Smart Sports Group
We gave Smart Sports Group’s athlete workbook a brand of its own, with room left for the athlete’s own answers.
The TL;DR
SSG already had the curriculum. Its Canva materials were built on generic templates, and the colors and fonts were still open. We gave PowerBroker its own identity, built around its content and the athletes using it. Color, type and page layouts now work as one system, from covers and session openers to lessons and reflection prompts. Dark blue anchors the page, orange marks what matters, and pale response boxes leave space for the athlete’s own work.
The Challenge
Design for What Comes After the Playing Field
PowerBroker helps athletes grow beyond their sport, with sessions on leadership, money, resilience and well-being. SSG wanted the design to feel elevated and credible, so athletes would see the material as part of their real lives. The workbook goes to high school, college and early pro athletes across many different teams.
That had to work on the page. A session opener could be bold. A lesson needed a clear order to read in. A reflection prompt needed room for an answer. The workbook had to feel like sports while still supporting the quieter work of reading, writing and thinking.
The Journey
Give PowerBroker an Identity of Its Own
We explored two directions: bright accents on neutral backgrounds, and a more minimal look inspired by highlighted notes. Feedback landed in the middle. Use a few accents, plenty of white space and enough structure to connect one session to the next.
Color came with a catch. The workbook goes to many athletic teams, so SSG didn’t want a palette that pointed to any one of them. We tested a deep blue with warmer accents, and the client found the warmer direction more inviting than the red-orange they started with. The final palette uses dark blue, orange and pale supporting colors, so every PowerBroker page speaks the same visual language.
Put Energy in the Heading and Space Around the Response
We treated headlines, taglines and body copy as different jobs. We compared font pairings side by side and tested weight and spacing in real layouts. Short, bold phrases bring the energy of sports into the workbook. The mood board balanced that with white space, thin borders and very little decoration.
You can see it in the pages. Dark blue headings and footer strips hold the structure together. Reflection boxes show where the athlete’s work goes. The brand frames those spaces and leaves them open for notes and answers.
Give Each Part of the Workshop Its Own Format
We built the Canva system around what happens in a session: open the topic, explain the idea, then ask for a response. Covers and dividers introduce what’s next. Text pages carry the lesson. Reflection layouts give athletes a place to work through it. Page numbers and section markers tie it all together.
The Intention Setting and Interviewing pages show the shift. Instead of generic course formatting, response boxes give each reflection its own space. Every layout stays editable in Canva, so SSG can swap pages for different audiences and keep the same look.
The Solution
The PowerBroker Identity, Carried Into the Page
PowerBroker now has a documented palette, a Satoshi and Inter type pairing, and Canva layouts for navigation, lessons and responses. Template-based course materials became a design system of its own. Bold headings open the work, a small set of colors connects the pages, and open space makes reflection part of the design. Because the layouts are editable, SSG can build new pages and pick different activities for different athlete groups without losing the look.
Hear What Our Client Has To Say
What stood out most was how much Slam cared about getting this right. They didn't just treat this like another design project, they took time to understand what we were building, who we were serving, and why it mattered. Even though he admitted upfront that he wasn't that versed in sports, he learned alongside us and brought all our expertise together into something better than we could have created separately. We had an excellent experience. Slam delivered everything we asked for and then some.
FAQs
We refined the brand and designed the PowerBroker 365 workbook. That covered the color palette, the type pairing and a set of reusable Canva page layouts.
Canva keeps every page editable. SSG’s team can update content and swap pages for different audiences, and the layouts keep the look consistent.
A one page brand standards sheet lists the fonts, Satoshi and Inter, and the six brand colors with their hex codes. The Canva layouts put those rules into practice.
High school, college and early professional athletes. The sessions cover leadership, money, resilience and well-being.
SSG works with many athletic teams, so we chose a palette that doesn’t point to any one of them: dark blue with warm orange accents.
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