Temple University Athletics
Staff Spotlight: Michael Conway
6.27.23 | General
This is the 22nd in a biweekly series spotlighting the men and women behind the scenes supporting Temple Athletics.
Michael Conway joined the Temple Athletics staff as a graphic designer in January of 2022.
Conway had previously served as a graduate assistant graphic designer at West Virginia University Athletics for a year. During his time with the Mountaineers, Conway was responsible for creating graphics for social media, recruiting, and electronic video boards.
Prior to West Virginia, Conway served in multiple graphic design positions including the graphic/video designer for Sportstars Inc., the athletics graphic design intern at Wofford College, as well as producing freelance work for Coastal Carolina Football and Lackawanna College Football.
Conway is a 2020 graduate of Misericordia University, where he earned a bachelor's degree in sport management while also being a four-year letterman on the football team.
1) Talk about your days as a former student athlete, and when you first realized that you would want to work in the graphics design field in an athletic setting?
"Sports have been a major part of my life since I was a kid. I played soccer, basketball, and baseball up until high school, then baseball and football in high school, and football in college. I knew when I was a junior in high school that if I had the chance to play in college I had to do it, especially since I started playing football later in high school.
My uncle (Matt) has actually worked in college athletics for as long as I can remember, (he's currently working at Boston College as the Associate Athletics Director for Facilities & Operations) and once I found out that working in sports was even a career path, I knew that's what I wanted to do.
I was a Sport Management major at Misericordia University not really knowing what I wanted to do with the degree other than work in sports. During my first credit internship at Lackawanna College, they asked me if I could make graphics during the interview and I said yes, even though the only graphic design experience I had was a few art electives in high school. I had to quickly teach myself through trial and error and some YouTube tutorials on how to get around Photoshop. After being there a couple months, the football team found out who I was and kind of took me under their wing for a while. I learned how important graphics and visual branding is for a team. One of the coaches there basically told me that I would be stupid if I didn't do graphics as a job."
2) You have had a few stops in your young career before arriving at Temple in 2022. Talk about your journey?
"Graduating from college in May 2020 was tough. Nobody had any jobs lined up, and with no sports happening I definitely didn't have anything lined up. I was still learning how to do graphic design, so I spent pretty every night over that summer seeing something online and basically copying it to figure out on my own how that graphic was made.
After doing that for a couple months, I finally landed a postgraduate internship with Wofford Athletics in South Carolina. I worked there as a kid fresh out of college as the only designer for the entire department, remotely, finally moving down to South Carolina in November 2020. Once I got there, I ended up having a hand in everything from graphics, video and social, to game setup and stats.
Once that year-long postgraduate internship ended in May I took a graduate assistant job with West Virginia Athletics. That was my first real experience with a big athletics department. And after just about six months there I found this job, and it was perfect, just two hours from home."
3) What is the toughest thing about creating unique designs to promote Temple Athletics?
"The hardest part for sure is coming up with something new and unique for every graphic. Whether it's for social, print, email, or just for internal use. Sometimes I can come up with 10 new graphics a day, and then other days it's a struggle to make just one new thing that I like. But at the same time, it's hard for me to let myself use a templated file that's similar to something else that we've already used. It's a mental battle."
4) Does any particular design that you have done so far in your career stand out more than the others, and if so, why?
"The things that stand out to me the most will always be the large-scale designs, whether it be something for a videoboard, a wall wrap in a team facility, or even a truck wrap. I think it's always extra cool to see your work blown up big in the real world rather than just the virtual space of social media."
5) Where do you see yourself next in your career?
"I know I want to stay in the digital creative space. Eventually working my way up to lead a team in a similar way to what Vaughan (Moss) does. But that's some time down the line. For now, I just want to keep creating cool stuff that people enjoy."
Michael Conway joined the Temple Athletics staff as a graphic designer in January of 2022.
Conway had previously served as a graduate assistant graphic designer at West Virginia University Athletics for a year. During his time with the Mountaineers, Conway was responsible for creating graphics for social media, recruiting, and electronic video boards.
Prior to West Virginia, Conway served in multiple graphic design positions including the graphic/video designer for Sportstars Inc., the athletics graphic design intern at Wofford College, as well as producing freelance work for Coastal Carolina Football and Lackawanna College Football.
Conway is a 2020 graduate of Misericordia University, where he earned a bachelor's degree in sport management while also being a four-year letterman on the football team.
1) Talk about your days as a former student athlete, and when you first realized that you would want to work in the graphics design field in an athletic setting?
"Sports have been a major part of my life since I was a kid. I played soccer, basketball, and baseball up until high school, then baseball and football in high school, and football in college. I knew when I was a junior in high school that if I had the chance to play in college I had to do it, especially since I started playing football later in high school.
My uncle (Matt) has actually worked in college athletics for as long as I can remember, (he's currently working at Boston College as the Associate Athletics Director for Facilities & Operations) and once I found out that working in sports was even a career path, I knew that's what I wanted to do.
I was a Sport Management major at Misericordia University not really knowing what I wanted to do with the degree other than work in sports. During my first credit internship at Lackawanna College, they asked me if I could make graphics during the interview and I said yes, even though the only graphic design experience I had was a few art electives in high school. I had to quickly teach myself through trial and error and some YouTube tutorials on how to get around Photoshop. After being there a couple months, the football team found out who I was and kind of took me under their wing for a while. I learned how important graphics and visual branding is for a team. One of the coaches there basically told me that I would be stupid if I didn't do graphics as a job."
2) You have had a few stops in your young career before arriving at Temple in 2022. Talk about your journey?
"Graduating from college in May 2020 was tough. Nobody had any jobs lined up, and with no sports happening I definitely didn't have anything lined up. I was still learning how to do graphic design, so I spent pretty every night over that summer seeing something online and basically copying it to figure out on my own how that graphic was made.
After doing that for a couple months, I finally landed a postgraduate internship with Wofford Athletics in South Carolina. I worked there as a kid fresh out of college as the only designer for the entire department, remotely, finally moving down to South Carolina in November 2020. Once I got there, I ended up having a hand in everything from graphics, video and social, to game setup and stats.
Once that year-long postgraduate internship ended in May I took a graduate assistant job with West Virginia Athletics. That was my first real experience with a big athletics department. And after just about six months there I found this job, and it was perfect, just two hours from home."
3) What is the toughest thing about creating unique designs to promote Temple Athletics?
"The hardest part for sure is coming up with something new and unique for every graphic. Whether it's for social, print, email, or just for internal use. Sometimes I can come up with 10 new graphics a day, and then other days it's a struggle to make just one new thing that I like. But at the same time, it's hard for me to let myself use a templated file that's similar to something else that we've already used. It's a mental battle."
4) Does any particular design that you have done so far in your career stand out more than the others, and if so, why?
"The things that stand out to me the most will always be the large-scale designs, whether it be something for a videoboard, a wall wrap in a team facility, or even a truck wrap. I think it's always extra cool to see your work blown up big in the real world rather than just the virtual space of social media."
5) Where do you see yourself next in your career?
"I know I want to stay in the digital creative space. Eventually working my way up to lead a team in a similar way to what Vaughan (Moss) does. But that's some time down the line. For now, I just want to keep creating cool stuff that people enjoy."
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