The Florida Gators football program wanted to capitalize on their recent successes. Their new operations facility was being constructed adjacent to the football stadium, and the program wanted to fully brand the space to communicate more effectively with fans, athletes, and recruits. Downstream was engaged to develop graphics and displays that would extend the Gator brand into the built environment. After a discovery process, we developed graphic treatments, custom casework to display trophies and other artifacts, and interactives displaying original custom media.

The men’s and women’s basketball programs were also renovating its administration facilities and asked Downstream to affect several areas. In the lobby, we developed huge wall graphics and designed a custom chandelier with iconic player images. Custom cases display national tournament and other trophies, and visitors can watch highlights on monitors in the cases. In the practice gym, applications on the wall replicate the floor of Florida’s appearances in the Final Four. Outside the coaches’s offices, a pair of interactive displays offers immersive experiences.

For the interactive media in the football facility, the creative team at Downstream developed a distinctive rotoscoped video treatment. Idealized versions of football players move through an illustrated field as splatters of color merge and re-form. The effect expresses the Florida brand values of energy, grit, and determination.

Downstream did extensive studies of both the football and basketball spaces and conducted multiple design explorations to find the right shapes and the optimal user experience for the interactive displays. In fact, during the design process, we determined that in order to make the graphics unique, we should develop a custom slab serif typeface that had a traditional, collegiate feel but also communicated the brand drivers of high energy and modernity that are distinctly Florida. These and other features have made Florida’s football and basketball facilities the ideal vehicle for improving recruiting and fan enthusiasm.