How my love for professional wrestling turned to graphic design.

By Jed Brysh, Graphic Design Intern

I’ve always been fascinated by the way things look. Even as an 8-year-old, I’d be the first to notice an altered logo. Of course, growing up I didn’t really know why I liked these things. It never occurred to me that I could, or would, make a career out of it.

That all changed when I discovered what would truly ignite my fire for design: professional wrestling. No, seriously.

As a kid, I collected wrestling action figures (and I must have had close to one hundred, if not more, by age twelve).

But my favorite part of the sport wasn’t so much the action in the ring. It was the personal brands of the fighters and the identities they depicted in the ring.

Each fighter strategically constructs their personality, attires, logos, colors, merchandise, theme songs… you name it. So, naturally, my 12-year-old mind fell in love with these character-like figures and what they stood for.

A wrestler’s brand can even transcend from niche pro-wrestler to mainstream pop culture. Recognize these?

I loved it all. So, I sought to replicate what I saw on television. For every one of my favorite wrestlers, I created branded assets (OK, you got me, I didn’t call them that at the time).

Made mostly from construction paper, markers, and colored pencils, I drew their logos, catchphrases, and really anything else that’d fit each unique identity.

Sometimes, I’d even attempt to give an existing wrestler a completely new identity (a rebrand, if you will). I ended up with boxes upon boxes of these fire hazards.

I didn’t know it at the time, but I was doing a child-like version of what I do today. And my love for it has only grown stronger. But isn’t it funny? How I knew what I wanted to do, even before I knew what it was.

And now, I’ve had the opportunity to be a Graphic Design Intern at Oyster, and it’s really been a lifelong dream come true.