Illustration & CODE
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 a few blocks, some decent passing and a ton of rebounds made me feel like I had something to contribute. 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 and documenting all of the awesome spots to shoot hoops. In the process I was able to work on a fun illustration and web project and have something to share with other enthusiasts in the city of Boston.
DOCUMENTING THE COURTS
Research was the first step. I got on my bike and crisscrossed the city of Boston shooting hoops at over twenty different courts to start. Even though all of the details haven't yet found their way into version one of Boston Hoops I was taking into account things like court conditions, ease of access and any unique perks to the facilities. So far no two hoops are exactly alike which seems fitting since each court has its own distinctive personality
After getting my notes and 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 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, future expansion and web site flexibility.
