Odell Beckham Jr | Athlete Identity | 01/03

Rising to the status of an icon during his 2014 rookie year, Odell Beckham Jr. - aka OBJ -  has climbed to the pinnacle of sport, culture, and entertainment in his first five NFL seasons and solidified his claim to stardom with a record-breaking deal with Nike in 2018.

With the alignment of these titans, Rare Design was brought on to design OBJ's new brand identity. With multiple dimensions to his persona and a diverse set of interests, the challenge for our team was to create a mark that captured the nuances of his character and reflect the core elements of his life.

Simultaneously, the logo needed to be flexible enough to shift between the stages of sport, entertainment, lifestyle, and culture while feeling natural in each application and maintaining a unique silhouette.

Inspired by his Louisiana heritage and personal style, our solution was a modernized blackletter 'OBJ' monogram with a hiddedn '13' as a secondary read.

Links, credits, and more great work from Rare linked below!

Project Credits

Agency_ Rare Design

CD_ Rodney Richardson

PM_ Marie Siegfried

Designer_ Cody Bass

Designer_ Brian Bollig

Designer_ Ben Barnes

Designer_ Jeremy Nelson

Links

Full Case Study: OBJ Athlete ID

jeremynelsondesign@gmail.com

JN

Strategic Foundation

Before diving into any sketching, our team at Rare was briefed by the Nike team on OBJ's stylistic preferences and what qualities he felt best captured and expressed his persona. Through active dialogue, verbal, and visual reference, we established guidelines for the design exploration that followed.