Ken Griffey Jr.
“Swingman” Poster
Poster
The objective of this project was to design a poster inspired by the Cincinnati Museum Center’s spring 2026 exhibit about famous Cincinnatians. My specific subject was former baseball superstar Ken Griffey Jr. I wanted to capture what made him special not only as an athlete but as a sporting icon in general. From his MVP years with the Seattle Mariners to his return to Cincinnati with the Reds, he has a lot of iconic imagery that baseball fans like myself associate with him. He played the game with such joy that it reminds people why they fell in love with baseball in the first place. This poster’s purpose was to advertise the exhibit, so ensuring the information was legible was important. Most museum exhibit posters feature artwork with the subject matter, and then the typography with the information is just there, not really interacting with the rest of the design. For my poster, I needed to integrate the type into the design. The information was designed to be one of the first things you would see, then lead you into Griffey's imagery. While Griffey built his legacy as a Mariner, the target audience will remember him as a Red, so I also had to make a decision on what was more important and what would be the focal point. I wanted to take inspiration from the teams that Griffey is remembered for and his cultural impact on baseball.
My final poster utilizes iconic imagery of Griffey, classic baseball elements, and uses the typography to lead the viewer’s eye around the composition. The primary color scheme is inspired by his Seattle days and contrasts against the warmer red and orange tones that Cincinnati sports teams use. I also implemented an alternate color scheme to better connect to the city and Reds. I also used surrounding elements that have dual meaning depending on the color palette. The waves in the Seattle colors are a nod to the Mariners’ name while in the Reds colors it pays tribute to old Riverfront Stadium and The Banks. The variable nature allows it to either standout in its environment or blend right in.
Inspiration
Griffey is baseball icon and baseball has such a rich visual identity that is unique to any of the other major sports. I wanted to reference classic baseball elements and reference the two major teams that Griffey played for. In the 1990s the Seattle Mariners rebranded from their Pilots inspired Royal Blue and Gold to their current Navy and Teal. Teal became a major trend in sports design in the 90s with a number of expansion and existing teams adopting it like the San Jose Sharks, Jacksonville Jaguars, Miami Marlins, and Charlotte Hornets. With Griffey being the face of baseball in the early to mid 90s I want to have it play a major part. With the poster advertising a Cincinnati-based museum I had to incorporate his Reds tenure. The Reds wore vest jerseys with black sleeves which were eventually phased out by the team. In 2023, black was reintroduced in a major way with the 2023 City Connect Uniform which featured a black and red color scheme which became the inspiration for the Reds portion of the design. Griffey was also one of the first baseball players to have their own signature sneaker and they became a major source of inspiration as well.
Sketches
Griffey’s iconic swing was a concept explored thoroughly as well as a backwards cap motif. Distorting the text in a wave-like manner was also something to connect the Mariners team identity and the old Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati. Among other concepts were elements inspired by his Nike signature sneakers and classic baseball design concepts. Directions
My first digital iterations ranged from modern and illustrative visuals like Griffey’s swing and waves to classic scoreboard-inspired layouts. Other directions took inspiration from the waves on the Cincinnati flag and current Nike Diamond campaigns. An element that is consistent through half of the designs was the use of Griffey’s Baseball Reference statistics page. While most of the design utilized a Reds-inspired color palette, I tried to integrate both the Mariners and Reds into one composition with the first design. Iterations
My chosen direction is based on the waves and swing silhouette but implemented the typography of various other directions through the iterative process. Another thing I continued to explore was multiple different color variants. The two that were the most effective were a brighter version of the Mariners’ teal with their standard navy and contrasting black and red, inspired by the Reds’ uniforms that Junior wore as well as their first City Connect uniform. The royal and gold were based on the Mariners’ original branding Junior wore in the beginning of his career.
Final
The final poster features Griffey’s iconic swing follow-through and his backward hat rising out of waves. Both elements are comprised of stats from throughout his career. The backdrop is made up of the information of the exhibit with the exhibits name emblazoned across the top of the poster. The overall layout was inspired by baseball card art and the packs they are packaged in. The navy and teal was selected as the primary color version due to the way it would contrast against the rest of the sports branding in the city. The black and red version is an alternate version that could be used if the Reds ever chose to advertise the exhibit or if the poster was in a Reds environment.