The Brand Identity – Home of the Greatest in Graphic & Brand Design
For years, Jas Bell has helped shape the design and product worlds of artists including SZA and Metro Boomin, while working across streetwear, luxury fashion and culture. That creative force is now present in professional basketball. As Global Design & Product Director for Pacers Sports & Entertainment, the St. Louis-born designer is overseeing product for the NBA’s Indiana Pacers and the WNBA’s Indiana Fever at the same time. It puts him in rare company, joining Ronnie Fieg, Don C, Daniel Arsham and Big Sean as one of only five designers appointed this way by a team. Metro Boomin even scored the announcement. In our conversation, Bell discusses why the move into sports never felt like a pivot, how designing for longevity shapes game-day product, and what he wants a fan to feel holding a piece he created.
TBI Jas, congratulations on the new role. How does it feel to be stepping into this?
JB It’s really fire to think about. Insane man. I’m so grateful. Truly I am.
TBI This makes you the Global Design & Product Director for an NBA and a WNBA team at the same time. How are you thinking about building two distinct identities in one role?
JB To me, what unites them under my design direction isn't a template or a mirrored logo system. It’s really a standard of execution. The only connective thread is the level of taste, attention to detail and storytelling. Whether it’s a piece for the Fever or a campaign for the Pacers, the output will always feel intentional and culturally grounded. They both share the DNA of Indiana basketball, but function beautifully with their own identities. You give each team the space to breathe. For example, building something like the ‘Fever Girls’ capsule was about proving that the Fever get their own standalone fashion identity. The Pacers have their own distinct grit and legacy. Building two identities means actively listening to who the players are, what they want, what their specific fans want, and truly implementing that care rather than forcing a one-size-fits-all system.
TBI As a kid from the Midwest, how does the personal connection impact the way you’ll approach it?
JB I think in client work, I have the blessing and pleasure of being invited into someone else’s universe. I get to take their ideas and visions to help build their world in an amazing way. But this role is entirely different because this world is really like mine. Growing up just down the road in St. Louis, the Midwest is home. It changes my approach because I’m not just translating an aesthetic or idea for a client – I’m showcasing the greatness, the beauty and the homegrown talent that has always been right here. I want to give Indianapolis and the entire region the global visual identity it deserves.
TBI What does Indianapolis specifically offer you as a canvas, given its basketball history and culture?
JB Indy is the perfect canvas right now because it’s a city with a deep basketball soul that is currently experiencing a cultural renaissance. You have the legendary history of the Pacers on one hand, and the explosive, history-making energy of the Fever on the other. My job is always to be a vessel and to act as a bridge. I want to take the experiences I’ve been blessed to see in my career and intertwine them with the city’s raw energy. It’s about combining that vision with the players’ own styles to amplify Indy, so the world sees it as the creative epicentre it truly is.
TBI You’ve built your name designing for artists and in fashion. What made this role in sports the right move now?
JB It honestly didn’t feel like a pivot. Everything I have done in fashion and music has been leading to this exact intersection. The lines are completely blurred now. I think the athletes in today’s sports are just as engulfed in the overall culture as they’ve ever been. I think it was the right move now because the culture is finally ready for sports product to truly be elevated. I get to take the exact blueprint I use in the design studio and bring it directly to the court or field.
Sports merch shouldn’t just be a game-day uniform.
TBI How do you design merch that works just as well in the arena as it does on the street?
JB You have to view both environments through the exact same lens. The ultimate goal is lifestyle. We are not ‘just’ creating for game day. We’re considering a brand. If you design a piece with the right level of taste and care, it should flourish outside the arena just as much as it flourishes inside it.
TBI The Fever’s Stranger Things collaboration won a Silver Clio for its approach to fan engagement. What did that project teach you about what sports merch can do?
JB What the industry largely misses is that sports merch shouldn’t just be a game-day uniform – it should be a storytelling vehicle, a lifestyle uniform instead. For a long time, the standard was just putting the logo on a t-shirt and pushing it out. But working on the Stranger Things collaboration proved something I had already known for a while, which is that when you collide sports with the broader culture, you create special moments. Fans are multi-dimensional; they don’t leave their other interests at the arena doors. When we successfully intersect what we do from a brand lens with massive cultural touchstones, the merchandise stops being a souvenir and becomes an artefact. It taught me that if you respect the fan’s broader lifestyle and lock in on it, everything else will follow.
When you collide sports with the broader culture, you create special moments.
TBI Pacers Sports & Entertainment runs its retail, product development and team store in-house, which is quite rare in professional sports. How does that structure change what’s possible creatively?
JB That’s next level, right? So yeah, it just eliminates so much friction. It makes things seamless. You can actually ideate and create from a clearer place. Of course, there are still barriers to cross, but knowing we control a lot helps.
TBI How do you build a design system flexible enough to serve both a global moment like Mexico City and a local community activation?
JB Again, for me, the entire system is built on care. When we step onto a global stage like Mexico City, we want to be fully authentic and in gratitude to their culture, along with honouring all that they are in full. But we take that exact same love and care and apply it to our local activations, because our community at home is our backbone. The scale of the moment changes, but our intentionality never does.
TBI How does designing with longevity in mind translate to game-day merch, where product moves fast and trends turn over quickly?
JB I’m not too concerned about trends. My teachers never really focused me in that way. When you chase a trend, your product inherently has an expiration date. We’re focused on making something that lasts. We want to make sure we’re designing pieces and capsules that will hit 25 years from now the exact same way they hit today. A true story never gets old. You never get tired of hearing it, and you never get tired of telling it. That’s how we’re approaching it.
TBI What do you want a fan to feel when they pick up something you’ve designed for the Pacers or the Fever?
JB I think I just want them to feel proud. Like they’re holding something that genuinely represents their team, their city, and the culture surrounding it. It should feel familiar enough to honour the history and legacy of the Pacers and Fever, but forward enough to show where each franchise is going.
More than product, I want it to feel meaningful, something they’re excited to wear, keep, and eventually look back on as part of a special era. Whether someone has supported the team for decades or is becoming a fan for the first time, I want everything to make them feel included in the story.
TBI You’ve just come from the Louis Vuitton show in Paris, and now you’re stepping straight into this announcement.
JB It was surreal, actually, but it put everything into absolute clarity in Paris. I’m there every year. LV is like family to me, so that part is a given, but it was surreal knowing this opportunity with PS&E was on the horizon. Being at a show of that magnitude in Paris, you see what happens when design, storytelling, and attention to detail come to fruition at the highest level. So it really just reinforced exactly why I’m taking this on. Going straight from Paris to Indiana just locked in my conviction to give this city and these teams the elevated identity in product and design they deserve.