The problem

Three problems, and they pulled against each other.

CONSTRAINT ONE

The easy answer was already approved

The library was there and we were welcome to it. So was everyone else pitching. Anything drawn from it would have looked like the client's own marketing with our name on it, and would have been equally available to every competitor. Stock was out for the same reason. Material that belongs to everybody cannot say anything about anybody.

CONSTRAINT TWO

A wrong detail would have been worse than a dull one

This is a brand people already hold a picture of, and hold it precisely. Get a detail wrong and you have not made a bold choice, you have shown you do not know them. Dull is forgettable. Wrong is disqualifying.

CONSTRAINT THREE

It had to cover every sport, not one

Narrowing to a single sport would have misrepresented the client and shrunk the range we were arguing we understood. One visual language had to hold across different bodies, different equipment and completely different physics, and still read as one hand.

We used the custom illustrations to brand our communications with the client throughout the year of the pursuit process.

The Work

So I drew it. More illustrations than I can count. Athletes, movement, the specific physics of a body doing something difficult, built as a system rather than a run of one-offs so that a new piece could be made in the same hand at any point without starting over.

Because the drawings existed nowhere else, nothing in the pitch could be matched by someone shopping the same library. And because a drawing is understood to be an interpretation, it could carry the brand's attitude and its love of sport without making a claim about a product that could be checked.

The work went in front of several layers of leadership on a fortnightly cycle, partners with long relationships with the client and firm views about what would and would not fly with them. A look that survives that many opinions cannot be held together by taste. It needs rules other people can follow, which is what makes it a system rather than a style.

My role was creative direction. Setting the approach, carrying it through those reviews, drawing the work, and directing the designers handling layout and production.

The Challenge

Over the course of a year, I managed creative direction, navigated approval through multiple layers of leadership, and coordinated a small team of designers handling layout and production on aggressive timelines.

I also created what felt like hundreds of  illustrations depicting athletes,
movement, and performance, assets that worked across proposal sections and meeting materials.

The challenge wasn't just creative, it
was strategic. This pitch required navigating multiple executive stakeholders, each with competing priorities, while maintaining strict brand guidelines and security protocols. Standard stock photography wouldn't cut it. The solution needed to feel both polished and proprietary.

The Challenge

Over the course of a year, I managed creative direction, navigated approval through multiple layers of leadership, and coordinated a small team of designers handling layout and production on aggressive timelines.

I also created what felt like hundreds of illustrations depicting athletes, movement, and performance, assets that worked across proposal sections and meeting materials.

The challenge wasn't just creative, it was strategic. This pitch required navigating multiple executive stakeholders, each with competing priorities, while maintaining strict brand guidelines and security protocols. Standard stock photography wouldn't cut it. The solution needed to feel both polished and proprietary.

What lasted

The direction was backed unanimously by the partners closest to the client, the people with most to lose if it had misread them. That is the part worth keeping. The whole risk of the approach was getting a beloved brand wrong, and the people best placed to judge said it was right.

The constraints belonged to that pursuit. The method did not. When everyone can buy the same picture, the only durable advantage is making one. And when what you make has to hold across dozens of pieces and several hands, it has to be built as a system rather than a style. That is still how I work.

This is how I work with founder-led businesses now.
An in-house creative director, without the cost of hiring one.