001. A publication that didn't match the weight of the organization behind it.
The Dallas Sports Commission produces some of the most significant sporting events in the country, national championships, international competitions. Their monthly newsletter, Behind the Banner, is the primary touchpoint with stakeholders, partners, and the broader Dallas sports community.
The original design carried the content but didn't carry the brand. It read like an internal update, functional, forgettable. The commission needed a publication that felt as authoritative as the events it was reporting on
002. The same publication. A different standard.
Same content. Same audience. Same mission. What changed was the visual system and with it, the perceived authority of every story inside.
Moves that changed everything.
01. The Cover
The entry point for everything. A full-bleed hero image sets the environment while the month letterform bleeds behind the subject plane, a typographic technique borrowed from editorial magazine design.
Content preview thumbnails with page numbers at the bottom transform a static cover into a functional navigation tool. Every edition opens here.
02. Community Champions Feature
A people-first layout built around portrait photography and a branded section identity. The Community Champions lockup, complete with its own logo treatment establishes a recurring editorial franchise within the publication.
Two-column body copy with a sky blue field anchor keeps the layout grounded without competing with the subject.
03. Interior Article Spread
Full-width photography as a section divider, dropping into a clean two-column editorial grid. The page number and section title in the footer establish consistent wayfinding across every issue.
ypography does the heavy lifting, no decorative elements needed when the hierarchy is this tight.
04. Upcoming Events
The most structurally ambitious page in the system. A rotated vertical title column anchored in navy creates a bold left margin while the sky blue field carries a chronological timeline of events.
Scannable, branded, and built to repeat monthly with zero layout rework.
05. Volunteer Victories / Featured Event
The utility page and it still holds the design system together. Two distinct content blocks sharing one page: a volunteer section and a featured event callout.
The layout proves the system scales beyond feature articles into functional, information-dense content without losing visual coherence.
A one-time redesign that became a monthly relationship.
The Dallas Sports Commission didn't need another vendor. They needed a creative partner who understood both the visual standards of professional sports and the editorial demands of a monthly publication.
The redesign launched January 2025 and has been in continuous production since. Every edition is built on the same design system refined, not rebuilt with the commission's growing calendar of events at the center.
