Michael Benford Email & Phone Number

Chicago, Il, Us

Indianapolis, In, Us

Chicago, Il, Us

Chicago, Illinois, Us

Responsible for developing creative strategies that brought U.S. Soccer’s brand to life across the entire marketing matrix, ensuring business goals were met while providing value and entertainment to the fans. Established a new in-house creative function and led external agency partners to develop brand narratives and drive standards across the Federation’s 20+ teams, Referees and Member Associations.Built in-house creative group from the ground up, including talent identification, authoring department processes and standards, defining systems, and working with cross-functional leaders to establish efficiencies and best practices.Spearheaded the development of the U.S. Mens National Team’s World Cup, “Only Forward” campaign connecting the team to the next generation of fans.Led the storytelling and presentation approach for commercial partnerships, landing a historic long-term Nike renewal and new media rights deal with WarnerMedia.

Chicago, Illinois, Us

Atlanta, Ga, Us

The Atlanta Falcons Football Club evolved into AMB expanding to include Mercedes-Benz Stadium, the Atlanta Falcons, and Atlanta United FC. My role also grew to serve as creative director. I built a strong team of creatives and freelancers able to successfully tackle major projects with well-defined processes, workflows, logistics, and innovative systems in place. One of the most defining moments of my time with AMB was creating and developing the visual identity for the new Mercedes-Benz Stadium. My team and I then had the opportunity to lead branding, sponsorship integration, concessions design, interior design, environmental graphics, and $10M in art curating. Our successes in achieving these objectives established our creative team as an in-house set of professionals that could operate and execute at an agency level. Other key successes at AMB included a new uniform design in partnership with Nike and the NFL, which served as the foundation for a new brand identity, as well as the building and launching of the United Brand for the Atlanta MLS soccer team.With that, I am immensely proud of the team of professionals I was able to hire, mentor, and build up. The department consisted of internal designers, project managers, photographers, motion designers, and art directors – developing an external network of freelancers and agency partners.

Flowery Branch, Ga, Us

During my service with the Atlanta Falcons Football Club, I advanced from new media designer to manager of creative services. I provided strong leadership and the ability to handle multiple facets of the design and creative function, I built up a team of in-house creatives and partnered on overall brand management and strategic vision.I served as a partner to the digital media team as we worked through projects from ideation through to execution in order to evolve the overall digital and social media presence. I was a key player in the launch of a professional soccer team under the Atlanta Falcons umbrella along with creating several philanthropic foundations on behalf of the organization.In addition, I coordinated and led multiple international photography shoots, which encompassed managing and directing upwards of 50 professionals in diverse geographies worldwide.

I created and led my own design agency, combining my experience in the sports and entertainment industry with my desire to impact my community. I was able to partner with major brands and athletes to create digital and traditional media strategies while supporting charitable organizations.Other clients consisted of Usher’s New Look Foundation, Chris Draft Family Foundation, Allen Rossum’s Healthy Kids Club, Piedmont Hospital, DeAngelo Hall’s All-Stars, and the Professional Athlete’s Council.

In this capacity, I delivered website development for 13 NFL teams/organizations, the Professional Football Hall of Fame, and several MLB & NHL websites. This encompassed delivering on projects both large and small for brands that included the Wall Street Journal, Motorola, Budweiser, Charles Schwab, and H&R Block.

Denkendorf, Baden-Wurttemberg, De

Authored educational and training CD-ROMs.Captured, edited and composited digital video.Recorded and edited Spanish and English voice-overs.