The Story
18 in 5 is a small movement birthed in central Florida by a ragamuffin group of college guys who just want to have fun. In their boredom and monotony, they invented a hybrid sport between golf and tennis, where you can play 18 holes of golf in 5 minutes (hence the name 18 in 5). The game is simple, all you need is a tennis ball and a golf club. You begin by hitting out of an open door and “discover” the course along the way. Many courses conclude by hitting it back through the exact door where you began. The group has a fall and spring season, and recently hosted their first annual tournament.
The Challenge
The initial challenge was the urgency of the project, as the group received late approval for their tournament. In addition to discovering a new sport, they also commissioned their own governing body, the TGA (Tennis Golf Association), which required its own logo. As the commissioner of the TGA and the brand translator, I had to design in a way that represented 30 very different college guys. Among the group were passionate, eclectic, and artistic dudes who had already begun documenting the game on their own (using a vintage filter). So the challenge then became reconciling the existing visual look of their documentation with timeless design and traditional golf identity in a way that was wholly innovative (like the newly invented sport, itself). In addition, the movement’s vision was to spread to every college campus in America, and also to workplaces, homes, apartment complexes, churches, etc. So the brand had to be locally flavored yet scalable and versatile. It had to be able to speak to more than just this ragamuffin crew, yet remain true to its roots.
The Reverie
The logo abstractly tells the story of a game of 18 in 5. It begins in the indoor darkness of monotony, breaks free, and returns back with a lighter perspective. The tennis ball on the bottom is encompassed by a golf ball, the door forms the “hole”, and the flagpin emulates the breakthrough that this game is and provides for its players. The slogan “break free from monotony” was developed, as the entire sport is about breaking free from the monotony of both life and golf. This breakthrough motif shows up in iconography (see sales materials) and typography (see slogan). Three visual looks arose, the traditional (from the vintage filter, and the golf tradition), the timeless (from the lasting principle of the slogan and the vision to expand), and the youthful (from the crew’s personality). The primary typeface captures tradition, while the specialty typeface screams youth. The color palette captured these three looks, with Nicklaus pink and golden yellow, master’s and sawgrass green, and true blue and Fowler orange (reminiscent of Ricky Fowler’s highlighter outfits that have come to embody the next generation of modern golf). Three bespoke filters were created to brand the ever-growing imagery that the players capture in every round. Finally, generative brand language was incorporated into the print materials made for sales and marketing.
Role(s)
Art Direction/Branding
Brand Language
Social Media
Marketing/Print
Photo Credits
Campbell Rice
Josh Holt
Nicole Chung