INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION POLE VAULT MEET

Vertical Pursuit is an exciting new concept I am honoured to be working with, starting with a small brain child of Head Pole Vault Coach: Jeremy McColl: Wanting an exciting experience for his vaulters in their home town and an opportunity for the public to see this event up and close to get the feel and experience of this insane track and field discipline. He developed this from a small competition in 2016 at the AUT Millennium Institute on a brand new permanent runway, away from the typical set up of having pole vault on one of the bends of the track, allowing the spectators to get right up and close to the action. This event developed exceptionally with Athletics New Zealand taking the reins in 2017 and after the explosion of Pole Vault interest in New Zealand after Eliza McCartney vaulted herself to a brilliant Olympic Bronze medal at the Rio Olympic Games and captured the hearts of our Kiwi Sporting Nation. The 2017 instalment of Vertical Pursuit (commonly known as VP) takes this idea of getting the crowd up and close to the action by injecting a runway and entire pole vault setup inside the Britomart Atrium, disrupting the commute home for the city worker using the transport system and allowing the general public to 'stop by' and witness this event in an unconventional environment. This turned into a selling point to this concept, going further again into an 'unconventional location' in 2018, this time right in the heart of Federal Street, right underneath Auckland's iconic Sky Tower allowing spectators to again, get right up and close to the action, bringing the sport to the people. Vertical Pursuit 2017 and Beyond recently won the Innovation Excellence Award at the 2018 Sport New Zealand Sport and Recreation Awards.

My role in this event was creating digital marketing assets, designing the original brand with Jeremy and working alongside Athletics New Zealand to bring this beast to life to photographing the event on the day. I heavily enjoy working on VP each year, as it brings many creative strings to the bow, from basic graphic design to photo manipulations to going on site with the team as we discuss how the event could be run and the best place to position the most important element: the runway and the pit which as you can imagine doesn't just appear on a street

2016: AUT Millennium

Vertical Pursuit 2016 was the debut of this concept. Over at the AUT Millennium on a newly constructed runway. For this year I combined photography and design and I constructed posters/Instagram tiles as well as create the design and photographs for banners to be placed on either side of the runway that could be used for future VP events. This competition featured international guests: 2x Commonwealth Champion and Multiple Olympic Finalist and Former Oceania Record Holder: Alana Boyd of Australia. Also featured was Jamie Scroop from Australia. (Photographs can be found here ).

Second released poster which doubled as a footpath sign. Photograph is mine.

Instagram post by New Zealand Pole Vault

First poster released mid 2015. Photograph: World Junior Championships

Banner images (the photo of the athlete is life size). Photographs are mine.

2017: Britomart Atrium

2017 stepped it up a notch. With this newfound popularity thanks to McCartney, VP took to the public in a super inconvenient location: the Britomart Atrium: Something I thought of while working at the Nike Run Club. This event was part of the Athletics New Zealand International Series this time round. The work I did for this again combined photography and design but this time utilised photo manipulation for the main promotional image. I combined a photograph I had previously taken of McCartney and matched the angle and photographed roughly where she would 'jump' inside the Britomart Atrium to give the public a visual of what this event will look like. I also constructed a countdown for social media purposes featuring the athletes. International athletes featured were Canadian Record holder (now 2018 Commonwealth Champion) Alysha Newman, as well as Olympic reserve for the United States Morgan Leleux.

Photomanip used as the main promo image in a variety of formats.

Promo squares introducing the athletes for social media

SKYCITY Vertical Pursuit 2018: Federal Street

First sponsor with naming rights means adding to the existing logo. With the huge success from Britomart bought big interest into VP. With Federal Street bought on new challenges, not only it is a working road with heaps of foot traffic but its down hill on a slight camber. For this I worked on a little more promo material to be used for digital and print advertising and again, photo manipulations used for main promo material. in conjunction with the Athletics New Zealand International Series with build up to the Commonwealth Games. International Guests were Morgan Leleux again as well as Canadian Olympian Anicka Newell.

Adapted VP logo for SKYCITY's naming rights

Social media promo square featuring photo manipulation

Advert featuring in magazines as a single page spread. Doubled as a poster.

Social media promo square featuring on ground photo manipulation

Promotional Video featuring Eliza McCartney with my videography, editing and footage provided by SkyJump

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Graphic Design

VERTICAL PURSUIT

INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION POLE VAULT MEET

Initial Logo

2016: AUT Millennium

2017: Britomart Atrium

SKYCITY Vertical Pursuit 2018: Federal Street