ART DIRECTOR
DREAMVILLE CHI LEAGUE
Powered by Wilson
After a four-year hiatus, the Dreamville Chi League returned to Chicago in partnership with Wilson, bringing together basketball, music, and community around one of the city’s most iconic pro-am tournaments. The opportunity was to make the return feel bigger than a sports event. It needed to feel unmistakably Dreamville while giving Wilson a meaningful role in the experience and building a world that could live across the court, concourse, VIP, digital, and content.
MY ROLE:
As AD I helped shape the visual direction across the Chi League experience, leading designers across venue branding, VIP, digital, and promotional touchpoints. I also contributed directly to key executions and helped guide content capture.
POINT OF VIEW
Basketball and Hip Hop have always moved together. They share the same language of competition, style, self-expression, and community. That cultural overlap became the foundation for Bonded By Ball, using basketball as the connective tissue between players, artists, fans, and the city around them. From there, we pushed the idea further visually with All Roads Lead to the Chi League, building a graphic system around movement, direction, and convergence. No matter how you entered the culture, through music, sport, style, or community, everything led back to the same place: the Chi League.
All Roads Lead To The Chi League
EXECUTION
All Roads Lead to the Chi League became the visual backbone of the experience, using directional graphics, pathways, typography, and a restrained black, white, and red palette to connect the tournament back to Chicago and the culture surrounding the game. That system extended across the full event world, from venue signage, wayfinding, and branded environments to VIP invitations, artist programming, digital RSVP experiences, and promotional content. The result was a cohesive identity that could move from the arena floor to the concourse to Dreamville’s music programming without losing the central idea: different worlds, all converging at the Chi League.
Beyond the Chi League, I also worked across Dreamville’s broader visual identity, helping develop its brand book and pitch deck, as well as the social rollout for The Jackie by Bas, J. Cole, and Lil Tjay. A few highlights are collected in the reel below.
Credits
Client: Dreamville
Art Direction: Michele Mardorf
Copywriting: Amanda Wicks, Rakiya Thompson
Graphic Design: Connie Flores, Chris Hardy, Michele Mardorf
Website: Kiara Henry