Here is our new poster for 2010 LSU Football. The original mock up (Version 1, labeled at the bottom of the images) for the football poster was completed on April 1. On July 20, 110 days later the poster was sent to the printer in time to deliver to the Tiger Fans at LSU Football Fan Day on August 8. The process really begins after every game last season as we review photos. I marked the close up photo of Patrick Peterson from the Ole Miss game as soon as I saw it. The photo instantly screamed intensity. Combine that with the photo of Tiger Stadium that illustrates the passion of Saturday Night in Death Valley, and it was two elements that became the focus for this year's poster. Here is a description of the poster design process each step of the way.

Version 1
We tested the gray background and the texture of the aged and torn paper with some spring football advertisements and wallpapers and decided to carry it over to the entire 2010 campaign. This initial version used placeholder images of a golden girl and band member and a photo of the outside of the north side and scoreboard of Tiger Stadium. We also experiemented with logos for our opponents. We ended up not using them on the poster but did use them on the schedule card. There is a gold bar behind the corporate sponsor logos.

Version 2
Changed to a new photo of a golden girl, faded and removed the color of the pictures along with north endzone view of the stadium. Simplified the schedule and at this point added our 2010 slogan for football, "From Start to Finish."

Version 3
Turned the photo of the golden girl, band member and stadium in color.

Version 4
Removed the stadium, band and golden girl photo. Even though the band member and golden girl were removed they ended up being used on the Season Tickets for this year. Added a photo of the team running out under fireworks pregame vs. Florida.

Version 5
Brought back the north endzone photo of Tiger Stadium in color.

Version 6
Changed our mind and went back to another photo of the team running out under fireworks. However the smoke from the photo made Patrick Peterson look like he had a long gray goatee. We knew that was not going to work.

Version 7
Back to what ended up being our final version - Patrick Peterson's image being the main focus - without finalized sponsors. 

Photos Used
Here are the original images of Patrick Peterson and the North Endzone of Tiger Stadium without any post production editing.

Mike the Tiger's Version
A few days ago Mike broke into our office and made his own design. He is one cool cat, but really a little self-centered. "Mike broke into the @LSUPublications office & changed the @LSUFball poster. All-Mike. Peep it tweep: http://ow.ly/i/2EIK"

 I hope you enjoyed a little bit of the thought process behind the poster.  I would love to hear your comments about the poster - http://www.facebook.com/lsupublications or jfeirma@lsu.edu.