic. I gave Hannah a set of wings, like the Women’s Team mascot, the Bea$t has, and I placed her in historic Spartanburg, SC.
I drew inspiration from another trend in football I had seen for many years: the bobblehead/bighead effect. I created two posts with several of these graphics. Both posts performed very well, but the first one did the best: over 4k likes and 140k views in its first 3 weeks. I learned that this effect would be much easier with helmets. Creating a transition from a big head to a small neck was challenging, but I think I executed it well!
Halloween was the day before our Conference Championship Meet, so I created a post with some of our runners haunting the competition as zombies, a vampire, a witch, and Jack Pumpkinhead. This post outperformed the Big Head posts, with over 5k likes and 260k views in the first 2 weeks.
Spring 2025
The most apparent feature of this semester’s visual identity is the white angular cutouts. Also, I played around with combining bold sans-serif block text with a brush-like script. I have always liked the look of cutouts like this and this combination of typefaces, but never fully committed to either until this indoor and outdoor track & field season. Additionally, I used monochrome photos as complementary elements for some graphics. I really enjoy the texture and detail these add.
Grinnell’s sprinter All-American, Lucas Fadden, qualified for the DIII Outdoor Track & Field National Championship again this spring. I traveled with him and Coach Pedersen to the meet and created a set of graphics that I am extremely proud of. He raced the 100m and 200m prelims and qualified for the 100m final, placing 5th in the country! This meant 3 meet day graphics, each with elements that followed the season’s storyline and were related to the championships’ location. Before the finals performance, I created an All-American graphic that I could quickly edit with the correct finishing time and place to post minutes after Lucas’s race. I’m so glad he finished in the top-8, or this All-American graphic would’ve never seen the light of day!
Fall 2024
Gradients, cutouts, and contour lines were the name of the game this season. Here are some of my favorites from the semester! Working without a logomark and wordmark for Grinnell College Athletics proved to be a considerable challenge and adjustment. I had to be more creative with my choices when balancing sides and filling corners. I like the red light that lit the camera-left side of faces in our media day photos. Combining that red accent with a black-to-red gradient felt smooth to me.
Spring 2024
The common visuals this semester were grunge backgrounds and track lanes. I loved experimenting with how lanes could direct the eye and frame subjects in different works.
Grinnell’s sprinter, Lucas Fadden, qualified for the DIII Outdoor Track & Field National Championship this spring. I traveled with him and Coach Pedersen to the meet in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, to create graphics and provide social media coverage. Lucas raced the 100m and qualified for the final, placing 8th in the country! Before Lucas’s finals performance, I created an All-American graphic that I could quickly edit with the correct finishing time and place to post minutes after Lucas’s race. This was an incredible experience, finalizing a graphic and posting content under high pressure.
