#scoutingreport

[boozedancing]

Today's #blogpost features a guest post by our friend Jay (these are his #photos) who was sent on a #scoutingreport to #UrbanVillageBrewingCompany in the #NorthernLiberties section of #Philadelphia. To read all about it, click the link at the top of our Instagram profile. Cheers! . . #beer #craftbeer #beertography #food #review #reviews #foodiechats #brewpub #restaurant #pizza #beetsbyj #igers_philly #instaphilly

[nantze]

Check out @patrickmahomes #scoutingreport from high school! #ReadIt lol and since I’m here...congrats on going to @disneyland https://www.instagram.com/p/B8MYLK7FyrM/?igshid=324ih9n9k95r

[papajo3]

#SIT #ScoutingReport #pickupwhatimputtingdown

[joshuakrohn]

The Anatomy of an Application

This post was published previously on a self-hosted Wordpress blog, which was lost when I changed over to Tumblr. Though somewhat dated, it still has some great insight into my process. Plus the project was really cool :)

In October of 2010, I applied for the position of graphic designer with the Milwaukee Brewers. I didn’t want to do the same old, boring, electronic cover letter/resume/application; I wanted my application to stand out. What better way than to make a custom scouting report, tying in my design skills with my love for the Brewers?

The first step in any huge project is to start sketching out your ideas. A computer and mouse simply can't keep up with the ideas at this stage in the project. Here are just a couple snapshots of what I sketched out. There were almost four pages of sketches and notes by the end of the project.

After I had everything sketched out, I went on the hunt for something to pack everything into. I eventually picked out a $3 wood box from an art supply store. This box was perfect because it was made out of wood (like a baseball bat!) and it was deep enough to hold my application packet and baseball card holder. Once I knew what I was putting everything into, I could start designing the collateral. I couldn't do that without first knowing the size of the box.

Everything in this project centered around the fake brand of an "Official Scouting Report". I decided to wood-burn the scouting report logo into the box, similar to how baseball bats are branded.

I used the old school graphite transfer trick to get the logo on the box. I didn’t have an actual wood-burning tool, but a soldering iron worked pretty well.

Next up was cutting but not before first measuring a million times. This is a one-of-a-kind piece, people! And there was cutting: the baseball card, the belly band, the cover letter, the vellum, the poster, and the foam.

The foam sheets were ordered 3/8-inch thick and a square inch larger than the box so I could trim them to fit. Two foam sheets were used in the box: one to act as a base for the card holder to sit on and one to act as the holder for the baseball card. After the foam sheets were cut, I sprayed them (and my lawn) with foam adhesive.

Then I mounted both foam sheets into the wood box.

A look at both foam sheets mounted in the box, complete with thumb hole cutout for easy access.

Like a glove! (Get it? Like a glove. A baseball glove.)

After the adhesive dried, it was just a matter of putting all the pieces together. The final package consisted of the wood box with wood-burned slip-off cover, custom fit foam, baseball card in projective plastic mold, vellum cover sheet, cover letter, scouting report poster, and a belly band to hold the packet together.

The cover letter was chock full of baseball jargon and the poster has categories that you would actually find in a baseball player’s scouting report such as hot zones and spray zone. I never got a call in for an interview, which was kind of a bummer.

But this project still sticks out as one my favorite to work on.