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Nikola Mirotic Personal Branding by Nikola Vucicevic |
Home > Winners > Design #64834 >Interview |
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FS: What is the main principle, idea and inspiration behind your design?
NV: What are the two biggest issues with the pro-athlete career (aside from it being extremely physically and psychologically straining)? 1. It is short. Usually, a pro athlete has a career of 10-15 years. But prepares for it most of his/her youth and teenage years. While focusing on building skills, strength, stamina, drafts, contracts ... rarely there is any time left for anything else. And then (if it all falls to place) the professional career starts, with more practice, chasing higher scores, improving the game, winning tournaments and championships. With so much time and e ort put into sports, it is only logical to guess that it will be your lifetime calling, right? Wrong. Ending a sports career brings lots of changes with it, some are psychological but others are a downright material with your income going from prolific to being completely cut down. The Final Whistle reports that the successful transition takes 2-3 years. It has proven itself many times that you need an exit plan: ‘the morning after pill’ if you will, only applied to the sports career. But the trick is to plan it way before it happens. 2. You become a public persona. It is exciting (think fans screaming your name) but it can be very stressful. Once you have a media presence, your victories, as well as your tears, stop being just your own. People have an eye on you, they are commenting the things you do, your Instagram or Twitter posts all of a sudden can become bad advertising in daily papers even if you make a politically incorrect joke. You are an inspiration to many but also a very fragile entity exposed to the public love as well as hate. And the sooner you are aware of it, the better. Luck is on your side - once you own it, you can commend it a capitalize on it.
FS: What has been your main focus in designing this work? Especially what did you want to achieve?
NV: Nikola Mirotic has decided to create a strong online presence with a humanitarian idea in the center of it. Becoming a professional athlete is a rather di cult road that builds character and strength but it also tests you out and sets challenges that will make or break you. Having a clear goal, tough stamina and personal heroes proved to be helping along the way up. Nikola had an idea to talk about his career, perseverance and lifelong dedication to helping the fellow men through a personal website. Designer&Gentleman team was more than eager to work with him on this inspiring project.
FS: What are your future plans for this award winning design?
NV: Our plan is to promote this project. The cooperation with Mr. Mirotic continues. Also, we will try to excel this branding on a higher level by creating the second stage of personal branding. What is that second stage you must wonder? Then follow our work and be first to learn!
FS: How long did it take you to design this particular concept?
NV: One year.
FS: Why did you design this particular concept? Was this design commissioned or did you decide to pursuit an inspiration?
NV: The ‘Nico, suave’ that ecstatic sports commentators shout after Mirotic’s passes, threes, spins and dunks, is actually a great description of the elegance and con dence in Nikola’s basketball style. What we have learned is that his secret to this court presence is hard work and modesty. Also, this is the way he is in person - modest, funny, family guy with friends across continents. He is a father, as well. So the responsibility to be a great role model is now even greater. The hero story was born out of a comment of a fan that Nikola got after one of the games, however, the hero mission stuck with Nikola for years and has never left him.
FS: Is your design being produced or used by another company, or do you plan to sell or lease the production rights or do you intent to produce your work yourself?
NV: This is probably the best work made by Designer and Gentleman so far. Our plan is to promote, promote, promote.
FS: What made you design this particular type of work?
NV: To be someone’s hero is not a headliner story, it is a promise to yourself to constantly improve and get up quickly after the downfalls. Nikola believes that we all can help someone - everyday we can nd an opportunity to change someone’s life, to inspire them and push them forward. That’s the everyday hero stories Niko is looking for on his website. If each and every one of us did just one good deed for someone every day, time with the number of people in your city - how many happier faces that would be? How many more challenges would be accepted, more exams passed, more mountains climbed and fears overcome. It would be amazing. And it is possible. That is why Nico’s website leads you to share your hero stories. Let’s help each other go higher.
FS: Who is the target customer for his design?
NV: This is a personal branding project. Idea is to spreadout the word about his values, motivate the others and share positive values
FS: What sets this design apart from other similar or resembling concepts?
NV: It's uniqueness. Personal logo, for instance, is made of several symbols. Crown, Number 1, his initials "N" and "M", basket and ball that enters to the basket. So everything is carefully constructed and designed by leading design experts: Nikola Vucicevic, Miroslav Vujovic, Milos Zlatanovic, Bogdan Vukosavljevic. Now when we got the brand platform we have the endless possibilities. More about it soon!
FS: How did you come up with the name for this design? What does it mean?
NV: Verbiage and naming were crucial for this project. Katarina Popovic AKA Kata Data was the one who set up the proper tone of voice, so as the content for this branding. Also, the main tag line: Get Up. Get Better. Everyday. was also part of her role on this project.
FS: Which design tools did you use when you were working on this project?
NV: LightRoom, Photoshop, Illustrator, Indesign, Portraiture, Pen, Digital Pen, html, postCss, js, reflexgrid etc
FS: What is the most unique aspect of your design?
NV: The strong motivation that lays on: "CONCENTRATING BEFORE THE FREE THROW IS THE ONLY REASON TO LOOK DOWN.” After seeing this quote, the only way to navigate the website is to scroll up.
FS: Who did you collaborate with for this design? Did you work with people with technical / specialized skills?
NV: Nikola Vucicevic CD, Katarina Popovic Content Creator, Valerija Spasojevic Developer, Jelena Vucicevic Leading Photographer, Zoran Railic Front-End Developer, Milos Zlatanovic Graphic Designer Typography, Miroslav Vujovic logo designer, Bogdan Vukosavljevic consulting.
FS: What is the role of technology in this particular design?
NV: All businesses nowadays have to have three things: Strong Identity, Web Development and Social Media Content. This project has all three and therefore digital technology is crucial.
FS: Is your design influenced by data or analytical research in any way? What kind of research did you conduct for making this design?
NV: Yes, we did a lot of research. Here are few relevant samples. Strong brands have created a recognizable image by being consistent over the years in what and how they are communicating. Brand image is the space you occupy in the brains and hearts of your fans. The worth of LBJ brand is exactly here. What they think, say, do about LBJ is his brand. It is only happily supported by lucrative deals with other brands who also want to endorse that message. Great thing about athletes and other media present people is that they can become their own brand ambassador. Your face and actions become the face of the you-brand. The secret to a lifelong career is hidden in the solutions to these two problems. In a short pro-athlete career, you have a strong media presence that you can command. Instead of just burning bright for a decade or two, if you create a brand, you can do it for the rest of your life, even when you stop playing sports. Forbes announced that the brand called Lebron James is worth some 33.4 million dollars. It is ofcourse LBJ that you see in the picture, but it is not him, it is he-as-a-brand. Even if they share the same face, a brand is di erent then a person. Brands have a strategically positioned brand essence, brand image, brand message, brand promise, ambassadors and a product range. Serena Williams often uses her branding as a statement, aside from being the world’s top performing tennis player, she is a philanthropist, speaks out for women rights, now sits on the board of Survey Monkey, has her own apparel line Aneres, teaches tennis MasterClass and is the only woman on Forbes’ 2017 list of The World’s 100 Highest Paid Athletes. The NFL star Tom Brady plays for the New England Patriots and due to the accomplishments on the field, he is considered to be the greatest quarterback of all time. But is that enough for a lifelong career? Not really. Tom Brady has his own method for sustaining high performance called TB12 with the supplements, exercises, consulting and merchandise that you can, of course - purchase. Even though there are some reports that not all the effects are scientifically proven, the brand seems to be going strong. His wife is among the top earning supermodels in the world - all because the modelling career? No. The modelling helped, indeed, but Gisele Bundchen has a couple of very lucrative businesses that she as a brand founder endorses and promotes, and Heavy.com reports that Gisele makes 128.000$ daily, largely from ad campaigns. Daily! (you’ve read that correctly). And she is not even actively modelling anymore.
FS: What are some of the challenges you faced during the design/realization of your concept?
NV: Get to know your client and be aware of his market. We spent time with Nikola and first made sure to get to know Nikola Mirotic ‘the man’ before meeting the ‘pro athlete’. In his case, this approach proved to be the perfect way to understand him - his decisions, life choices and beliefs. Beneath this 6 ft 10 in tall Montenegrin power forward there is an interesting life story that naturally became his brand story as well.
FS: How did you decide to submit your design to an international design competition?
NV: The highlight of this projects is "Concept". Not many personal branding web sites in entertainment and sports industry have this kind of approach. The scroll goes up, and the whole story develops as you go higher, through Nikola’s personal and professional story, to his message and life moto and nally to the message aiming at you. The hero is you - use an opportunity to help someone and push them up. Instead of lateral or regular scroll down, we have decided to engage the visitor more and to imprint the story into the gestures and the overall experience. Nikola is also very tall and it also serves as a good point for the hero stories - giants are not big because they are tall, but because what they do. The website is the perfect way to present - visually and in words, Nikola’s life mission and basketball philosophy. Get up. Get Better. Everyday. Voicing the life moto
FS: What did you learn or how did you improve yourself during the designing of this work?
NV: Along the way we learn how much more possibilities can grow from this platform: Sports camp, Sports Academy, Fashion Brand, Humanitarian Organisation and many more. Our clients know that we we are here to support their business idea at every stage of their career.
FS: Any other things you would like to cover that have not been covered in these questions?
NV: If you need personal branding, let's work together!
FS: Thank you for providing us with this opportunity to interview you.
A' Design Award and Competitions grants rights to press members and bloggers to use parts of this interview. This interview is provided as it is; DesignPRWire and A' Design Award and Competitions cannot be held responsible for the answers given by participating designers.
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