Whether you’re happy or not for LeBron and his Cavs, it’s time to cure the basketball hangover with another beloved sport. We love a good book around here, and we live for good design. That’s why we were so pleased when Anthony Phills sent us his latest project – a baseball-branding-conceptual design book about Barry Bonds, winner of 7 MLB Most Valuable Player awards, Golden Gloves, 12 Silver Sluggers and 14 All Star Selections. He’s the subject of Anthony Phills latest design book, Designing for the Home Run King.  Bond set the sports world on fire with his home run records during the years of 2003-2007. His streak and the brand that was built around it is brought together in over 50 pages of images and commentary along with 10 minutes of video interviews that Phills collected over the years. The iBook is a look at the world of design and branding from those who live it.

“Every home run from 700 on was hit in a pair of cleats I designed. You could say I’m part of baseball history …indirectly that is.”

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Anthony describes this process in a series of behind-the-scenes short stories that also functions as a history lesson about those weeks where America saw Bond chase the all time home run record.  It is a baseball book, it is a branding book, and it is a conceptual design book about the act of designing.  Readers will be treated to stories like that of creating the Home Run tracker app that was presented to MLB bigwigs or how that app was used to build momentum for Bond’s streak and ultimate branding as the “Home Run King.”

“My focus has always been on human-centered design for 30+ years. What I believe is that a story that you present to the world has to be relevant, crisp & most importantly, involving. It should be able to make the audience believe in it & drive them to act and for that you have to ensure a high level of interactivity with the whole packaging. This is why I came up with Next-Gen 3D book packaging design that would ensure a livelier user experience- leading to an improved pulling effect for your book, something that is not possible with traditional static book packaging. I am hopeful this would dawn a new era in book packaging designing”, says Phills.

Designing for the Home Run King has been released through Apple’s iBook store and is the first of its kind.  Never before has a branding e-book contained video from the designer discussing the origins of the brand, nor has a subject matter been organized to create a parallel narrative in e-book format.  It is a design book, designed for designers, and it is a part of Phills legacy of pushing a format to its inevitable next level.

Designing for the Home Run King (45s) from Anthony Phills on Vimeo.