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NCAA Final Four Basket Designs

Organization Name:
SAY Sí
City & State:
, 
Describe your creative piece – what is it and what has it been used for, and why is it innovative?
This creative piece consists of four designs for portable basketball goals. For the 2010 Women's Final Four, the NCAA and the San Antonio Local Organizing Committee teamed up with SAY Sí, a non-profit organization devoted to providing artistic opportunities for local youth. SAY Sí youth created digital art pieces to decorate four portable basketball goals with themes ranging from Title IX to the evolution of women's basketball. The portable basketball goals were used as décor throughout Tourney Town [April 2-4, 2010]. By combining a variety of elements such as historical photos, contemporary photos of basketball players, NCAA graphic motifs, text, and a range of filters and backgrounds, the students managed to create innovative digital art pieces that had a twofold purpose: serve as inventive basketball goals and educate the audience about the history of women’s basketball.
What issue or problem were you working to address with this piece?
The issue was the creative challenge the students faced while designing these pieces. They had to come up with an innovative design that will incorporate art, history, and sports within an interactive piece such as a basketball goal. Technically, the students had to consider the functionality of the backboards as well as the rim to custom fit their creations.
How has your submission successfully impacted your organization’s ability to solve this issue/problem?
As a promotional piece the works were successful in allowing the students to explore a new media [vinyl in acrylic backboard]. The success of the final designs revealed how the students were able to solve the initial creative challenge. The portable basketball goals were placed in Tourney Town [located in the center of downtown San Antonio] for three days and hundreds of people were able to play with them. Students attended some of the activities during the Women's Final Four weekend and they were elated to see their work on display at a national sports event. Our organization's success is measured by the project’s impact on our students. This experience gave our students an opportunity to learn advanced graphic design features, and allow them to create four large-scale professional level works. Upon finishing we felt that the final designs bridged a gap between art and sports.