University of Birmingham Sports
Athletes, reimagined. Sport, elevated. A bold visual campaign brought the University of Birmingham’s new £55m Sports Centre to life — turning everyday student athletes into icons and delivering a high-impact brand presence across campus.
With a major investment in a world-class facility, the University sought a bold creative campaign to elevate its sports brand. The challenge: deliver powerful, shareable visuals using only stock imagery — without compromising on energy, impact or authenticity. The goal was to ignite student engagement, build pride in UB Sport, and reflect the scale of ambition behind the new Sports Centre.
Working within tight visual constraints, each image was meticulously crafted using advanced Photoshop compositing. Stock athletes were retouched and colour-corrected to match the exact UB Sport kit, before being transformed into larger-than-life heroes with smoke, light, fire, and motion effects. Basketball? Fire and fury. Sprinting? Dust and momentum. Each piece felt like a movie poster — cinematic, powerful, and purposefully aspirational.
These weren’t just interior graphic installations — they were statements. Designed to elevate student athletes to superhuman status, the campaign aimed to inspire younger students to get involved and existing athletes to see themselves as elite competitors. The visuals gave shape to ambition — showing what it felt like to push limits, perform, and belong.
Installed across key areas in the centre, the visuals were printed with specialist inks and finishes — glosses for flames, metallics for energy bursts — to amplify their elemental effects. Large-format, high-impact, and unmissable, the artworks became part of the space, energising it every day.
The campaign delivered impact on every level — visual, emotional, and cultural. It gave UB Sport a confident new identity, created campus-wide buzz, and raised the bar for what university sport could look like. By turning student athletes into icons, the campaign didn’t just promote — it inspired.