MACCABI GAMES

The JCC Maccabi Games are an international athletic competition for Jewish teens. Much like The Olympics, athletes compete against other Jewish teens from all over the United States as well as delegations from Israel, Great Britain, Mexico, Canada, and more. The games also focus on sportsmanship, making friendships, building connections to Judaism, community involvement and teamwork. The Games are one of the largest Jewish teen events in the world; each summer over 3,000 Jewish teens participate. Over 100,000 teens have benefited from the JCC Maccabi Games since 1982. In 2027, Austin, Texas is set to host the JCC Maccabi Games! Each host city has a unique brand that is prominent throughout the event and used as a way to create connections with the delegation and those who are visiting.

OBJECTIVE

Create a brand identity for the 2027 JCC Maccabi Games in Austin, Texas.

Phase 1

In the early stages of this project, and as it was announced Austin would be hosting, a small group of board members and some members from the Marketing Team were called in to discuss a host logo. I was assigned to create the host logo and work with the board members to come to a final decision. We also had a tight turnaround of 1 month! (eek) due to a public announcement needing to go out to JCC communities. We set regularly scheduled meetings and created a marketing timeline which had planned review periods and a deliverable date. A creative brief was sent out to the board members to capture their thoughts. With this information, I created moodboards, color palettes and sketches to present some ideas in our first meeting.

MOODBOARDS

COLOR PALETTES

SKETCHES

FINDINGS

There was a lot of excitement in the room for our first meeting and it turned out to be a really great brainstorm session. The overall consensus was that the team wanted to lean closer to the Texas shape and a simpler design. The next step was to create digital drafts to share with the team.

PHASE 2

In the next meeting, I presented some digital drafts to the team. I shared 5 approaches, all stemming from the sketches that were highlighted by the team.

FINDINGS

The team was drawn to the simpler designs and wanted less of a focus on sunsets or sun motifs. They liked the color palette but weren’t sold on the tan shade which we explore in the next phase.

PHASE 3

In the third meeting, I presented updated drafts using the feedback from the team. We narrowed down some approaches and discussed some next steps.