Sports Forever
The 2026 ESPYS
Client
ESPN
BGSTR partnered with ESPN Creative Studio on the 2026 ESPYs, stepping in as an executional extension of the team to help manage a bigger creative lift under tighter physical constraints. The show's move from the Dolby Theater to the Koch Theater meant fewer screens to work with, which meant every piece of creative had to do more with less, concentrated, adaptable, and still consistent with the design system ESPN had already established.
Logo Animations
The work touched three parts of the broadcast. For the night's Narrative Award Animations honoring Arthur Ashe, Billie Jean King, Jimmy V, Muhammad Ali, and Pat Tillman, BGSTR built the layered overlay animations that brought ESPN's original designs to life on screen, engineered to move on, hold, and move off without a hitch.
Narrative
On the digital floor, an After Effects toolkit gave the show a flexible ambient background that could shift to any color it needed, built before the floor's final dimensions were even locked.
Gradients and Type
Each piece moved through its own build in sequence rather than all at once: designs handed off, motion tests run, and files delivered on a rolling basis as each element cleared review, so the show never waited on a single bottleneck as pieces made their way toward set days at the Koch Theater. Every file was built layered, so ESPN carries the system into future shows rather than starting over each year.
Nominations and Winners
And for the winner sequence, image and content holder overlays gave ESPN's photography a clean, consistent frame to land in as each award was announced.
Props where props are due
Credits
Credits
Founder, Executive Creative Director Josh NortonExecutive Vice President, Executive Producer Carson HoodVice President, Head of Production Virgil ConklinCreative Director Doug AppletonAnimation Director Casey DroginProduction & Partnerships Director Soon KwonDesign and Animation Carl Dempsey, Gauthier Bossuyt, Paolo Garcia, Casimiro Petruccio