Culture Handbook – Lakeville North Football
THE NEED
The Lakeville North Football program has a longstanding commitment to developing strong character in its athletes right alongside their skills on the turf. “North or None” is the program’s slogan.
Head Coach Brian Vossen drafted a book explaining the character traits he and his coaching staff emphasize and the meaning of the North or None motto. He needed a partner to turn his words into a bold and easy-to-read handbook to give away to all Panther players, including the youth program, as well as parents and boosters.
OUR APPROACH
The book features the stories of 10 former Panther players—in their own words—whom Coach Vossen chose because they embodied the highlighted character traits and the North or None attitude. It also holds quotes on each trait from Panther coaches, as well as some of the program’s history.
Coach Vossen’s draft was fairly error-free, so just a light proofread was completed by a WP editor. The main contents of the project were also well-organized into 10 chapters. Our team took the lead in breaking up the book’s introduction and adding some headlines to help set up the chapters.
Coach Vossen worked with the school’s photographers, his former players, and college media contacts to obtain the images used in the book. He also sent North or None graphics and the Lakeville North football logo.
Keeping in mind that young readers would connect with a book that was fun and quick to read, our designers created a spread-spanning layout with graphics to push readers’ eyes from one page to the next. A strong, squared-off headline font was paired with a balanced slab serif for the body copy.
On the cover, the designer leaned into the red and black color scheme and desaturated the backgrounds for impact with a touch of edginess.
With a page count of 46, two pages needed to be added at the end of the book for printing in signatures. The Write Place took the initiative to fill one page with a space for players to write down their goals; the other page was designated as a spot for younger players to get autographs from their older teammates and role models.
BY THE NUMBERS
- 6″ x 9″ saddle-stitched booklet
- 48 pages
CLIENT
Lakeville North Football
DELIVERABLES
THE REACTION
“Lexie Thomas and the team from the Write Place took a vision I had for all of Lakeville North Football and created the perfect visual tool. They crafted a book that explained the North or None culture we believe in using photos, quotes, and explanations from former players and coaches on our staff. They were very detailed in how they put the book together, and the result exceeded my expectations. It is hard to put what the North or None culture means to me in words, but this book will forever serve as a visual representation for what we have tried to build.”