The Los Angeles Lakers contacted Blue Sky Marketing Group to source, create, and design the memorable Lifebook for Kobe Bryant’s retirement. This truly was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity! Collaborating with my art director, our account executive in charge of communicating with the Lakers, the Lakers themselves, and also our printer, we all established page counts, specific milestones and topics, and print processes that were to be used for this 30-page, full-color book and 10×12″ lenticular poster included in a sleeve on the inside-back cover.

His whole career was available to design from, from his early days at Merion High School, through his 5 NBA Championships and all of the other NBA stars he’s met and played against along the way. Knowing this, and some milestones to include noted by the Lakers, we looked through the NBA archives and conceptualized many notable images to include. On top of all of this, it was decided that the middle pages would become a 4-page fold out poster that a fan could, in theory, pull out and hang on the wall. I decided to pull from previous experience in collaging and generated a dunk sequence, utilizing as much of his career as possible: from the early days of wearing number 8, finishing off to his 24 days. This piece alone, could stand out on its own for the fans.

In the end, we were happy with the delivered, memorable product! The Los Angeles Lakers, too, were pleased with the whole project from start-to-finish and were overwhelmed by the fan-response to the Lifebook!

Rest in peace, Kobe Bryant.