ESPN built women’s tournament creative package to travel across platforms

A new creative package for the NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Tournament reflects both ESPN’s updated brand identity and data on the sport’s growing audience.

The design centers on a concept called “The Journey, ” a visual framework built to reflect the emotional arc of a tournament season.

“We wanted the visuals to reflect the emotional arc of the season — momentum, pride, contrast and the pure fun of the game,” said Alex Young, art director at ESPN Creative Studio, in an ESPN Front Row article.

The broadcast package marks the first developed since ESPN launched its updated brand identity in early 2026, which established official design guidelines for branding across the company’s broadcast, digital and direct-to-consumer platforms.

Young said a key objective was maintaining a distinct visual voice for the women’s tournament while aligning with the broader ESPN brand.

The creative system, designed in collaboration with Roger, uses organic paint strokes, textured materials and bold team color treatments alongside a gold championship mark. The primary palette is built on championship-worthy colors with premium textures like gold and marble interwined throughout the design. Selective elements bring in pops of red, tied to ESPN’s new visual language. 

The package incorporates semi-abstract elements and high visual contrast, which Young said were intended to resonate with both longtime fans and newer, digitally focused audiences.

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“Taken together, it creates one unified thread that ties together court, campus and crowd,” Young said. “The goal was a visual world that resonates with everyone — die-hard fans, casual viewers and digital natives.”

Development on the package began in spring 2024.

The ESPN Research & Analytics team, led by Kevin Hack, provided data and insights on shifting viewer demographics for women’s college basketball, such as growth among younger audiences, which directly influenced the visual approach

“That pushed us toward a more modern, tactile and highly shareable visual language,” Young said.

The overall intent was to create a package that would work across platforms, whether on air or on mobile devices, even working across marketing assets for coverage. 

“We want fans to feel like they’re inside the story, not just watching it and presented in a way only ESPN can, regardless of the platform,” he said.

The championship logo system was also updated to give the mark greater presence while preserving an approachable, fan-oriented quality.

Young said the team stress-tested templates to ensure the package could hold up across the volume of content required during a tournament run, which includes 68 teams in the NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Tournament.

“It was a balance of research-led strategy and hands-on craft,” Young said. “The result is a flexible, volume-friendly system with enough craft for premium moments and enough efficiency to maintain the package in future years.”

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The project involved collaboration across ESPN Creative Studio as well as with Meg Aronowitz, senior vice president of sports production and ESPN Global Event and Studio Production, and Kate Leonard, coordinating producer.