A brochure, two product videos, a banner and an Amazon listing for a bat training brand, most of it built for the trade show floor.
Markwort Sporting Goods · Freelance, hands-on creative director, on the Varo brand
Product photography · Print and brochure design · Amazon A+ content · Large-format specification · Animation and video editing · Working inside licensor brand guidelines
THE CHALLENGE
Varo makes bat training weights and weighted sleeves, manufactured and distributed by Markwort Sporting Goods, and is an on-field supplier to MLB.
Most of the work is trade show. A brochure has to survive being carried around a hall and read again later at a desk, and video has to hold a screen nobody is standing in front of. A banner has to read from across a hall and then do the same job on a retailer’s wall. The same brand then has to hold an Amazon listing, where a shopper has already chosen to look and now wants convincing. MLB sets the rules for how its mark appears on any of it.
WHAT I DID
Reused one layout for the banner and the listing.
The banner and the Amazon hero are the same layout with the athlete swapped. Both came from Markwort’s library, chosen to suit the concept.
Designed the brochure, and shot the products on it. Its own design rather than the banner reworked, because the outside has to stop someone in a hall, which is why it leads on yellow instead of the navy the rest of the brand runs on. The product photography on both covers is mine.
Built the Amazon A+ content for what happens below the fold. Above the fold is price, stars and a gallery, and none of that explains a training product. A+ is the only place it gets to argue at length, so that is where the reasoning went.
Specified the banner to the vendor who produced it.
One large-format piece doing two jobs: the backdrop at shows and a wall graphic for retailers. Issued as a specification to the vendor who printed it.
Animated the product videos, one per lineup.
Two pieces, ARC and COR, each combining live footage with animation I built and cut in After Effects. The live material is not mine; the animation and the edit are. Both ran as trade show background, went out to dealers, and worked as social.
Worked inside MLB’s guidelines throughout.
Everything carrying the MLB Authentic Collection mark was designed to a standard set by the licensor rather than by me or the client.
RESULTS
One layout carried across the banner and the Amazon listing, baseball and softball
A trade show brochure, designed end to end, with the cover product photography shot by me
Amazon A+ content for the range, built for the part of the listing that does the convincing
A large-format banner used at shows and by retailers, specified to the vendor who produced it
Two product videos, animated and edited, one for the ARC lineup and one for COR, running as trade show background, dealer distribution and social
All of it inside MLB brand guidelines wherever the licensed mark appeared
Planning a trade show means covering every touchpoint a retailer hits. The Amazon listing covers everyone who isn’t one.
Consumer retail at catalog scale: three brand channels, each with its own aesthetic and an opposite buying decision.
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