Ryan Lopano Blog

Hockey is known as this masculine sport: big hits, fist fights on the ice, 100-mile-per-hour slap shots, and so much more. According to Gettysburg College, “Notably, this sport includes many different expressions of physicality and aggression which is seen within body checks and physical contact that happen at all levels. But it is most easily seen within fist fights that occur at the professional level, in which players are minimally punished.” Obviously, all of these big moments are the ones that are talked about by mainstream media and fans alike. Regardless if this is considered good or bad, there is a huge aspect of hockey no one talks about: the gear and how it works.

When coming up with concepts for a research-based creation, I thought I could mend that gap. It seemed like an untapped market that many hockey fans could care about. I believe seeing the progression of this gear could be quite interesting, and showing off the safety facts on social media could aid hockey players and fans alike. I took this concept and created a TikTok page that created short-form content that showed these topics off.

The four topics I created content about are:

Hockey Skates
The video explored how modern hockey skates have evolved beyond a simple boot and blade. The content examined the construction of the boot, tongue, tendon guard, and blade, while connecting those components to performance and player safety. The video also explored the evolution of skate blades and the safety concerns that influenced modern blade designs.

Neck Guards
The video starts by talking about the unfortunate and unexpected death of professional hockey player Adam Johnson and the effect it had on the hockey community and the overall safety regulations. The story was used in the hockey world to demonstrate the importance of neck laceration protection and the research surrounding cut-resistant materials, coverage, sizing, and fit.

Goaltender Gear
The point of the video was to go through the major parts of goalie equipment, from the mask and chest protector to the gloves, blocker, and leg pads, while comparing modern gear materials to the heavier and bulkier equipment used in the past.

Helmets and Concussions
The video explained how helmets are designed to reduce impact forces and protect against serious head injuries, while also discussing the role of helmet construction, liners, fit systems, and rotational forces.

Overall, the entire goal of the series was to spread the information about hockey technology and safety in an easy-to-digest way, and it seemed to be successful. In the words of five-time Stanley Cup winner and NHL legend Mario Lemieux, “We, as a league, must do a better job of protecting the integrity of the game and the safety of our players.”

To learn more about “Beyond the Boards,” check out the case study here.

Being an influencer is the most desired profesion for the younger generation. The lavish lifestyle mixed with the popularity seems to be very desrirable. According to Fortune, “Gen Alpha watched influencers make millions from daily vlogs and video game content—now they want a piece of the pie. The generation’s top career choice is to become a YouTuber or TikToker, according to a recent survey of 12 to 15-year-olds.” This centiment was also ecoed by CNBC, saying that “Vlogger/YouTuber” is the top career aspirations for the children of the United States and United Kingdom. Even though the fame and the fortune of the bigger content creators is inspiring, there is alot of hard work that goes into being an influencer.

Being a smaller scale creator, every responsibilty falls under yourself. This includes the research and ideation phases (which includes brainstorming, data checking, an keyword study), production (which includes writing and scripting, recording, and designing), and post-production and publishing (which includes editing, scheduling, analyzing). On top of all of this, you still need to network with other creators, do the marketing behind your channel, and legit eveyrthing else. Obviously once a content creator gets bigger, they will hire people onto their team to help them, but that doesn’t change the hard work that goes behind it.

On top of all the work, there is also big negatives that comes with content creation. With your life being public, privacy is something that gets diminished. So many vloggers have showcased their life so hard where they can’t go out without being recognized or even doxed. Creators own homes have been discovered because of their life being so public.

In addition, it seems like the mental health of content creators is lower compared to others. Some examples of these mental health struggles could be anxiety, depression, and burnout. A study from Harvard’s Center for Health Communication shows that 10% of content creators report feeling suicidal thoughts related to their work—nearly double that of the broader U.S. population. An interview with Amanda Yarnell, senior director of the Center for Health Communication at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, shows this data. She talks about how “this survey reveals the pressures that come alongside those responsibilities: The financial pressure. The obsession over content performance. The burnout. The constant toxicity. And the isolation.”Obviously these problems are very impactful and showcasing your life online can potentially make them worse. Its very important that people dealing with mental health issues have people to talk to help.

Overall, content creatior is very rewarding in several ways but it also has some negatives. It’s importnant that creators create boundries and practice safe habits in order to make sure they are mentally and physical protected. For anyone dealing with mental health issues, call or text 988 at any time or chat live at 988lifeline.org/chat.

Social media has become one of the biggest and best ways to market a product, brand, or even a person. It is a very smart thing to leverage, as it is a great way to reach people externally. According to St. Thomas University, “The facts and figures make it apparent that social media should play a role in any marketing strategy. Not only does it allow a business to connect with a customer, but it also builds brand loyalty and can boost sales.” As someone who has worked behind several social media pages, many of which are the top of their class, I know a thing or two. Here are a few tips that I’ve learned:

1. Branding is Key.

When you look at any big social media page, you can instantly tell that all of the graphics and marketing are cohesive. When marketing a product or brand, you want the consumer to recognize it instantly. A great example of this is the marketing behind 2023’s Barbie Movie. In preparation for the film’s release, they had bright pink billboards with nothing but the release date.

The Drum talks about this, saying, “There is no better campaign to demonstrate the power of classic OOH than for the Barbie movie. It’s difficult to think of the bright (pink) beacon that’s been applauded across the advertising, entertainment, and fashion industries, to name a few, of anything other than sensational.” The whole idea of this campaign circles back to branding. All the billboard was Barbie pink and the font. The fact that that’s all consumers needed to recognize the brand shows how strong it is. When designing social media branding, that should be the goal. If you are designing posts individually, this will hurt you in the long run. When I designed the branding for my social media series, Beyond the Boards: The Safety Behind Hockey, I made sure to make sure that was the case. Below is the created logo for the brand.

2. Consistency, Consistency, Consistency.

The best way to build a brand on social media is through consistently posting. It is important to use all the features of your platform to your advantage. For example, Instagram has posts, reels, edits, stories, highlights, lives, and so much more. It is important to take advantage of these in order to grow your audience. Keeping up with the Instagram example, I try to make a post at minimum of a post every other day, as well as a few stories and reels mixed in. In Forbes‘ article about this topic, they mention, “Whether you publish blogs every day or once per week, it’s crucial for your organization to choose and adhere to a schedule. When your content quality, quantity, or schedule isn’t consistent, it can confuse your customers. Keeping with a regular strategy not only helps create a better customer experience but it also helps build credibility, reputation, and brand trust.”

3. Post Content Your Audience Would Want to See

When posting on social media, it is smart to post content that is entertaining. If you are posting just straight advertisements, no one would be interested in the page. There are several ways to make your content feel less corporate while still being able to show off your product. Following trends and other similar things, it makes your brand feel more down-to-earth. This is very important to people as a brand is more trustworthy when this is the case.

You don’t realize how important a good brand identity is until you see a bad one. Just last year, in August 2025, Cracker Barrel released a new logo and brand identity that made the internet explode. “The new version of the logo, which was unveiled along with a new menu on 19 August, removed the image of a man sitting in a chair and leaning against a barrel – known as the “Old Timer” – and replaced it with an emblem featuring only the chain’s name. That sparked accusations that the company, known for its Southern-style comfort food and nostalgic atmosphere, was abandoning its roots” (BBC News). When you see a good brand identity, you don’t bat an eye. But when you see a terrible one, it is so obvious. That is why good design and brand identity are so important.

When building a brand, there are so many different elements that are involved. You have a main logo, secondary logos, a cohesive color palette, different fonts and typefaces, patterns, and so much more. All of this comes together to create a good brand identity. A brand that did a great job of creating a brand is the Vegas Golden Knights of the National Hockey League. They introduced their brand in the 2017, while the league was changing jersey manufactures, so they had a fantastic opportunity to do something unique and different. This especially made sense as Vegas is known for being very bold so it would be logical for their a hockey brand to do the same.

SportsNet put together a mini documentary going over how the Golden Knights got their name and logo and it gives great insight into the process. They interviewed Tom Koukodimos, the executive creative director, and Chris Creamer, the founder of SportsLogos.net, who went over all the intricate details of the brand. They did a great job showing how they took that bold look and intrudced it to Vegas’ first major sports team. For example the primary logo has a hidden “V” inside of it for Vegas as well as having special embossed patterns in it when it is stitched on the jersey. In addition, the secondary logo is based on the stars seen on the Las Vegas sign mixed with two crossing swords. All of this genius comes together into one cohesive brand.

To avoid creating a bad brand, you need to make sure you are making choices with a purpose. If you are changing or adding something just for the sake of it, it probably isn’t a great idea. In addition, when you are designing, it is important to target it towards your audience. In the Cracker Barrel example, many of their customers are older, according to Cracker Barrel themselves, 43% of customers were age 55+, so getting rid of the charm and character in place of a minimalist design is a bad idea. Designing with purpose for the brand and the consumers is the most important part.

When you compare a great brand and a terrible brand, it is really night and day. A good brand immerses you into the world and is cohesive from social media to print, to everything in between. Bad design makes even non-creatives look at it and wonder, “Did a first grader make that?” That’s why it’s so important to put a lot of time and effort into building out a brand identity.

Organization is so crucial when doing a project, especially at a large scale. Project management sites such as Trello, Monday, and ClickUp are designed to be a one stop shop to get a team of people on the same page. According to Purdue University, “As many organizations increasingly rely on data to achieve the best outcomes, effective project management has become more important than ever. The best project managers are data-driven themselves: using the power of data to make informed and efficient decisions on processes and approaches to different projects.” This shows the importance of these project management sites, especially since it being recommended by several universities and companies alike.

As someone who has minimal experience with project management sites, I wasn’t always on board with the idea. For one of my graphic design jobs, everything is requested and sent exclusively over email. For my job at the Recreation and Wellness Center at Quinnipiac University, all of my requests come through a Word document that I fill out and then put into organized folders. Both of these systems worked for me so I never saw a use for an actual project manager. After inputting everything for this project into Trello, the project management site I chosen to use, I can definitely see the benefit to it. One aspect of it that seems very useful is being able to use it for a multi-person team. Another professional management site, Slack, mentions how “strong communication keeps projects on track, but it’s hard to stay aligned when conversations live in a dozen different places. Project management software connects the work and the dialogue around it, making collaboration feel faster and more intuitive. Comments, tags, and shared files all live where the tasks do, so updates happen in context instead of in separate channels.” This definitely seems like a major benefit, especially when team size increases.

The biggest point of these sites has to be organization. When there are so many moving pieces to an organization, it is ridiculously important to have good communication. I know this first hand who works remotely for a hockey organization based out of Oklahoma City. Communication is very important and these project management tools make it very easy to work back and forth. The Project Management Institute talks about the importance of it, saying “for such organizations, the discipline has enabled them to improve their performance in managing projects and realize significant business benefits, a result often achieved by more discerningly selecting only those projects which specifically contribute to the organization’s enterprise strategy.” This really shows how important it is to stay organized as well as how easy it is to do so with these sites. They continue on saying, “in addition to now realizing projects that deliver expected outcomes, these organizations are also now completing projects faster, cheaper, better–and with less risk. Inspired by these results, many other non-project-oriented organizations are following their lead by establishing their own project management structures.” Overall, PMI demonstrates many benefits to a project management website. They have a great understanding of the topic as they are non-for-profit organization that specifically focuses on project management.

When starting a long-term project, I believe the most important thing to do is to have a solid plan and create a well-written proposal. Preparation is the base layer of any project, and with structure in place, the base needs to be secure. This is the time when you do base research, come up with a plan, and figure out all the great details of the project.

The first, and personally most important, reason preparation is so important is that it helps you stay on track. When laying out a long-term project, it is very important to have a plan. When you prep in advance, you are able to do so. In addition, it also helps when things don’t go to plan. According to the University of Central Florida, “Preparation allows for strategic instead of reactionary thinking. By committing to strategic thinking, one can anticipate speed bumps and canyons and look for alternate routes and solutions before needing them. This type of planning allows you to react quicker than if your time were spent in reaction mode.” This is a very important point because there will always be speed bumps and being prepared will help you maneuver around them smoothly.

Another benefit of preparing ahead of time is being able to have more time to do the more enjoyable parts of the project. When you get all the preparation done in beginning, you have more time to do creative aspects later on. This is better than doing everything all at once, where you aren’t giving it 100%. Black House Creative talks about this, saying, “When you take the time to plan what needs to be done and how you will do it, you are able to approach tasks with more clarity and purpose. This inevitably saves time and ensures that you are taking the right steps to achieve your goals.” This creative agency is really looking at it from a design perspective, which I really appreciate as a fellow graphic designer. It also just reassures the importance of this process.

All this preparation comes together when you are creating your proposal. The proposal is the place where you lay out what you are doing and how you are doing it. This is very important for getting other people to see the vision you have in your head. Duquesne University Small Business Development Center says, “a good business plan not only helps entrepreneurs focus on the specific steps necessary for them to make business ideas succeed, but it also helps them to achieve short-term and long-term objectives.” This is very important when it comes to long-term projects that need all of this preparation.

This leads back to my proposal for a content creation journey I plan on going on for the next seven weeks. I plan on creating content about the safety of hockey and this history of the gear, and how it affected protection. The proposal is attached below, but the process itself really thought me about the importance of preparation and how a good proposal and a good structure overall can build a great project.

The New York Rangers are a professional hockey team that competes in the National Hockey League (NHL). They have four Stanley Cup Championships, including their most recent one in 1994, and have been in the league for over 100 years. As a huge hockey fan and a New York native, the Rangers have been a very important part of my life. Because of this, I want to help elevate their social media presents.
The Rangers have a great opportunity to improve their branding and capitalize on the recent success of the Knicks. Sports pride is at an all-time high near Madison Square Garden, and around the entire city, and it would be very smart for the Rangers to take advantage of it. With New York being one of the biggest sports markets in the world, having high quality photography, videography, and graphics would be a great way to achieve this. While doing research for this campaign, I found some excellent work from the Carolina Hurricanes, showing some top notch graphic design and social media work. One of my favorite creatives from the Hurricanes, is Jack Ridenour, who has create some excellent graphics for the playoffs and other special events. Some of his work is shown bellow.

Now that we’ve seen some high quality work, now it is important to see the strategy behind the New York Rangers 2026-27 social media campaign. As seen in the Knicks playoff run, New York had ridiculously large following. Now that New York sports are at an all time high, I think it is very important to the Rangers to capitalize on these fans. Regardless of if they care about hockey, these fans care about New York. If you are able to show them what is so cool about hockey, such as the high quality goals and the physical fights, you could get them hooked onto both hockey and the Rangers. When creating this campaign, the goals were to increase the Rangers’ Instagram engagement rate by over 15% over a three-month time period and increase the percentage of New York City based followers by 10%. Both of these relate back to the message of the campaign and show how important it is to relate back to New Yorkers.

Links in a social media post are a very difficult subject when it comes to advertising online. Social media platforms actively discourage you from sharing links. This is something that they do very intentionally. The goal of their platform is to keep you there, so by encouraging links, you are jeopardising that. The Science of Social Media Podcast did a study on this, and it showed that tweets with links had 7.2% fewer retweets and 28% less reach than tweets without links. In addition, LinkedIn impressions decrease by 3 times, and the engagement rate is increased by 70% when you don’t have a link.

Despite these statistics, it is very important to move social media followers to other avenues, including websites or other social platforms. There are some tricks to share links, such as putting them in your bio, where social media platforms intend you to put them, and using features like Instagram stories to share links. These methods are statistically better when trying to share links on social media. It is smart to do it with tricks like these, as it limits the social media platform from hiding your post.

I personally think that this dilemma is a double-edged sword. On one hand, it makes total sense why the social media platforms do not want you to leave their platform; it makes them more money the longer you stay. Despite this, links are important for business, and these social platforms know this. If you weren’t able to share links, many businesses wouldn’t use that platform to advertise. Because of this, it seems like the platforms allow users to use these links but don’t encourage it.

Overall, it is important to know how links work on social media. After seeing statistics and learning tricks like these, you can more efficiently use links in a way that still promotes your posts.

Of all the social media platforms, Instagram seems to be the most widespread. The platform has been around since 2010 and has about three billion monthly active users globally. With a combination of their longevity, widespread features, and range of users, it seems to be the best program for a brand to use to advertise.

Something I believe is very strong with Instagram is the different types of content that can be posted. On the app, you have the ability to post reels, posts, and stories. On top of this, you can edit straight in the app, post highlights, start livestreams, and create funrasiers. All of these features make Instagram perfect for creating and releasing a wide range of content. Having posts is great for sharing graphics and photos with your audience; reels are perfect for sharing short-form video content, and stories are images or videos that disappear from the profile after 24 hours. These three are the main ways to post content on Instagram and grow an audience. Having a variety of content is benifical, and Instagram makes it very easy to do so.

In addition, Instagram is perfect for business or content creators because of their algorithim. Instagram has a built-in algorithm that is made to push content out to people who would be interested. According to Instagram itself, “Each part of the app – Feed, Explore, Reels – uses its own algorithm tailored to how people use it. People tend to look for their closest friends in Stories, but they want to discover something entirely new in Explore. We rank things differently in different parts of the app, based on how people use them.” These custom algorithms are made specifically to show both followers and non-followers content that relates to their interests. This is the main way to spread your content on the platform, and it seems to work well.

Overall, I believe that the features of Instagram are very beneficial to content creators, and it is crucial to post content on there when advertising a business or non-profit.