Designer lands job with NBA after logo concepts go viral

by Vincent Frank

Don't let anyone ever tell you that your hobby can't turn into a lucrative career. Those close to Addison Foote probably smirked when he started to redesign NBA logos on his own time as an creative outlet for his regular job as a website designer.

Foote, a St. George, UT., native decided to work up a project utilizing his artistic skills and his love for the NBA by redesigning the Utah Jazz logo: 

"I've always loved basketball and followed the NBA my whole life so I love doing side projects with that," he said. "I love logo design a lot," Foote told KSL.com. "I kind of just happened one day to click and think, 'Hey, I want to try redesigning an NBA logo.' So I did."

After finishing up the Jazz logo redesign, Foote went on to work on the other 29, one per day. Working full-time in his real job, the designer was only able to spend three hours on each logo. Still, he made sure to research each team's logo history: 

"My knowledge of the NBA is pretty well-versed, but I still wanted to kind of do a little bit of research behind the history of every team's logo and behind the meaning of the team name and references of their cities," Foote said. "I tried to kind of compile as much information and knowledge (as I could) before I started my concept sketches."

After posting the redesigns to Reddit, Foote received a large amount of positive feedback. They went viral, with several high-profile websites picking them up and discussing their favorite logo. 

Within just four days of the redesigns going online, Foote was contacted by the NBA and offered freelance work on graphic design projects for the Association's social media pages: 

"I was so excited," Foote said. "I'd always dreamed as a kid to do something for the NBA. I've always been a huge basketball fan."

It will be interesting to see Foote's work on the NBA's social media pages in the coming months. You can check out all of his redesigns here.

Check out Vincent's other work on eDraft.com and follow him on Twitter @VincentFrankNFL