Fanatics — Case Study

Officially Licensed Sports Trading Cards

Pre-press Production, Blueprinting, Specialty Card Systems

Fanatics Collectibles / Topps

2024 – 2026

Overview

At Fanatics Collectibles, I support the production pipeline for officially licensed trading cards across some of the world’s biggest sports and entertainment properties. The work sits at the intersection of precision production, brand compliance, and collectible design — translating complex card concepts into pre-press blueprints ready for manufacturing.

The Challenge

Fanatics is a large-scale platform serving more than 100M fans, with a reported valuation of $31B. Within that scale, trading card production has to balance speed, accuracy, licensing requirements, and premium material treatments across multiple leagues and properties. The challenge is not only producing assets quickly, but keeping every blueprint production-ready and faithful to the collectible experience.

My Role

Sports Project Manager — producing high-volume pre-press blueprints for officially licensed trading cards at Fanatics Collectibles / Topps. My role focuses on production accuracy, specialty finish planning, and supporting the manufacturing handoff for cards across major sports and entertainment properties.

Responsibilities included:

Producing 1,000+ pre-press blueprints per month

Preparing card files across NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, UFC, FIFA, NASCAR, F1, WWE, and Olympics properties

Specializing in holographic, foil, relic, and memorabilia-based card treatments

Coordinating production-ready details for officially licensed collectible releases

Visual Direction

The visual and production language of the work is defined by premium collectible finishes: holographic surfaces, foil treatments, relic windows, athlete memorabilia, and league-specific brand systems. Each blueprint needs to clearly communicate the construction of the card so the final object can hold up as both a collectible and a licensed product.

Key visual decisions:

Clear blueprint systems for high-volume production

Accurate treatment planning for foil, holographic, relic, and memorabilia cards

Consistency across major sports properties and entertainment licenses

Production-ready files built for manufacturing and review

Outcome

The role supports a fast-moving collectible pipeline with more than 1,000 pre-press blueprints produced each month. The work helps bring officially licensed trading cards from concept into production across a wide range of leagues, athletes, brands, and specialty card formats.

Reflection

This work sharpened my ability to operate at production scale without losing attention to detail. It requires the precision of print production, the organization of project management, and an understanding of how premium physical finishes turn a flat design into a collectible object fans want to own.

Website

fanatics.com