Empty stadium seats with a large LED display showing a match between Sporting Kansas City and Portland Timbers, with Children's Mercy Kansas City logo, during daytime.

Kid’s Day Theme Night

BRANDING IDENTITY & ENVIRONMENTAL DESIGN

Challenge

In 2025, Major League Soccer introduced "Kid’s Day" as a league-wide initiative. My task was to help Sporting Kansas City transform this theme night into a unique, experience-driven event. The goal was to design a brand atmosphere that resonates with both lifelong supporters and the next generation of fans. Emphasizing that a game at Children's Mercy Park is about more than just the 90 minutes on the pitch; it's about an immersive community environment.

Approach

Our solution centered on a youth-driven creative perspective. Drawing inspiration from the immersive, hand-drawn aesthetic of Elmo’s World, we collaborated with local community groups to collect authentic children's drawings. By integrating these raw scribbles with our campaign color palette, we created a mixed-media brand experience that felt truly built by and for the next generation.

Colorful graphic celebrating kids' day with the text 'Kids Day' in bold letters, surrounded by doodles of a soccer ball, a sun, a rainbow, and playful shapes, including sports team logos at the bottom.
A large crowd of people in a stadium, watching a cheerleading or dance performance on a big LED screen. The screen displays young girls cheering with their hands raised. The stadium has a sign that reads "Childrens Mercy Park."
Soccer fans celebrating with a large digital scoreboard displaying a colorful drawing of a goal and a cheering crowd.
View of a soccer stadium filled with spectators, a large digital screen displaying a graphic with the name 'Dejan Jovelic', indicating he is a forward from Belgrade, Serbia, with a drawing of a person and colorful decorations, under the sign 'Children's Mercy Park'.
Child's colorful drawing of a man with large ears, a beard, and short curly hair, wearing a purple sports jersey, with the word 'GOAL!' and various doodles and sports symbols around.
A male soccer player in a blue jersey with the logo of Sporting Kansas City, kicking a soccer ball during a game at Children's Mercy Park, with the final score 2-0 in favor of Sporting Kansas City, against Portland Timbers.
Child's drawing of Shapi Suleymanou wearing a sports jersey, with colorful doodles and the Kansas City Sporting Kansas City football club emblem in the background.
Child's drawing of a man in a blue sports jersey, with text 'OFF SHAPI SULEYMANOU' at the bottom. Surrounding the drawing are various doodles including a soccer ball, clouds, and a shield with a dollar sign, with a label 'kids day'.
Promotional graphic for Kids Day at Children's Mercy Kansas City featuring a soccer match between Sporting Kansas City and Portland Timbers, with a soccer player and playful colorful design elements.
Promotional graphic for a Kids' Day event featuring a soccer match between Sporting Kansas City and Portland Timbers. The graphic includes a soccer player in a blue jersey, a soccer ball, colorful text that reads "By the NUMBERS," and sponsored by Co
Children's Mercy Kansas City sports medicine report cover with colorful doodles, illustrations of a soccer ball, a soccer shoe, and playful handwritten notes.
Colorful children's drawing with the words 'ADED TIME +5' in the center, surrounded by doodles, grass, and colorful shapes.
Collage of children and hand-drawn sketches celebrating Kids' Day, including photos of children with soccer jerseys, colorful scribbles, and team logos, with the Children's Mercy Kansas City logo at the top.

To create consistency across diverse community-sourced materials, we scanned and color-corrected each asset using a unified campaign palette. This approach also led to unique mixed-media experiments within our photography.

Creative Assets

Colorful children's drawing with stars, smiley face, and sports equipment, including a soccer ball and cleats.
A soccer player in a blue uniform running with a colorful abstract background.
A male soccer player in a blue uniform with red cleats running forward, with colorful abstract background design.
A soccer player in a blue uniform with the number 21 is kicking a ball on a colorful background.

We reached out to children from across the Kansas City community, including groups from Children’s Mercy Hospital, Sporting KC Youth Soccer, local classrooms, and more. We built a coloring page template to maintain accuracy for the player and to ensure proper sizing.

These were used across the collateral of our graphic suite, specifically Starting XI, Substitutions, Goals, etc.

🎥 Watch the Players’ Reactions

Player Drawing Template

A Kid's Day activity sheet featuring a photo of a soccer player Erik Thommy and the Sporting Kansas City logo. The sheet includes instructions for drawing a Sporting KC player on a designated area.
A hand-drawn portrait of a man with tan skin, black messy hair, a mustache and goatee, wearing a white and blue striped shirt.
Drawing of a person with dark brown skin, short wavy black hair, light-colored eyes, pink lips, wearing a blue shirt and a gray collar.
Hand-drawn illustration of a male soccer player with brown hair, blue eyes, and a brown mustache, wearing a blue jersey with shoulder stripes and an Adidas logo.
A hand-drawn colored sketch of a woman with a beard and earrings wearing a superhero costume with an emblem on the chest.
Child's drawing of a man with a beard, sitting on a sports field with a soccer ball and a building in the background.
Hand-drawn portrait of a person with brown hair, wearing a blue shirt with a Superman logo, looking sad or concerned.
Child's crayon drawing of a person with a pink face, black eyes, black mustache, and wearing a blue shirt.
Child with brown skin and dark curly hair lying on a bed with green bedsheets, wearing a blue shirt with a sports logo, under a black and white striped blanket.
Crayon drawing of a person with a yellow face, short brown hair, and wearing a light blue shirt with a crest. There is a red heart and a partly visible sign in the background.
Hand-drawn portrait of a man with short dark hair, light skin, and wearing a pink shirt.
Child's drawing of a man with a beard and mustache wearing a blue sports jersey with a crest, with his eyes closed and mouth open
Drawn picture of a person with short hair, wearing a blue soccer jersey with a shield logo on the chest, with arms outstretched.
Drawing of a boy with brown hair, brown eyes, and wearing a blue shirt.
Child's crayon drawing of a person with short dark hair, orange face, large eyes, full lips, wearing a blue shirt with a soccer logo.
Child's drawing of a person with orange skin, curly hair, large ears, and wearing a pink shirt.
Childish crayon drawing of a person with large eyes, brown hair, wearing a blue shirt with an 'A' on it, smiling with a slightly sad expression.
Colorful crayon drawing of a man with short dark hair, tan skin, and a beard, wearing a blue shirt with a crest on the chest.
Colorful drawing of a man with dark skin, short hair, a beard, and wearing a blue shirt.
Hand-drawn illustration of a person with an unimpressed or skeptical expression, wearing a white shirt with a black and gray patterned band across the chest, dark short hair, and a mustache.
Child's colorful crayon drawing of a person with short dark hair, wearing a pink striped shirt, and a badge with a heart symbol.
Child's crayon drawing of a person with short dark hair, wearing a blue sports jersey with a crest and the letter 'S'.
Child's hand-drawn portrait of a man with short brown hair, brown eyes with black pupils and red streaks, a beard, and wearing a blue shirt.
Drawing of a person with short hair and a beard, wearing a blue shirt, with a patch on his chest, holding his hand over his stomach.
Child's drawing of a person with brown skin, short black hair, big ears, large eyes, and an open mouth, wearing a blue shirt.
A hand-drawn portrait of a man with short dark hair, a beard, and mustache, wearing a blue shirt, with detailed eyes and facial features.

Project Impact

Largest Drop Count of the Year: Achieved peak stadium attendance for the 2025 season through a community-focused brand experience.

2nd Highest Revenue Game: Directly contributed to one of the club's most successful commercial windows of the year.

“Kids Day was a huge hit... A ton of families had a great experience and left the stadium with happy kiddos. Control what we can control! You all did a great job of that.”

—Jake Reid, President & CEO, Sporting Kansas City

Process Work

Children's drawings and colored markers scattered on a white table, with a black case of dual-tip markers, a box of crayons, and various papers with scribbles and doodles.
Close-up of a craft project with colored paper, a craft knife, and two star-shaped sketches on yellow paper.
Colorful paper cutout letters spelling 'Happy Birthday' with a craft knife on a white background.
A soccer player in a light blue uniform kicking a ball with a colorful comic-style explosion graphic behind him.
A soccer player in a white uniform kicking a soccer ball, with a colorful, comic-style explosion background.

The Team Behind the Creative

Creative Director: Nate Saathoff

Primary Lead Designer: Sayler Rivas,

Secondary Lead Designer: Max Paxton

Design Support: Jessi Carpenter, Kyleigh Rowe

Photo Team: Alex Lorenzo, Jessi Carpenter, Kyleigh Rowe, Max Paxton, Sayler Rivas