Keeping Colorado State Athletics in the Public Eye
RamVision, Rams Creative play crucial role during pandemic
After four months without activity on campus, their friends and family lean toward what seems obvious to them.
Without games, there must not be much to do.
To the contrary, the work of RamVision and RamsCreative has proven to be crucial for the Colorado State Athletic Department during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I think it’s been instrumental. I would say even before all of this stuff happened with COVID-19, we really had a deep appreciation for everything they had done to help us, how we brand our athletic department and CSU,” men’s basketball coach Niko Medved said. “They’re obviously really talented and creative. When all this happened and we were not able to have people come and see our campus in person, it just highlights the importance of what they do and the level of talent and creativity they’ve had. They’re really helping us right now bridge this gap.”
Without games, the task of keeping fans informed and engaged on social media falls squarely on the shoulders of RamVision and RamsCreative, the video and graphic arms, respectively, of the athletic department.
With on-campus recruiting visits on hold, the way the two departments have enabled coaches from all programs to still be able to sell the Colorado State campus and the surrounding area has kept the recruiting processes flowing.
Be it through graphic or video elements, they can bring Fort Collins to the recruit. The recent upgrades to campus, as well as the historical traditions, can come to life. So too the energy of Old Town and the scenic beauty of Horsetooth Reservoir. The athletic facilities, from the fields of play to the training rooms where athletes are handled with care. The hype of game day, the atmosphere the fans generate.
“I feel with the current coronavirus pandemic, I honestly feel our work right now is the most important in the division,” said Ben Brune, who oversees both departments. “We’re keeping people engaged with CSU Athletics. We’re getting recruits to campus who can’t otherwise be. We’re telling the stories that would otherwise go silent.”
Brune came back to head video production in August of 2016. A year later, he had already started moving forward with the designs he held for the department, including the creation of its own brand – RamVision. And with the help of Joe Cooper in the graphic department, RamVision even had a logo.
Cooper followed suit with the naming idea, with RamsCreative launching with the release of the State Pride jerseys back in 2017.
Jason Matheson, the founder of SkullSparks, a company which partners with college programs to help improve and design strategy, considers the work of Cooper and RamsCreative to rank among the best in the nation when it comes to branding the entirety of a collegiate athletic department.
In a day and age where a university can have 16 or more sports, some with different graphic and video departments, the idea of a uniform and creative design is harder to achieve. In his eyes, Cooper and his staff nail it, putting the work in the upper echelon along with Tennessee, Rutgers and Purdue. His company consistently highlights the work of RamsCreative through their social-media channels.
What he particularly likes about the work of Cooper and Lexi Rosa is their graphic work catches immediate attention through a unique approach. Even when the Colorado State logo isn’t prominent, it is recognized immediately and tied directly to the school. For instance, the use of an elevation map in the background of a recent graphic highlighting Warren Jackson as the Mountain West Preseason Offensive Player of the Year. It sells Colorado State by incorporating the Front Range area.
“They’re creating a personality for Colorado State visually,” Matheson said. “What’s really impressive is it’s one thing for a school to put efforts and resources toward football or men’s basketball. It’s another level of excellence in this area to see it across the board.
“College sports is unique, because you have a bunch of mini brands working under the umbrella of one big brand. When you see digital and design that is consistent and at a high level of quality for the smaller Olympic sports, and they are right up there with football and basketball, that’s impressive. You don’t see that at a lot of schools. I appreciate that from Colorado State specifically.”
They’re obviously really talented and creative. When all this happened and we were not able to have people come and see our campus in person, it just highlights the importance of what they do and the level of talent and creativity they’ve had. They’re really helping us right now bridge this gap.Niko Medved, Men's Basketball Coach
RamVision photographer Reno Boyd won a pair of Emmys this year from the Heartland Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, one for sports photography, the other for sports editing. RamVision has now won four Emmys in the past two years, and Boyd is up to seven personally when including his time with 9News in Denver.
Boyd gives all the credit to Brune, who came back to Colorado State after his work at Baylor to create RamVision into a well-respected department nationally. The equipment and production room match what people will find anywhere in Denver, leaving many in disbelief this is what exists just across the hall from the Moby Arena floor.
Brune’s goal was to take what he witnessed happening at Baylor and throughout the Big 12 and bring it back to his alma mater. His game was one of catch-up, noting other larger schools had been heavily involved in athletic video production for decades. In the past few years, they have done more than gain ground, but have surpassed many schools in the process.
Whether there are games being played or the nation is in the midst of a global pandemic, Boyd said the goal of RamVision remains unchanged.
“Our main goal when we go out there, our No. 1 priority is to tell the student-athletes story and just show everything they’re going through and let people get a little bit better perspective of what it takes to be a student-athlete,” Boyd said. “At the same time, we’re also inviting our fans to the inside to make them feel a part of it, too.
“That’s by far my favorite part, getting to know all of these kids and getting to build relationships with them. A lot of people just see them compete, but when you get to actually know them a little bit and know what they’re all about, you just find out they all have such incredible stories to tell. When you get to know them, you want to help them share those stories. It blows my mind what these kids do every single day.”
The stories just carry a bit of a different tone these days. As Colorado State works to keep a tight bubble around the student-athletes on campus, the normal access to facilities has been scaled back for the health of all involved. There have been glimpses, but not the accustomed habitual attendance that has gained Boyd, Christian Schuepbach and the students who work for RamVision the face recognition they have earned.
Regardless, the work being doing by the two departments is still being felt within the athletic department.
For instance, right as the pandemic was started to hit the country in force in March, a Boyd idea became a viral sensation for Colorado State. The NCAA Basketball Tournament was one of the first big hits taken by the sporting world, and March Madness this season marked the 10th anniversary of CSU assistant men’s basketball coach Ali Farokhmanesh taking the tournament by storm when his downtown dagger for Northern Iowa stunned Kansas.
Moby Arena was empty, save for Farokhmanesh, his wife, Mallory, and three children, Tai, Mila and Liam, recreating the shot that stunned the basketball world. The drama was absent, but the adorability factor was off the charts, with the video reaching a million viewers on combined CSU social media channels.
As Matheson said, college social accounts would be “crickets” at this time if not for the visual and graphic departments on campus.
The work, it is constantly coming. While most fans get to see the skills of RamsCreative on social media, they also see it projects for tickets, schedule posters and media guides. The idea of creating a brand for a university -- and carrying the scope across the sporting spectrum -- can be a monumental task. What Cooper appreciates is the hierarchy of the athletic department granting him some creative freedom, tying in what makes CSU a special campus with the bordering factors which only magnify the area. While football, basketball and volleyball draw a ton of attention, Cooper is proud to say all sports are created equally within his office at the McGraw Athletic Center.
“That’s one of the biggest things we do take pride in. There are a lot of creatives which just work in football or just basketball, but we take pride in making sure all of our sports are as well represented as they can be,” he said. “It’s a big deal for our student-athletes to get a graphic every now and then and we try to personalize it and take pride in it.
“We look up to other schools which do it well across the board. It’s a bigger challenge. Designing swimming and diving versus volleyball versus football, they’re all completely different. So how do you make them all fit under one consistent look, but it’s also flexible and fun so that the creatives don’t get bored.”
On occasion, RamVision and RamsCreative will combine their talents for projects, moments Cooper and Boyd appreciate for the sharing and developing of concepts, some which could be used immediately, and others shelved for later use. Both also heavily involve students on campus, and not by giving them menial tasks. No, Brune and Cooper are big believers in their departments allowing students to become fully involved to grow the next wave of creative minds.
An underlying bond both departments share is the feeling of home. Boyd, Brune and Cooper are all Colorado State graduates, all of them raised in the state. Cooper truly believes the fact they all developed skills and are putting them to use for the university brings about a higher calling. If it means Boyd has to take a sideline hit from Alabama receiver Calvin Ridley because he wants the perfect shot, so be it.
“I think there’s a pride factor. I think we’re all Colorado kids, so we understand what makes Coloradans Coloradans and what they respond to and what they like,” Cooper said. “I think that’s a factor, for sure.”
The appreciation has always been there. But even Medved admitted in an unprecedented time such as the one we are all living in right now, his program in particular has gained a greater level of perspective of the impact coming out of the two departments.
At Colorado State, the message is still loud and clear -- sans the normal channels of competition to help fuel timelines and news cycles.
“We always knew how good they were. It’s funny, all the sudden as the world changed, it just made their job and what they do that much more important,” Medved said. “We have to bring what we do into (a recruit’s) living room, because they can’t go from their living room to our campus. It’s what we’ve had to do, and a lot of the things they have done have really helped the process.”