WKU men’s basketball season ticket holders have been carrying in their pockets during this memorable season a unique form of artwork by a SKYCTC adjunct instructor.
Illustrations of the players on this 20-plus-win team, their coach and their mascot were imprinted on each game ticket before the season began. Season ticket holders received theirs in booklets.
The illustrations are the creation of Trey Turner, a WKU alumnus who is a dedicated supporter of Hilltopper athletics and a former NCAA basketball player, basketball official and two-time Kentucky Nike HoopStar himself.
He is in his first year teaching Computer Information Technology classes including web design at Southcentral Kentucky Community & Technical College after having taught a variety of CIT courses at Daymar College, including Graphic Design.
His first computerized drawing that went public was a Senior Night poster honoring a group of Topper seniors which included Jeremy Evans and A.J. Slaughter.
He moved on to teach himself the art of creating illustrations, which he defines as vector drawings formed by creating multiple points and combining hundreds of them into one portrait or scene. All of the vectors, points and drawings are done by hand with a mouse
Turner’s first illustration which went viral was of George Fant, the former Warren Central and WKU basketball star who became a starting offensive lineman for the Seattle Seahawks of the NFL during the fall of 2016. The illustration showed Fant in two very different uniforms—Hilltopper basketball and Seahawk football.
He did illustrations of many of the players on Western’s great football team that fall. Players began sharing their own picture on Twitter while many whose portrait he had not done were asking him to create one of them.
Most of Turner’s creations come from pictures of the athletes rather than his seeing them in person. He draws their hair, skin, hands, torsos, and uniforms, some of them with detailed backgrounds.
A number of his illustrations were of Coach Rick Stansbury’s first WKU basketball team a year ago. His illustration of Stansbury himself was especially well received.
Turner’s illustrations became popular through Twitter and Instagram. They have caught the eye of NBA players, NBA.com, college teams, sports agents, apparel firms and marketers. He has been contacted/contracted to do artwork for teams and has been recruited to create illustrations for sports clothing companies.
Then came a message from WKU Associate Athletic Director Matt Morrison, asking Turner to create illustrations of all the 2017-18 players, Coach Stansbury, Big Red and the team. He gladly accepted the offer. Work had to be done quickly in time to get the tickets printed and to season ticket holders before the season began.
In fact, a second group shot became necessary when it was determined that five-star freshman center would not be a part of the team.
The completed project produced 18 different ticket designs.
Trey Turner is also a lead web designer for the world’s largest online tailor, the Tom James Company. He has designed and built websites for a number of businesses, and at age 20 he became publisher and webmaster of the online newspaper, www.theloganjournal.com, a position he has held for nine years.