Photo courtesy of Josh Lane
The power of sports and the arts to connect
Portland, Maine’s soccer club, Portland Hearts of Pine, took the city, and much of the state, by storm, kicking off its inaugural season in the spring of 2025 and quickly becoming one of the most sought-after tickets in New England. The club led USL League One in attendance that season, sold more merchandise than any other team in the league, and saw its first single-match ticket for the 2026 season sell out in under five minutes.
Across the country, data shows that shared cultural experiences, whether in stadiums or galleries, are among the most powerful drivers of belonging. According to the National Endowment for the Arts, nearly 50% of U.S. adults attend arts or cultural events annually, while research from S&P Global Market Intelligence suggests that nearly 70 percent of U.S. sports fans have attended a live professional game.
And at a time when human connection feels increasingly fragile, their role has never been more important. Studies from organizations such as the U.S. Surgeon General have identified social isolation as a growing public health concern, with about half of U.S. adults reporting loneliness, and community participation cited as a key factor in improving mental and emotional well-being.
It’s the shared experience that both arts and sports provide that can foster the social connection that transforms individuals into a community.
Photos by Lauryn Hottinger
At Maine College of Art & Design, we’ve collaborated with the club on several projects over the past year, and we’ve seen firsthand how creative practice and community spirit can intersect, amplify one another, and create new pathways for engagement across the city.
“It takes a village. Long before Portland Hearts of Pine had its name, Maine’s creative community was already shaping what this club would become,” said Josh Lane, Vice President of Marketing at Portland Hearts of Pine. “Artists and creatives have been foundational at every step: helping design the logo, illustrating posters, documenting moments, infusing a distinctly Maine DIY spirit into how this club shows up in the world. Their work has given form to this vision of ‘The Way Soccer Should Be.’ Through visual and emotional rallying points, it's the work of this creative network that helps turn ‘The Soccer Club of Maine’ and the motto ‘Lead with Your Heart' into a story that belongs to every person who has their heart in Maine.”
Photo by Chris Linscott
Long before Portland Hearts of Pine had its name, Maine’s creative community was already shaping what this club would become.
Designing Identity
Photos courtesy of Hugh McCormick ’15
When Hugh McCormick ’15 was approached to design the team crest and visual identity for Portland’s future professional soccer club, he understood immediately that the assignment was bigger than branding.
“This logo would be tattooed on countless fans, representing not only a city, a state, and an entire region, but also a culture centered around the world’s most beloved sport.”
A graduate of Maine College of Art & Design’s Graphic Design program, McCormick created the custom “Pine Bandit” typeface for the club using inspiration from hand-painted signage at Portland’s historic Portland Company Complex. The result was a brand identity unmistakably rooted in Maine and embraced by fans across the state.
Photo by Paula Wood
Now based in Colorado, McCormick remembers watching an early Hearts of Pine promotional video while working a cattle drive in Wyoming.
That combination of authentic design, storytelling, and shared cultural experience triggered an unfamiliar pang of homesickness in him. “For the first time in my life,” he said, “I felt homesick.”
The Classroom as a Community Lab
Photos by Kari Herer
In the fall of 2024, Graphic Design faculty member Amy Parker partnered with Hearts of Pine through her Professional Studio course, which gives students experience working with real-world clients and creative briefs.
Students were tasked with developing brand proposals for a youth-centered community initiative connected to the club that would later become Hearts of Pine Foundation. Hearts of Pine Foundation focuses on developing impact programming to build infrastructure and provide opportunities for youth to engage with the community through soccer.
Working in teams, students presented their concepts directly to club leadership, navigating the same creative conversations, revisions, and professional expectations they would encounter in the design industry.
Graphic Design major Zach Liljeholm ’25 said the collaboration reinforced the social role design can play.
“This collaboration was a wonderful reminder that design is only as good as its ability to serve and impact people,” Liljeholm shared. “There was so much compassion and love for the people of Maine imbued into every step of this work.”
The project demonstrated how Maine College of Art & Design provides opportunities for students to build relationships beyond the classroom, including those with organizations working to shape civic culture in Maine.
Fan Culture as Creative Practice
Tifo design by Onyx Anastasia-Ramsay ’27. Photo by Chris Linscott.
Soccer supporters’ groups are known around the world for transforming fandom into a visual spectacle through music, banners, murals, and large-scale illustrated displays known as tifos, which are unveiled inside stadiums before kickoff. Hearts of Pine have their own dedicated and passionate supporters’ group, known as Dirigo Union. Josh Ricker, Dirigo Union Board Member and Treasurer, set the scene by sharing, “On a single Hearts matchday, you’ll find banners, flags, scarves, DIY crafts, and colored smoke filling the stadium, and that’s all before kickoff. Throughout most of the match, Dirigo Union supporter section becomes a blend of art, color, and subtle Maine references. But nothing brings art into our space quite like a tifo. These 30x50ft banners are unveiled a few times each season, featuring entirely new artwork every time.”
In the fall of 2025, Dirigo Union issued an open call for artwork for the group’s final tifo of the season. Onyx Anastasia-Ramsay ’27, a junior Illustration major, learned about the opportunity through faculty member Sarah Shaw and, per the open call instructions, submitted a design inspired by Pennywise, the character from the HBO Series Welcome to Derry, and a nod to Maine author Stephen King and the seasonal atmosphere of the match.
“We cannot speak more highly about working with MECA&D students.”
After collaborating with the supporters group on revisions, Anastasia-Ramsay’s illustration was hand-painted onto a 50-foot banner and unveiled before thousands of fans at a sold-out stadium.
Photos by Natalie Conn, Salt ’07
“It was an amazing experience to see my work unfurl in front of hundreds of people,” Anastasia-Ramsay said. “I’m so thankful to Dirigo Union for choosing me for this job.”
Avery Johnsen ’26, a Graphic Design major, had also submitted a design to the open call, and in the spring of 2026, Dirigo Union reached out with a new ask: design a tifo for the theme “Maine, Home for All.” On working with Anastasia-Ramsay and Johnsen, Ricker shared, “After doing this twice, we cannot speak more highly about working with MECA&D students. It is amazing to work with original designers that also happen to be right down the road.
Tifo design by Avery Johnsen ’26. Photos by Chris Linscott and Neil Shelley, the Knack Factory and “Up the Hearts.”
“Aside from being incredible displays, these tifos create genuine moments of connection. Whether you’re helping lift it over your shoulder to the fans behind you or standing beneath it alongside hundreds of other Mainers, it makes you pause, appreciate the art, and feel proud of where you’re from. It’s the kind of shared moment supporters rarely forget.”
Designing for Culture and Community
Photos by Natalie Conn, Salt ’07
For Portland-based artist and designer Yai Deng, the connection between design and community is central to his creative practice.
Deng, who also serves as receptionist at Maine College of Art & Design, was commissioned in 2024 to design a promotional poster for Hearts of Pine’s jersey reveal event at the State Theatre.
His poster design captured both the club's visual identity and the energy surrounding Portland’s emergence as a soccer city.
Deng’s work helped reflect the overall experience of art intersecting with this cultural phenomenon: as Hearts of Pine have rapidly become one of Maine’s most visible cultural institutions, artists and designers have helped shape how the club looks and feels, and how it connects to the public.
Words by Leah Brooks.