Artist Statement

Dominic Cockrell is a senior graphic design major at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. His body of work is made up of digital design, illustration and some artistic expression pieces. Dominic’s primary focus lies in sports design and branding, where he’s always been passionate about logos, uniforms, and merchandise. This passion was born from playing video games like EA’s NCAA football and Madden NFL football, scrolling through hundreds of logos and combining uniforms to his heart’s content.

Dominic considers his designs and work to be heavily influenced by modern aesthetics and some grandiose art deco themes. In 2023 Dominic developed his personal brand, 7Seventeen Design, where crisp lines and an electric blue on black color scheme pay homage to one of his favorite movies, Tron: Legacy. Creating 7Seventeen pushed Dominic to find who he was and what he wanted to be as a graphic artist and designer, leading him to find and follow some of the hottest names in the sports design world. Designers like Jeremy Nelson and Matthew Wolff, who have both worked with professional and collegiate sports teams, have been an inspiration to Dominic and have modeled to him what kind of work a professional designer brings to the table. Dominic himself has worked extensively with various entities at the University of Nebraska-Omaha such as the UNO bookstore, the Department of Spirit and Tradition, Baxter Arena, and UNO Athletics. In his two years with the athletics department Dominic has made multiple anniversary logos and was part of a uniform design process in the summer of 2025, an experience where he learned valuable lessons and, in the process, grew as a designer.

His ultimate motivation is to become one of the premier athletics designers on the market. As a former athlete he believes competition with other designers is a healthy way to test his abilities, at times finding inspiration in their work to consider new techniques that might benefit future projects. But motivation is only part of it and ultimately Dominic’s satisfaction as a designer, stems from the moment a client’s eyes light up when they see a design, and he claims that that moment is what makes it all worthwhile. Dominic’s intention is and always has been to bring high quality work to his clientele, designs that reflect who they are as an organization, team, or group, and represent them to the highest degree.

-DC717