I’ve been playing with the Memphis Ultimate Disc Association (MUDA) for over 15 years. So, as a player and member of this community, I jumped at the opportunity when this beautiful group of circular plastic-chasers approached me to take on their brand identity design work.

Photo: instagram.com/aubreydnelson/

“Grape Jelly,” shown above, is one of eight MUDA Summer League teams sporting the octogram-based insignia. They beat my Green team, “Wildfire,” on the night of my writing this. 😒

The concept and shape of the iconic Memphis Bridge are foundational to the identity system. This and the following two images are from the rationale presentation I made to sell the big idea.

Historically, the league had utilized a squid as a symbol for the group. I noticed if the bridge was duplicated and rotated eight times, it created an intricate cephalopod-like shape.

Enclosing that shape in a circle felt right for a frisbee league. The star or “octogram” in the middle provided a unique graphic twist—paying tribute to the stars on the Tennessee state flag.

Ultimately, after working through typography, color, and graphic element creation, I provided a set of standards and usage rules in document form. You can download it here.

Obsessive Type was an afternoon typography-themed workshop I coordinated as an outing for designers in Hilton’s User Experience Group. The Stefan Sagmeister quote, “Obsessions make my life worse, but my work better” inspires the concept behind the event.

Photo: Ryan Rhea

This workshop was one of a few our group enjoyed covering design-friendly topics like typography and printmaking, tools and photography.

It’s always nice to have an opportunity to flex my headline writing and advertising muscles. These posters promote the event with a little inside typography humor.

The day began with a conversation over a short slide presentation and ended by producing letter-based wood block prints (shown above).