Dallas Fuel was one of the first franchised teams in esports history, within the Overwatch League, representing the city of Dallas, Texas. This presented us with an opportunity to create a sub-brand solely focused on targeting the Overwatch community.
Our initial branding phases always surrounded the blue flame, representing natural gas as a tie back to our largest investor at the time, Kenneth Hersh. I worked closely with our management group and the Overwatch League representatives to get through several rounds of edits to get to our final product.
The Dallas Fuel brand quickly became a fan favorite, due to the players we fielded, and the quality of our social and video content. I worked alongside our video team to make sure this standard was kept throughout the brands lifetime. I've been away from the company since 2021, but the quality of work has remained, I feel that is a testament to the foundations we built.
In comes Jack in the Box. One of the seemingly strangest non-endemic partners to enter esports. A big red patch on the center of our jerseys seemed like a nightmare, but we quickly realized they were in it for the long haul.
One of their endeavors included a short animated series, called Fuel House - detailing "days in the lives" of our players at a team house. It was a hit with our fans, and they even brought the series to life at our first live event, with a large scale activation.
I assisted Jack in the Box by consulting them on the art, players and brand representation within the series. They needed insight on which of our players had the right personalities to be shown in the cartoon. I lived and worked with our rosters for the previous few years, and we immediately saw results.
I created this apparel line for the brand, it utilized the 10-SKU allotment from Activision-Blizzard, who dictated all merchandising rights. The items completely sold out, and would be seen at our live events for years to come.
One of the times the brand proved its longevity was when we changed our roster to field mainly players from South Korea, and we incorporated a newer style with Hangul and animated flames.