Nike: Season Wrap Party | Q3 2024

Creative Direction for a secret party thrown for Diana Taurasi after the final regular season game for the Phoenix Mercury.

THE CHALLENGE: Secretly organizing a last minute party in less than a week for the legendary Diana Taurasi. This party also may or may not double as an early retirement party. The language and features had to speak to her legacy while not making anything sound final. All Diana knew was that she was going to hang with a few peop[e after her final game of the season.

I came up with a number of features to place within a private manor with an extremely tight turnaround and multiple moving points. The idea was to include a number of things that spoke to her personality but also things that speak to her legacy and support group.

With the production team we brought in a Photo Booth that leaned into a classic feel and film look as DT loves analog items. We had old school phones scattered around the venue that people could use to call a voice mail to leave heartfelt messages for Diana. There was subtle Nike branding on mirrors, DJ booth, menus, etc. A more vibrant branding was used on the backyard walls with GOBO lighting/projection.

It was an intimate affair that Diana, her family, friends, and teammates (even a few opponents) loved.

This event had to come together in just under a week so that presented a number of challenges as far as pulling off some of the features we wanted. Putting together something for a basketball player I’ve been watching since her high school years was amazing so I was going to make whatever work for this. Everyone enjoyed the Photo Booth, the Nike branding was there but nothing overbearing, and the phones were a fun touch as people left plenty of messages for DT. As a follow up we had all of the recorded audio from the voicemails put onto a vinyl record. We gifted the vinyl record complete with a custom designed packaging (art directed by me) along with a record player so DT can listen to all of her messages whenever she feels…even though they had to wait one more season before she finally called it quits. Nike and her agent felt the proper respect and support was shown for the WNBA’s GOAT and were very satisfied with the outcome.