GO FISH!
Fly Fishing Tournament
Driven by their passion for both the environment and their local communities, the Two Fly Foundation launched an annual fly fishing tournament that brings fly fishermen from the oil and gas industry together to compete. While the tournament offers plenty of entertainment, its greater purpose is clear: giving the industry a meaningful way to give back to the North Platte River and the communities that surround it. Proceeds from the event directly support local charities and restoration efforts along the North Platte River. West Edge works with the Two Fly Foundation every year to come up with a new theme for the event; and create posters, invitations, and other collateral needed for the fly fishing tournament.
Role
Graphic Design
Client
Two Fly Foundation
Agency
West Edge
CHALLENGE
Since West Edge is involved with the Two Fly Foundation’s Fly Fishing Tournament every year, the real challenge is pushing ourselves to come up with a new interesting concept that hasn’t been used before, that still ties back to the main event of fishing.
APPROACH
When trying to come up with concepts for the event, designers work together to research and brainstorm several ideas that could make this particular year a special one. Inspiration, mood boards, and ideas are then presented to the client, where they are given the choice on which direction they would like to go. The client chose one of the ideas I presented, being a Go Fish! theme. This theme was inspired by the famous Dogs Playing Poker oil painting series by Cassius Marcellus Coolidge. Instead of dogs around a poker table playing poker, my vision was to have fish you would see in the North Platte River playing the card game Go Fish. This title also doubles as a call-to-action to convince attendees to “go fish” at the Two Fly Foundation Fly Fishing Tournament.
inspiration
While creating the main artwork, I worked with illustrator Desirée Broth of Magpie Creations to help bring my vision to life. We collaborated on how the composition of the artwork should look, and ideas on how to make this imaginary card game amongst fish feel like you have stepped into their special little fish hide out, where they gather to play card games on the regular. Once the illustration was complete and vectorized, I was responsible for all color work on the project. Other assets, such as the giant Go Fish sign were created to use across the deliverables. Typography was chosen to compliment the fun, whimsical nature of the original concept. A light texture was applied over all of the artwork to imitate the cracking older oil paintings suffer from, as a nod back to the original oil paintings the concept was inspired by. Pieces were printed on linen paper to help bring that old-timey texture to life.
illustration
IMPACT
Two Fly Foundation’s Fly Fishing Tournament saw a total of $290,000 in contributions; breaking the record as the largest total donations in tournament history since they raised $250,000 in 2018. Donations went to the Child Development Center of Natrona County, Central Wyoming Hospice, and the Platte River Revival. The organization has donated $2.9 million since it’s inception.