Episode 13: Kris Bazen, Founder, Sports Font Foundry

"If I can contribute to the design world, something that might exist long after I'm gone, that's a win for me...Sports Fonts was a part of that". This week I'm speaking with typeface and logo designer, Kristopher Bazen. Kris is currently a senior apparel designer at J. America. He also recently founded Sports Font Foundry, an online store and typeface foundry targeting the sports industry. From getting kicked out of high school to battling cancer, Kris has a very inspiring story of perseverance and overcoming obstacles in life to get where you want to be professionally and approaching your career from a different mindset. Before founding Sports Font Foundry, Kris spent time at Reebok, Adidas - Sports Licensed Division and Old Hat Creative honing his branding and illustration skills. In this interview, Kris shares advice for getting starting from scratch in the sports industry, diversifying your skillset, learning to sell good design to clients, the importance of sketching and more. Kris also touches on his sports logo design process and custome typeface design process. We also take a question from twitter as @ScottdeFasselle: "If you had to start from scratch—no one knew you & you hadn't worked in the industry, how would you get started?" Mentions include: • @KrisBazen on Twitter • Sports Font Foundry • J America • Pro Football Hall of Fame • Washington Wizards Logo • Old Hat Creative • Joe Bosack: Episode 2 • Lost Type • Hoefler & Co. • TOMS Shoes • Warby Parker • Chris Gardner • The Pursuit of Happiness • Dave Ramsey • Harley Creative (future guest) • Frazer Davidson, Field Theory Sports Branding (future guest) • Weapons of Mass Creation My next guest is John Trotter, founder and creative director of strategic sports branding agency, Forty Forty. John was a former designer at Nike and design director at Landor before founding his firm which works with brands such as the Washington Nationals, NFL Players Association, DC United, Keen Footwear and more.