Seasonal live visuals for EA SPORTS NHL 23, 24 & 25
This design case is from my experience at
Electronic Arts
Role
Experience Designer
Industry
Video Game
Active team
Date
2024
Outcome
Designing live sports experiences at scale
Over the course of NHL 23, NHL 24, and NHL 25, I worked on conceptual and production artwork for Hockey Ultimate Team (HUT) and World of Chel (WOC), focusing on On-Disc features and Live events designed to keep players engaged across seasons.
My role
I contributed to visual design for live events and on-disc features, supporting art direction exploration, asset creation, iteration, and final delivery.
Collaboration
Throughout the project, I partnered with Game Producers, Art Directors, Engineers, and Experience Designers to align creative intent with technical constraints and in-game implementation.
Tools & methods
Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, Figma, Perforce (version control), Frostbite Engine
The challenge
One of the main challenges was keeping the visuals feeling fresh and relevant season after season, while staying true to NHL’s established visual system. I had to design assets that could scale across multiple game modes and surfaces, all within tight live-ops timelines. Balancing creativity with consistency and speed pushed me to be intentional with every design decision and adaptable throughout the process.
The process
Research & ideation
The process started with close collaboration with Game Producers to define the art direction for each event. Together, we created concept statements, keywords, and mood boards to help evolve NHL’s visual identity while keeping it familiar and on-brand.
Exploration & conceptualization
From there, I explored visual solutions across multiple in-game elements, including player cards, collectibles, reward packs, and screen backgrounds. This phase involved a lot of experimentation, testing different ideas, and sharing early concepts to gather feedback and refine the direction.
Iteration & refinement
As the designs progressed, frequent feedback from seniors and producers guided iteration on typography, color, hierarchy, and composition. Seeing how the visuals performed in real game environments helped inform adjustments and strengthened the final outcomes.
Delivery & implementation
In the final phase, I prepared production-ready assets and worked closely with development teams to ensure everything was implemented cleanly and consistently in-game. Seeing the work live in NHL 24 and beyond reinforced the value of thoughtful iteration and strong cross-team collaboration.
Visual work & highlights
Iconography
Extended NHL’s power-up icon library while introducing new iconography for NHL 25 systems. Icons were grounded in hockey-specific language to ensure immediate recognition and long-term scalability within the existing visual system.
NHL 25 visuals
Delivered collection and moments content, in-arena player banners, and foundational systems introduced in NHL 25. As primary owner of daily banners, I built a Figma-based banner system and Battle Pass UI toolkit that accelerated production, reduced errors, and enabled Game Producers to safely create content independently.
NHL 24 visuals
Supported on-disc features and seasonal live events throughout the NHL 24 cycle. I collaborated with Game Producers and art direction to define event visuals, contributing artwork across cards, collectibles, packs, and screen backgrounds through multiple iteration rounds.
NHL 23 visuals
Contributed to early live-service and on-disc content that established the foundation for NHL’s seasonal event strategy. I partnered with Game Producers to define art direction and explored visual solutions across core in-game surfaces while supporting rapid iteration.
World of Chel (WOC)
Created visuals for live messaging, player banners, and emblems across six World of Chel seasons. I contributed UI backgrounds, purchase screens, battle pass logos, and iconography designed to scale across progression and monetization flows.
Reflection
Designing live-service visuals across NHL 23, 24, and 25 reinforced the importance of thinking in systems, balancing creative exploration with scalability, speed, and long-term consistency. I bring this systems-driven, collaborative approach into future projects, focusing on building visual frameworks that empower teams, streamline production, and elevate player experiences at scale.
