Full Sail Stories

Full Sail Digital Arts & Design grad Joey Northup made a big leap after finishing his degree in 2008. He moved from Orlando to Los Angeles in hopes of carving out a career in one of the biggest entertainment markets.

The move paid off. He landed a job with the NFL Network, starting as a Junior Animator and working his way up to Art Director. During this time, he produced in-stadium graphics and animation for Super Bowl LVI. He also worked on the ESPN series Detail: Kobe Bryant, where he collaborated with the NBA Hall of Famer. He now works as an Art Director at SoFi Stadium, home of the NFL’s Los Angeles Rams and Los Angeles Chargers.

We caught up with Joey to learn about what his current role involves, the most rewarding aspects of his work, some major upcoming events he’s excited to work on, and his advice to students interested in art and design.

What’s a typical workday like for you at SoFi Stadium?
I work closely with the video teams for the Rams and Chargers. I help test all of the graphics that are displayed during a game or concert. Sometimes I will design graphics for them as well. If the graphics aren't looking right, I can send some mockups back to say, “Hey, this logo needs to be bigger. This one needs to be placed [in a different spot]. The timing's off.” I also work on lots of content from sponsors shown during games. We make sure they have the right templates for all of our screens to get their content looking right.

For concerts, I usually work with the artist’s internal team beforehand, maybe a couple of weeks before the show, to make sure they have all of our templates to run their graphics through. I find out how many feeds they want to have and if they want to have video feeds of the show and graphics going at once.



What did you learn at Full Sail that you’re using in your work today?
I remember taking an Adobe Illustrator class at Full Sail, and they taught us the right way to trace things with the Pen tool. I still use these techniques almost daily. I also had some labs for Adobe After Effects. The instructors would come by on a more one-on-one level, and I would ask them, “Hey, this doesn't really have to do with the class, but I saw this cool flower growing. How would you animate it in this way?” And they would show me these little tricks. A lot of those fundamental skills are things I still use to this day.

What do you enjoy most about your job?
It's surreal to see something that's so small on the computer and then walk out around the corner, and it opens up to the stadium where I can see everything on the big screen. We have an Infinity Screen, and it's the largest screen in any stadium. It’s double-sided and goes a full 360 degrees around the stadium, so no matter where you’re sitting, everyone can see it.

Plus, I get to work on a small broadcast team, and we're all just super close. I can't say enough good things about the team. I love it there.

What future projects are you looking forward to?
Next year, we're doing the World Cup. Then in 2027, we have another Super Bowl here, and then in 2028, we're doing the opening ceremony for the Olympics as well as the swimming events. You can't get any bigger than those three.

What advice do you have for students interested in professional art and design?
There are so many avenues an artist can go with video animation, 3D animation, modeling, or character modeling. I would say explore everything and then pick something that you really like and hone in on that one skill that you can really get good at. It should be something that you enjoy because you're going to be doing it a lot.

I would also say any job that I've gotten usually came from a connection. So make good connections at school because you never know who's going to end up where.