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Creating Aurora: Meet the woman who helped design Minnesota's new USL W team brand

Nicole Meyer worked with a women-led design team on the crest that represents Minnesota Aurora FC, the state's first community-owned women's soccer team.

MINNEAPOLIS — Nicole Meyer has always felt at home on a soccer field. She started playing at age 5.

"I grew up in a bedroom with Mia Hamm posters plastered all over my walls," Meyer said. "I’m fully in it."

To be "fully in it" as a goalie, her hands, feet, and eyes were quick to focus on something quite literally black and white.

Now, decades after she started playing, as the creative director at an ad agency, Meyer's life revolves around a full spectrum of color: most recently, the colors in a beautiful Minnesota Aurora Borealis.

Meyer is one of a three-member all-women creative team that designed the brands for the top three finalists for the names of the new Minnesota USL Women's soccer team. She was joined by co-founder Allie Reinke and designer Carla Zetina-Yglesias.

Credit: Nicole Meyer
Nicole Meyer plays soccer as a child

When the top three picks for a team logo were revealed a few months ago, each designer took ownership of one to see it to the finish line. Meyer took the lead on Aurora, but she says the process was collaborative throughout.

Credit: Allie Reinke
Design team

"We started out with mood boards for each, as well as kind of sketches," Meyer said. "We were working nights and weekends, odd hours on this. So we had some Google Docs going, we had text threads, we had Dropbox folders just sharing a lot of ideas early on."

Credit: Nicole Meyer

Meyer was drawn to the name because "it feels Minnesotan." She says the light displays started appearing around the same time she started working on the project.

"Right around the time that we were starting to dig into the brand, a lot of people were actually starting to see some up North," Meyer said. "And so we were getting excited, like – look it’s happening!"

RELATED: Minnesota Women's Soccer reveals new team name, Minnesota Aurora FC

Throughout the design process, she was sorting through more than a dozen colors but settled on three colors they're calling Aurora teal, midnight blue, and flash red.

Credit: Minnesota Aurora FC
Minnesota Aurora FC team logo

Starting the day of the reveal on Sunday, the team hosted a handful of pop-up shops that spanned four days. On that same day they ran out of all merchandise.

Meyer says she's thrilled with how things played out.

"Overall it’s just been amazing to see the community support for the brand, not only throughout the process, but when the brand launched last week," she said. "Just the enormously positive reaction throughout the internet is something that’s really cool to see."

RELATED: Minnesota United unveil 2022 schedule, including MLS All-Star Game

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