Using cutting edge technology and powerful imagery, Concrete Pictures has delivered graphics designed to repackage ESPN and ESPN2 coverage of the Powerade and Lucas Oil NHRA Drag Racing Series. The creative agency, which drew its inspiration from the racing’s larger-than-life intensity, incorporated first-hand experience to create a campaign that would best represent the high-octane sport. Concrete’s creative team joined ESPN at a recent NHRA event to witness the spectacle in person.
“NHRA races are like a wild mix of rocket science and pro wrestling. Two high-performance vehicles face off decked out in bad boy, heavy metal imagery that turns them into characters,” said Jeff Boortz, president of Concrete Pictures and the project’s designer. “To be there physically immersed in the experience gave us a perfect palette to work with in designing a campaign.”
The end result is a vivid package of opens, bumps, billboards and a variety of internal graphic elements such as transitions and backgrounds. The thrill of the race is the subject of Concrete’s open, and the graphic nature of the race was the idiom in which the creative team worked. Concrete overlaid the ESPN brand onto the scene and injected it with the larger-than-life, adrenaline infused graphic sensibility of drag racing.
While Boortz handled the design, Heidi Frederick produced the package and Michael Yoon served as senior art director and animator.
