Boston Hoops
Somehow a basketball never really ended up in my hands until the Spring of 2013. I didn't have much of a shot but blocks, some decent passing and a ton of rebounding came naturally. This got me thinking: where else were games happening in the city? Were other spots more or less active? Are there righteous courts to play at night under the lights? I wanted to answer these questions by visiting new parts of town. I documented as many of the awesome spots to shoot hoops as I could. In the process I was able to work on a fun illustration and web project. Though the site was a proof of concept the result was something to share with other hoopers in Boston.
Documenting The Courts
Research was the first step. I got on my bike and crisscrossed the city of Boston. I shot hoops at over twenty different courts to start. I was taking into account things like court conditions, ease of access and any unique perks to the facilities. This was going to be a part of V2 before I moved to Austin. Through my research I found that no two courts or hoops are exactly alike. That seems totally fitting since each neighborhood has its own distinctive personality.
Process
After doing some field research I had enough to start illustrating the hoops. All of the scuffs on the backboard are included. The different details of each rim are accounted for, the types of nets and backboards are here too. A considerable amount of time was spent designing a simple yet fun web site. I aimed to easily display the different hoops and catalog their locations. From here I spent about a week nailing down the visual style and the color palette. The final direction felt like a good balance between cohesiveness and future enhancements.
