Wind Creek x CHSN Partnership

Pitch design, narrative development, and mockup execution for a multi-platform sponsorship deal.

Role: Creative Director, Brand Partnership & Visual Narrative
Client: CHSN & Wind Creek Chicago Southland
Date: January–February 2025
Type: Strategic Pitch Deck, Brand Integration Mockups, Visual Communication

Overview:
In early 2025, CHSN aimed to secure a major sponsorship deal with Wind Creek Chicago Southland, a high-end casino launching in the region. As Creative Director, I collaborated directly with the CEO and CRO to build a high-impact pitch deck that told the story of a unique brand alignment between CHSN and Wind Creek.

This was not an activation or event — it was a story-first, strategy-led marketing deck that required translating abstract business alignment into tangible visuals and co-branded opportunities. I was responsible for the entire design system, visual mocks, and storytelling framework that helped close this multi-platform partnership.

The Challenge:
Wind Creek was preparing to launch a $440M casino and sought a credible, local-facing media partner to build regional awareness. CHSN, fresh off its 2024 network launch, needed to:

  • Craft a compelling narrative that aligned Wind Creek’s luxury brand with Chicago’s passionate sports culture

  • Demonstrate creative flexibility across media: broadcast, digital, in-venue

  • Prove that CHSN could offer real value through strategic, scalable partnership visuals

This required more than a good-looking deck — it required a pitch that visualized the future of the partnership before it existed.

The Creative Solution

  • Working side-by-side with the CEO and CRO, I developed a visual and storytelling arc that made the partnership feel inevitable not speculative.

    Key elements included:

    • Audience targeting strategy: How CHSN viewers align with Wind Creek’s key demographics

    • Narrative flow: From market opportunity → audience engagement → branded touchpoints → ROI

    • Mockup design: In-context visuals that made intangible ideas concrete

  • Led narrative architecture, visual direction, and all design execution. Collaborated directly with CEO and CRO to align design strategy with business outcomes.

    • Deck architecture in PowerPoint, balancing clarity, tone, and persuasion

    • Visual mockups built in Photoshop, Illustrator, and Figma

      • Broadcast segment branding

      • Digital overlays

      • Co-branded social content

    • Design consistency to align CHSN’s modern sports tone with Wind Creek’s premium feel

    Tools Used:
    → PowerPoint, Photoshop, Illustrator, Figma

    • The pitch successfully landed a multi-platform sponsorship deal between CHSN and Wind Creek in early 2025

    • Wind Creek became one of CHSN’s first official brand partners, announced publicly across media

    • The visuals and narrative served as a template for future partnership decks going forward

    Featured in:
    SVG Sports Video Group Announcement

  • This project showcased the intersection of design, storytelling, and business strategy where visual thinking directly led to commercial outcomes.

    As Creative Director, I was able to:

    • Translate complex business objectives into compelling visual form

    • Guide executive collaboration toward a clear, unified vision

    • Design for persuasion and scalability — not just aesthetics

    This project reaffirmed the role of strategic visual storytelling in business development and how good design can move major deals forward.

*To maintain confidentiality, the original Wind Creek presentation materials are not publicly shown. However, the visuals below are drawn from a repurposed version of the deck created for Calamos Investments, which utilized the same narrative structure, visual design system, and layout principles developed for Wind Creek. All sensitive data has been removed or modified.

Intro slide from Calamos sponsorship pitch deck, built from the original Wind Creek framework.

Intro slide from Calamos sponsorship pitch deck, built from the original Wind Creek framework.

Brand partnership narrative layout, demonstrating strategic storytelling tone.

Brand partnership narrative layout, demonstrating strategic storytelling tone.

Mocked visual structure of how a sponsor’s identity integrates into CHSN's digital and broadcast ecosystem.

Mocked visual structure of how a sponsor’s identity integrates into CHSN's digital and broadcast ecosystem.

Example of co-branded original programming segments designed to bring partner narratives to life within CHSN content.

Example of co-branded original programming segments designed to bring partner narratives to life within CHSN content.

Experience-driven sponsorship activation visual (adaptable structure initially developed for Wind Creek).

Experience-driven sponsorship activation visual (adaptable structure initially developed for Wind Creek).

Media value and measurement framework used to define ROI for brand partners.

Media value and measurement framework used to define ROI for brand partners.

Comprehensive partnership rollout framework derived from the Wind Creek creative strategy.

Comprehensive partnership rollout framework derived from the Wind Creek creative strategy.

  • "Robert helped bring our vision to life in a way that was both strategic and visually compelling. The Wind Creek pitch deck played a key role in helping us land the partnership. His work made our message clear and persuasive."

    – Rob Shaw, Chief Revenue Officer, CHSN