The Hyper-realness of sports graphics

Project introduction
Tanner Morris

        I’m an art major that’s recently gotten into exploring graphic design. We all know technology is slowly taking over but I’m not complaining for what it’s doing in the design world. You now can use a smaller more mobile tablet and stylus to create art through programs like photoshop. These programs are very successful at providing so many tools for creativity and for the recreating of images to create a more dramatized one. In particular, I use the tools to create sports graphics for friends, teammates, customers. The demand for this service comes from the media and advertisement of top-tier athletes through marketing ads./campaigns. We grow up as kids covering our walls with posters of our favorite athletes hoping one day to be like them. From first hand experience, when I make a poster or design of myself I feel like a famous athlete because I’m representing myself like one. This feeling is what drives the demand of my graphics. When reading simulations I came upon the word simulacrum and the concept of the Hyperreal, which I believe both tie into the art of graphic design. Simulacrum by definition is an image or representation of someone or something which is in fact, what sports graphics are. These simulacrums of top-tier athletes become so fantasied by young athletes/fans that they become the real dramatized version of who that person is. Thus, being an example of the hyperreal. Throughout this project I will express how my art emphasizes the notion of simulation as well as study how these simulacrums came to be through branding and the world of marketing.