I’m so excited for you to read about a wonderful local, woman designer, Cassie Sant! I’ve had this in the hopper for too long, and what better time to post it than in celebration of her new baby. Congrats, Cassie and Casey, you’re both going to be the bestest moms! Read on to find out some really cool accounts to follow, a very legit pet peeve, and of course learn about her favorite designs. Be sure to make it all the way to the bottom for a couple of reflections form me on being an artist, and how Cassie’s work has affected me.

1. How did you end up being a graphic designer, what specifically got you here, versus say being a painter, or even a mailperson?

CASSIE: It was honestly a journey. As a kid one of the hardest questions for me was, “what do you want to be when you grow up?” I truly didn’t know. I was always good at math and science so I actually started college as a civil engineering major. But I quickly realized I was more interested in how my drawings and diagrams looked on my homework than I was into actually solving physics problems. I always thought art was a hobby and didn’t realize you could actually make a career out of it until my academic advisor opened my eyes to graphic design.

2. Do you consider yourself an artist (feel free to elaborate)?

CASSIE: Yes, I would. I would say an artist is someone skilled at a particular “thing”…a task, an occupation. You could be an artist with a guitar, an artist with a basketball. I think you just need creativity and imagination and you can consider yourself an artist.

3. I think good design influences us everywhere. Where are some places/things/people that give you frequent (repeated) inspiration?

CASSIE: I work with an extremely talented team of designers: Bailey Mincer, Ryan Shadle, James Adams, Nico Morales and Art Morris. I would say they provide the most frequent inspiration – not to mention I am one of the oldest on the team so they keep me hip to new trends . We also are big fans of Pinterest and turn there for retail designs, game day poster inspiration, photoshoot direction, etc. As far as others, there is a designer out of Toronto named Sloan Brown who created the brand, Drake Cereal. She creates really fun, colorful, basketball illustrations with a strong focus on typography. I frequent her account for inspo.

4. Biggest design pet peeve?

CASSIE: When a client sees whitespace and thinks it MUST be filled. Whitespace is intentional. It’s helps with legibility, it promotes hierarchy, it simply just balances elements in your layout. Not every inch of a design must be filled.

5. Can you share 3 of your fave designs you’ve ever made and what made you choose these?

Game Day Poster Series

I really love our Cavs Game Day Poster series. It gives us the opportunity to design outside of the everyday brand guidelines. It also gives me the chance to get my iPad out and illustrate which again just gives some variation from my day-to-day work. I think my New Orleans poster I did last year would have to be my favorite. In part it was because Larry [(Nance Jr.) her brother-in-law] played for the Pelicans but illustrating Darius and JA and including iconic elements from the city of New Orleans just made it really fun and vibrant. The fan engagement with the post was also really cool to see.

Women’s Hoops Retail Collection

Our Women’s Hoops retail collection. It was an opportunity to merge my two identities, a graphic designer and former women’s basketball player, into one. Women’s basketball has so much momentum surrounding it right now and with Cleveland hosting the women’s Final Four it was a project that felt momentous and seeing fans wearing it around the city is really special! A portion of proceeds also went to Girls on the Run Northeast Ohio. Additionally the Indiana Fever reached out to our sr. director of retail and asked if they could use the art to make a version to sell in their team store.

Outdoor Court Design

I would say my third is a design that has not fully come to life yet. I was asked to create a court design for outdoor courts we are refurbishing in Pittsburgh. The main court will be used for adaptive sports (wheelchair basketball) with two others more simple in design – Cavs x Cleveland Cliffs branded. I am working with a local muralist in Pittsburgh to bring the courts to life and incorporated some of his signature elements into the piece as well. I’m super exciting for people to see the final product – more details to come!

The below images were lifted from the Cavs Instagram account, after Cassie answered our questions.

EXTRA CREDIT:

Favorite trick/tool?

CASSIE: I follow adobe design on Instagram and learn new tips or tricks constantly – whether it’s a color palette generator, new ways to warp text, 3D mock-up website, or just a time saving hack I find that account so helpful.

Worst client story?

CASSIE: This definitely is NOT a bad client story but just an unfortunate design fail. Last year for the Cleveland Charge we had an Alternate ID night meaning for one night only the Cleveland Charge became the Cleveland Rocks. We decided to go quite literally and instead of Rock and Roll we created a Rock night. I created a new logo, a Pet Rock which turned into 3D giveaway items; the Wordmark, inspired by graffiti/spray painting the school rock for big games or events; the jerseys had a rock/concrete texture to it; we had a geologist come out as our “Rock Star” for the night, it was very pun-ny. But right before tip-off, the referees noticed the jerseys were too close in color to the opponents so the guys changed into their normal Cleveland Charge home jerseys and the Cleveland Rocks jerseys never saw the light of day.

Dream client?

CASSIE: I honestly feel like I am living out my dream, working with a super talented group of creatives, designing for my favorite NBA team.

POSTSCRIPT from Liz

Now after reading Cassie’s answers, I definitely feel a sea change inside of me. I ask the question “Do you consider yourself an artist?” because i was truly curious as I wrestle with that myself. To others it may be easy, “duh,” but through schooling (quite a few years ago, now), graphic design was always straddling that boarder, at least from my perception and things that were said to me. Hell, I was even in one of the best programs in the country, at Kent State, and the rest of the art school kind of turned it’s noise at us, ick for commercial. They even moved the entire program out of the School of Art as I was graduating. To be fair, it was/is such an incredible program that they created it’s own school for it, the School for Visual Communication Design. I’ve always simply considered artists as “fine artists” – painters, sculptors, etc. – it felt like computers were that line that cut it off. Actually we weren’t allowed to use computers for the first two years at Kent. Now I really sounds like a dinosaur, and I know part of this is that I wasn’t allowed to go to school to be an artist, i had to do something where I could get a job, but that’s where all of my doubt has always lived. Now, yes, sure, I’m an artist (and it’s only partly because I’ve taking up oil painting 😉.

Back to Cassie..if you’ve followed for a while, you know Blair and I are huge CAVS fans. I used to go to the occasional game with him (who has season tickets), and then I started going more and more, and while I got to know the players better, there was also a palpable shift in the sense of belonging. I know this is because of Cassie and her team. Their designs amplify the joy of the shared experience, from incredibly timed visuals across the digitals screens and scoreboards, to the giant posters throughout the arena, to their product range, as a woman I felt seen and included. And applaud their major efforts to include and celebrate all people, campaigns for: All for Pride, Black Heritage Celebration, Women’s History Celebration, Autism Awareness (including a sensory room), and more. I highly encourage you to follow Cassie on IG, and of course the CAVS to stay abreast of all of their cool initiatives. Thank you, Cassie, for your time spent on these 5 questions and for doing more than your part to try and create a more fair and equitable world!

All photos and artwork on this page were supplied by Cassie Sant, except the Cliffs courts.