Desinging a logo for a summit with NBA royalty in attendance

Mujtaba Elgoodah, Assistant Manager of Basketball Operations at the Golden State Warriors, had an idea during the depths of COVID in late 2020: a free two-day online summit to connect Sudanese youth worldwide with the people who run basketball. Not just players, but coaches, journalists, agents, and executives, showing the range of careers the sport actually holds. The bill was serious, with guests like Steve Kerr, Mike Brown, and Bob Myers.

The summit needed a brand from scratch, a symbol and identity system that would land with young people in Sudan, and it needed the logo in just a fewdays. The mark had to do two things at once: feel true to Sudanese culture, and speak the language of basketball's fast growth across Africa. On that timeline, there was no room to wander.

I started my research, looking for imagery that could carry real meaning. After studying existing basketball logos and drawing from the clarity of iconic sports marks like the Premier League, the identity came together around the Sudanese flag. The color palette was pulled straight from it, and the triangle, already part of the flag, doubled as a symbol of forward momentum. The result merged the flag's sense of hope with a clean, unmistakable basketball mark. From there I designed the event's marketing materials, leading with the guest speakers to build excitement for the two days.

The summit ran as a free two-day event in November 2020, connecting Sudanese youth around the world with NBA players, coaches, journalists, and agents. The identity gave a from-scratch idea a symbol worth rallying around, built in days and ready to sit alongside the names on the bill.