Adidas: Dwight Howard & Derrick Rose

So how do you congratulate two of the best players in the league? You don’t. Rather you join them and celebrate on their tremendous seasons with the help of some heavy hitters within the world of hoops and hip-hop.

180LA reached out to FreeDarko, a leading blog voice within the world of hoops and author of The Macrophenomenal Pro Basketball Almanac, and the result is two fully animated videos highlighting the inner-workings of Dwight and Derrick. Their uniquely stylistic approach to analyzing both players’ game and strengths comes to life through the deep telling voice of Chali 2Na from Jurassic 5.






cred (creative reasoning encapsulation & design):

William Gelner, Executive Creative Director, 180LA: "What if you could see the inner workings of an NBA superstar? What if you could make all the heart, drive, soul and other intangibles, tangible? That was the idea behind our adidas basketball campaign congratulating Derrick Rose and Dwight Howard for becoming rookie of the year and defensive player of the year, respectively."

Amir Farhang, Copywriter, 180LA: "Playing at this level requires athletic abilities so fantastical, they border on the super human. Animation seemed like a logical way to bring these things to life."

Joel Rodriguez, Art Director, 180LA: "We see everything from the physical to the metaphysical including their spirit animals like the ibex."

The result is an uncanny analysis of both Dwight and Derrick spotlighting their roles as the ultimate Commander and Creator, leading their teams and the performance revolution of the game. TECHFIT PowerWeb and Padded, the official compression gear of the league, is featured in both player spots along with Team Signature footwear. The films accredit adidas gear with bolstering both athletes to the super-human levels we have all come to know and expect from Dwight and Derrick.

Props to Michelle M. of 180LA!! https://sites.google.com/site/mayuradocs/PinIt.png

The Macrophenomenal Pro Basketball Almanac

With a title like, FreeDarko presents The Macrophenomenal Pro Basketball Almanac: Styles, Stats, and Stars in Today's Game... how can you not look twice? And then when you see the incredible illustrations? And that this is described as "The indispensible, amazingly illustrated companion to today's NBA--a roundball Rosetta Stone that hilariously decodes the trends and tendencies of pro basketball." on Amazon... I think we may have just found the perfect gift for both basketball fans and designers without a clue about the current state of the NBA... Who knew it'd be possible? And only at 15$!

The illustrations are drop dead gorgeous, the Style Guides incredible, and FreeDarko even has limited edition prints and shirts! First spotted over at Bobby Sattler's Whole Lot of BS, then i got quickly distracted at the FreeDarko site (so gorgeous, and full of design details and digital goodies)... then got busy making pics for you to see my favorite excerpts from the book on the next page! So, go on, click to the next page and take a peek inside the book!

cred;
http://www.freedarkobook.com https://sites.google.com/site/mayuradocs/PinIt.png