Cleveland’s Championship Drought Ends!

LeBron delivers! The Cavaliers became the first team to ever overcome a 3-1 deficit to win an NBA Championship! The 2016 title also marks the city’s first major sports championship since 1964. Congratulations Cleveland!

For hot-market projects I have to create final artwork for all other teams who were still alive upon my deadline. The tabs below shows the other teams approved files. Click images to enlarge.

• Golden State
• Toronto
• Oklahoma

• Warriors: 24oz Design

  The Warriors had a historic 73 win season. And if they were to win it all, a “Back to Back” championship would of capped off the greatest season in NBA history. We wanted to create a collectible that communicated such an event. I created a Back to Back logo and switched out the banner callout to commemorate the 73 win season. I had other options to highlight these milestones that you can view below.

• Raptors: 24oz Design

  For the Raptors it was their first appearance at the Eastern Conference Finals, let alone reaching the Championship Series. We held off on designing a “First Time NBA Championship” logo. The only change was adding “We The North” copy to the banner.

• Thunder: 24oz Design

  This would of been OKC’s first championship as well. The Thunder made it to The Finals in 2012 but lost to the Miami Heat (4-1). LeBron again. Here, the banner read, “Thunder Up!”.

Concept Development

My idea was to have a rim and net feel that plays off the cylindrical shape of the tumbler with a basketball going through. We used Golden State as the team to comp up as they were the favorite going into the playoffs. Every team had unique callouts that I had to keep in mind in building the layouts. From changing the banner art to creating team specific logos all of this was part of the project.