Hype Hits is a new music brand from ESPN, representing the best of music and sports. Hype Hits are the songs playing in stadiums, locker rooms, buses, and headphones, getting athletes and fans ready.
An evolution of ESPN’s first foray into the space 25 years ago with Jock Jams, Hype Hits is the modernized and reimagined music brand for the company best known for live sports. As famous philosopher Drake once put it, “I swear music and sports are so synonymous … we wanna be them, and they wanna be us.”
If you’ve ever been to a game in a big stadium or seen scenes from the locker rooms of athletes preparing for a game, you know that music is an essential tool to get athletes in the zone and fans on their feet. Hype Hits is a celebration of the songs that define “stadium anthems” and “pump up songs.” Everyone has their own unique taste on what hypes them up the most, but there are certain songs that we can all agree get your adrenaline pumping and your mind focused.
Whether it’s the Hall of Fame, the Takeover, or Best of Hip Hop, Hype Hits has something for everyone. Pick a playlist, grab your gear, find a sound system, and get hyped.
ESPN commissioned TwoPoints to design the assets (two fonts in three styles, patterns, pictograms and layouts) which they would use to build all the deliverables. Jock Jams, the successor of Hype Hits, was designed with a classic college football font. TPN’s task at hand has been to reimagine this type of font and make it unique and contemporary.
The gestures of the fonts had to be translated to the design of pictograms, patterns and layouts to create a consistent identity.
The ESPN design team then took TPN’s assets to design all the deliverables, from record sleeves, t-shirts, tank tops to social media posts.
As always, working with ESPN has been so much fun. We couldn't be happier. Wait! There is still something on our bucket list. Next time. ;)
