This summer, you can find Lucas Velazquez (Graphic Design, 2025) in the center of the action at the Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse, home to the Cleveland Cavaliers NBA team. No, he’s not a player, but Velazquez has contributed to the Cavs in his own way as an intern in the team’s marketing department.
For the second full summer, Velazquez is working full-time as a graphic design intern for the Cavs. And this summer, as the summer before, Velazquez has taken on a project that most designers long for—virtually free rein in designing a print magazine that celebrates the team’s season highs, milestones, retail collaborations, and other major moments. Are you green with envy yet? If not, this might get you there: “They gave me complete creative freedom–I could do whatever I wanted,” he says.
From cheering on the Cleveland Cavs to creating for them
Velazquez was born in Los Angeles and grew up in Beachwood, Ohio, often attending Cleveland Cavs games with his family—his dad, Ron Velazquez, is a team exec—and amassing an impressive collection of Cleveland Cavs memorabilia gathered over his years of fandom. These days the rising senior at Columbus College of Art & Design is just as likely to create collectibles as he is to acquire them.
It’s a surreal feeling to think that I used to be in the stands cheering on the Cavs … and now I have an opportunity to work for the organization.”
Lucas Velazquez
(Graphic Design, 2025)
It didn’t take years of honing his jump shot to land the job with the Cleveland Cavs—Velazquez instead brings his skills with Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, and other digital tools to support the organization. In his graphic design internship with the NBA team, he works alongside other creatives, such as the team’s art director, team photographers, apparel graphic designers, motion graphic designers and others. (Visit nba.careers.com to learn more about available career opportunities and early career programs such as internships with the league.)
For the magazine project, Velazquez taps into the Cleveland Cavs’ photo bank for compelling images of new team jerseys, game day posters, star players, and other exciting moments for the team and fans. He was given key topics, a budget, and then told “have fun,” he says.
Velazquez has been working with the kind of creative freedom (and budget) that a lot of designers dream of, enabling him to do things like include gold foil accents on the cover, and use expensive paper inserts to underscore design choices, such as using translucent layers of paper for a photo image series, or a weightier paper for a poster reproduction insert.
Last year’s magazine was about 150 pages with a limited run of 100 copies, produced for and distributed to Cleveland Cavs insiders. This year, it’ll have even more content and go to more people. Not to mention, the magazine will undoubtedly be an attention-grabbing example of his real-life work products Velazquez can include in his resume when he hits the job market.
Velazquez has learned important design lessons—ones that will benefit his career as he moves forward—while working on the magazine project. For example, he’s learned that you may have to shift an image to account for the gutter (inside margins) of a two-page spread. He also plans on incorporating more descriptive language in section chapters. “I think it will really help people tell a story—which is the whole point of this magazine, to be able to look back and cherish the wins, to see what we’ve accomplished,” he says.
Velazquez is using what he’s learned at CCAD to help solve design challenges. “The professors, they have taught me to be more creative with my hands, that before you even design, create things on paper and sketch and ideate that way, and then go to the laptop,” he says. Meanwhile, Velazquez plans on taking his experience with the Cleveland Cavs to incorporate a more creative approach to problem solving in his class assignments.
Teamwork makes this dream NBA internship work
Velazquez has been going to Cleveland Cavs games for the last decade, so when thinking about the imagery for this year’s publication, he also considered what the fans typically don’t see—but might wish to. For instance, he found a photo of player Evan Mobley wearing headphones while answering an interviewer’s questions in front of a crowd. “Our photographer got a wide shot of him from the back, so you could see his jersey number and name, the headphones and all the people in the crowd—you don’t see that very often,” Velazquez says.
Having that creative freedom, being able to sit down, and your boss says, ‘We want to see these sections,’ or, ‘We want to see these specific things, but have fun with it, do whatever you want with it,’ is the most exciting thing."
Lucas Velazquez
(Graphic Design, 2025)
In addition to the magazine project, this summer has provided Velazquez with perspective on the wide range of creative jobs available to graphic designers who want to work for NBA teams such as the Cleveland Cavs. For instance, he’s gotten to work on retail logos for hats, shirts, hoodies, and team spiritwear. In the fall, he plans to periodically return to work on a video for the team that will showcase these retail collaborations. “I’m pretty excited for that,” he says.
Velazquez’s summer graphic design internship with the Cleveland Cavs also has highlighted how teamwork—and collective effort—goes well beyond the players on the court. “There are so many different jobs, and so many different moving parts and pieces in order to keep an organization or company or team, whatever, afloat, from housekeeping to the actual players to the coaches to the people who are taking the photos to the dancers, the concessions workers, the ushers, security, the police officers … you don’t realize how many people are there to make your time (at a game) a great time.”
Velazquez says his graphic design internship with the Cleveland Cavs is helping him network within and outside of the organization and build toward his professional goals. And just what are those? “I think my dream career would be to freelance or create a small creative agency with graphic design, photography, and videography teams to help anyone's creative needs and to be able to travel with the team while we work,” he shares.
Header image: Velazquez demonstrates his b-ball skills by spinning a basketball on his finger.
Learn more about the Graphic Design program at CCAD or apply here.
