MT. LOMBARDI

Role: Concept, Storyboard, Art Direction, Sound Design, Project Management

The Brief: Commemorate the NFL's historic 100th season with a piece of content that felt as monumental as the milestone itself. This wasn't about KPIs, it was purely about an artful commemoration.

Problem: The NFL's 100th anniversary was going to be covered by every major sports outlet. Bleacher Report needed something that would stand apart from the sea of highlight reels and talking-head retrospectives — something that felt timeless, not reactive. Showing that B/R was not just about quickfire social media pieces.

Insight: The most powerful way to honor 100 years of history is to tell a story without a single word. Pure visual storytelling, inspired by the cinematic language of animation, could capture the mythic weight of the NFL's legacy in a way that traditional sports content never could.

Design Intent: I brought on Anchor Point and Brikk to produce a Samurai Jack-inspired animated short — a wordless, cinematic narrative built to hit like Tartakovsky's best work. Every frame was storyboarded with his visual philosophy in mind: bold geometric silhouettes, dramatic shifts in scale, compositions that could stand alone as posters, and a rhythm that alternated between stillness and explosive motion. Color was atmospheric and restrained — used to set emotional tone, not decorate. Sound design and score replaced dialogue entirely, carrying the story forward the way Tartakovsky trusts silence to do the heavy lifting. The goal was to produce something B/R had never put out before — animation that felt cinematic, visceral, and stripped to its emotional core.

Outcome: A landmark piece for Bleacher Report that redefined what sports content could look and feel like — expanding the brand's creative vocabulary beyond traditional formats with nods to the artfulness of Game of Zones, and a slew of 'give the editor a raise' comments.