George’s Senior Bowl Diary

What an incredible week that Senior Bowl turned Bowl turned out to be! Let me tell you about it from the way I saw it.

 

As I mentioned before, I’m from Korea. Football is not that popular in my country so you don’t find many fans of the sport. Luckily for us, many Koreans followed Hines Ward because of how good he was. He was a really great marketing tool for football in Korea. He was the reason many Koreans learned the difference between soccer and football. It’s funny to think there are still many people who don’t know the difference between them.

 

But we actually have national university football matches every year and 35 universities have their own football teams. There is also a national team in Korea but they have managed themselves without support from Korean Government. There are a lot of people who support them and cheer them.

 

So while football it not very popular in Korea, there are still people there who are crazy about it. I know, because I was one of them.

 

So why do I bring that all up? Well, a couple of weeks ago I got to experience the Football BC Senior Bowl. It brought back some old memories for me. I played football before, but I was a staff this time so I got to enjoy it in a different way.

 

Thanks to Football BC, I was at both the Senior Bowl camp and the game. It was a tough week but I really enjoyed it. The reason I said it was tough is because the weather wasn’t great and my job was mostly taking pictures of the players and coaches on the field. But, I’m sure it was harder for all the players and I could feel their passion for the game. It reminded me of my training when I did in high school.

 

For me, even with all the rain, it was an awesome week. Here’s how everything looked to me that week. My own personal Senior Bowl diary.

 

 

I want to call the first day of Senior Bowl ‘Picture day’ because I took a lot of pictures of players and coaches. These pictures are posted on Football BC’s Facebook and the Senior Bowl Program.

 

In the morning I went to the BC Lions Facility with Daniel and my first job was setting up the camera outside. Actually taking pictures of players is a real easy task but I was quite nervous because it was the first task of Senior Bowl for me. That’s why I wanted to put my best effort to do it. Thanks to all the players for being so cooperative!

I think the players are very lucky to have the Senior Bowl take place at the BC Lions Facility. They can meet their role models and they can use player’s changing room.

 

After lunch time, I edited some of the photos I took. Here are three of them:

 

 

 

 

I could really feel the passion of the players through these photos. I enjoyed taking pictures of them even in the rain.

 

On Wednesday, I filmed the Senior Bowl Draft. It looked like a real professional draft so I really enjoyed it. The two coaches picked from available players in the specific positions and then it was back to practice.

 

 

 

 

If you want to watch the whole video of draft, you can see at Football BC’s YouTube Page (http://www.youtube.com/user/OfficialFootballBC)

 

On Thursday, it was back to picture taking but the big difference is the BC Lions players joined the camp and work with the players. It’s too bad I didn’t know them. but I’m sure they helped the kids physically and mentally. I really envied them.

 

 

Also, the Lions players gave their “Be More Than A Bystander” presentation. It taught the players to be good people off the field and to treat women with respect. After the presentation, they gave some souvenirs to the players. It’s great to see the BC Lions show CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility).

 

Unfortunately, I couldn’t join the fourth day of camp because of school but I came back on Saturday for the game! It was my first football match in Canada. That’s why I was really excited at that time. My job was to be the photographer and take a lot of action photos. Here are some of my favourite pictures:

 

 

 

 

What do you think? Is it great? You can see more of the pictures on Football BC’s Facebook page at (http://www.facebook.com/footballbc)

 

Senior Bowl was an awesome experience for me! I hope it was for all the players too! I can’t wait for the next big event!

 

 

Designer George!

Hi everyone!

 

This blog is a special one for me because it’s going to give you a chance to look in to my mind and see something that I’m really passionate about.

 

If you recall from my first blog, I majored in Sports Marketing in University. One of the things I got a chance to do was make presentations and posters. When I managed a soccer tournament in University, one of the posters I designed was for a promotion against racism.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I discovered that I am quite a natural designer. It’s something I am really interested in. When I was in University, I took a Photoshop & Illustrator course. It was one of the most interesting courses I have ever taken. I learned about how to edit and synthesize pictures, and create new photos.

 

Thanks to this course, I was able to utilize my skills in a professional setting when I went to work for the Samsung Lions, a Korean Professional Baseball Team. One of the tasks was to post articles and posters on Facebook whenever the team wanted to hire some new people.

 

You might remember that I also told you that I made a new soccer team one month ago. Of course, when you have a team, you have to have a logo. So, we had to decide our team’s emblem. At that time, nobody knew how make one so, luckily, I got to design our emblem by myself.

 

This is our team’s emblem which I designed. I wanted to emphasize our team’s name and that we play soccer, so you can see the soccer ball background behind the bull. It was an interesting task because I utilized my skills for my team and I made a team’s emblem as well. It’s almost like I’m the owner of our soccer team! At least that’s how it feels like to me.

 

 

After I started working for Football BC, Daniel gave me a few design projects to come up with some promotional posters, picture and logos. So now, I want to introduce these pieces and explain my design concepts.

 

 

 

First, this is the cover of Football BC’s Facebook page right now. The purpose is to promote the Senior Bowl camp which is about to take place. For the background picture, I chose one from last year’s Senior Bowl and edited it. Then, I designed the letters and put it around the picture. I used these fonts and this design because it looks simple, but effective and I think it can attract interest.

So how did I do all this?

 

First, I reduced the size of the picture and amended it.

 

 

The top photo is the original and the bottom photo is my edit. Can you find the difference? It is little thing but it makes the picture stylish.

 

After that, I changed the color of Senior Bowl logo and put it in.

 

Deciding on a font was difficult because I wanted to use energetic and striking fonts but not too casual ones. I ended up downloading fonts from the Internet. What do you think? Is it cool?

 

 

 

These two logos above are a bit of a secret right now, but I’m going to share them with you.

 

These are two logos which I designed for the Football BC Provincial Conference. It was a really difficult task because I couldn’t decide what theme to use and, as a result, wasn’t sure what pictures to use. After some thinking, I came up with two ideas..

 

Since the Provincial Conference is a coach’s conference, my first logo (the one on the right) shows a coach blowing a whistle. I’m not that satisfied with this logo because it looks little bit casual for a conference. That’s why I decided to make a second logo.

 

The second logo (on the left) is also in a circle shape and with the laurel leaves around it. Laurel leaves stand for honour and glory in the Olympic Games. Even though I didn’t put a coach’s image in this logo, I think it expresses how important and meaningful the Conference is for Football BC.

 

So now, I want to ask you a question!

 

Which logo do you like better?

 

 

I want to hear your comments before we official decide on a logo for our provincial conference!

 

If you are wondering where I got my inspiration from, it actually is from one of my favourite soccer teams, Bayern München. Their emblem looks simple but meaningful. I wanted to emulate that design and keep it simple.

 

 

 

I am really enjoying my design tasks at Football BC. I think I can upgrade my skills through working at Football BC. Also, I want to learn writing skills from Daniel. If I combine my design skills and Daniel’s writing skills, I think I can find my dream job as a Sports Marketer.

 

If you have a time, please give me some comments here on which logo you like the best, and what you think of my designs!