Hall of Fame of Rondesignlab - FOX Sports

What was needed

• Our work with FOX Sports started with a critical challenge: their on-air graphics system needed a complete overhaul. In the high-stakes world of live sports broadcasting, every frame counts, and the graphics had to be simple, swift, and instantly digestible — all while looking sophisticated enough to carry FOX Sports' brand identity.

Balancing

• Here's the thing: the insert system — that score bar and clock you see during every game — is simultaneously the most visible and most invisible element on screen. It has to be prominent enough to inform, yet subtle enough not to steal attention from the actual game.

• Request

  FOX Sports told us they wanted to revolutionize their look. They wanted to align with modern UI/UX design standards, moving away from traditional broadcast graphics toward something more intuitive and user-centric. This wasn't just a facelift; it was a fundamental shift in how sports information gets presented on screen.

• Challenge

  Creating visuals that felt less like a screen overlay and more like an organic part of the viewing experience.

Details

• The design had to carry the entire weight of the broadcast's aesthetic credibility while being invisible enough that viewers never consciously thought about it. It's the kind of paradox that keeps designers up at night.

Building the System

• Creating the new FOX Sports graphics system wasn't about making things prettier — our real challenge was building a framework that could handle the dynamic, unpredictable nature of live sports while maintaining perfect clarity and brand consistency across every broadcast.

• Our design approach focused on the essentials:

• Readability First

  We worked meticulously on typography, spacing, and contrast to ensure every piece of information was instantly digestible, even at a glance. This was the unglamorous, pixel-level work that makes everything else possible.

• Modular Flexibility

  We made sure the system wasn't rigid. Different sports? Different screen formats? The system needed to adapt seamlessly while maintaining visual consistency. Modularity and dynamic responsiveness were non-negotiable.

• Brand Identity at Scale

  Our strategic design move was creating a system that would immediately establish a distinct, cohesive, and modern visual identity for FOX Sports, setting them apart from every competitor while feeling timeless enough to last.

Improved Brand Recognition

• The insert system immediately established FOX Sports as a modern, sophisticated network, strengthening their overall brand perception.

• Long-Term Impact

  The system became more than a refresh; it served as the creative blueprint for FOX Sports' subsequent redesigns, extending across their entire platform and solidifying their position as an industry leader.

• In the end, FOX Sports didn't just get a graphics refresh; they got a progressive framework that translates complex UI/UX principles into broadcast-ready solutions, creating an inspirational and enduring reference point for all future systems.

Personal outcomes

• Our partnership with FOX Sports was an extraordinarily engaging challenge. The nature of the project requires discretion about specific deliverables, but the success of our initial collaboration earned us something rare: a callback.

• Later down the line...

  Five years later, FOX Sports invited us back to design a completely new product. This second commission speaks volumes about the enduring impact of our work.