2026 NFL Super bowl Decor - STADIUM INterior, Exterior, locker rooms and FEncing
Principle stadium designer
GMR Marketing provides decor designs for the NFL including stadiums, city graphics, hotels, and photo opportunities. The team consisted of two art directors and two designers (stadium and hotels/hospitality). My role was working with my art director to design for Stadium Campus. The decor impact can be seen by millions through television via online and social media. The goal was to create a vibrant, cohesive vision using the NFL brand guidelines in the Stadium Exterior, Interior, and fence lines.
This project required our team to be onsite, aiding the production team with any issues and overseeing quality control, as well as designing any new artwork.
DESIGN DIRECTION
We established color palettes and direction for the overall program, focusing on artwork that disrupts, black and white for areas of rest, and creating bold and impactful design.
VISUAL STRATEGY FOR STADIUM CAMPUS
We experimented with the design, and started categorizing based on the space’s main audience/users. As the stadium campus designer, I was to focus on our Gritty approach: bold color, heavy use of textured assets, power clashing.
The bowl is one of the most photographed and filmed areas of the stadium, and need to be bright and reflective of the colorful expression of the brand. We chose a color story that went from blue, to pink, to yellow. Thousands of feet of mesh and vinyl would have to be printed, so we needed to make sure that it was continuous and cohesive.
STADIUM BOWL CASE STUDY
BOWL PLANNING
The team put together color studies for the bowl to decide the overall palette. Ultimately in design we pivoted to combining a few: yellow, bright center, magenta, and then blue.
BOWL DESIGN STUDIES
With so many assets and colors, I put together many runs of artwork. The team and I reassessed the artwork together and found that the artwork needed to be bold, extremely colorful, and textures could not get too large.
Finalizing required created compositions in Photoshop while simultaneously working on the flat are in illustrator, constantly checking the scale and feel of the artwork in realtime. The end result was still bold and colorful, but with more finesse and structure.
FINALIZATION
Exterior
Reflective materials, bright colors, and large patterns were used to highlight the teams and be seen against Santa Clara’s blue skies. The spines of the stadium were made with a holographic material that changed colors. We explored how we could use the patterns in different ways to create an elevated experience, cropping them in different ways and layering them.
INTERIOR
The Super Bowl has a “clean stadium” policy when it comes to graphics. Some tactic kits were custom, but others needed to be made so that they could expand or be clipped by production. The artwork needed to be vibrant, decorate the stadium, and also cover up any logos that were not affiliates with NFL. We used a variety of type, texture, and photography within the stadium in these coverups.
LOCKER ROOMS
Artwork was designed with the NFC and AFC colors in mind and logos were placed when the final teams were announced. Tactics needed to cover the 49ers logos in the home locker room and other artwork.
FENCING
Thousands of feet of fencing needed surround the campus and provide decor. Designs ended on solid colors to be able to be interchanged. Vignettes were created in order to provide photo opportunities for fans. Photography, texture, and logos were used for a diverse range of content. The art director then curated the fence panels as a guide for other companies using our fence panel designs.
Fence panels were designed to be:
Fixed - unable to be cut by production
Flexible: artwork that could be cut by production in certain places
Filler/Transitional: Artwork that could be cut anywhere and blend into back-of-house black fencing.
