Photos: The Browns and Cavs Embrace the Art and Connection of the Gameday Poster

Cleveland fans have in the last two years been treated to something of an artistic renaissance and something of an artistic experiment as the Browns and Cavs have both dipped more than a toe into the inkwell of gameday posters.

Part throwback game program, part ode to the days of newspaper sports section cartoon artists, and part concert poster, the of-the-moment pieces created specifically for the opponent and game at hand have quickly become popular in ways the teams didn't quite anticipate.

The Cavs, which share their digital-only posters on social media, and the Browns, which do the same but also print 25,000 physical copies to give out to fans at home games and a limited run of 20 for away games distributed via a contest, have coincidentally embraced the artform at the same time, and with similar results.

"We were looking to enhance the fan experience and be different than what other teams do," Corey Kinder, the Browns Senior Manger, Affinity Marketing, told Scene. "There was only one other team doing something, and they did it different. We quickly realized we were sitting on something. We launched last year with intention of just doing home posters, but quickly pivoted."

The Cavs experienced the same reaction, endeavoring into the digital gameday poster arena at a time when very few other NBA franchises sought to bust out of staid previews featuring tip time and channel information.

"There were these graphics that had the same template across games [previously]," said Madison Phillips, the Cavs director of digital content strategy. "With 82 games, there's a lot of monotony, for the lack of a better term, so it's fun to inject some creativity into a post you would see 82 times a year."

Whether it's Brownie the Elf as John McClane in a creation for the team's Christmas Eve game (a favorite of coach Kevin Stefanski, who counts Die Hard among his favorite movies), a Godzilla-inspired dog robot doing battle over a frozen Lake Erie, Max Strus on the shores of Edgewater keeping his sights on some Pelicans soaring over the skyline, or a signature Cavalier sword piercing a slice of Little Caesars pizza, in-house artists with the Cavs and three Ohio freelancers commissioned by the Browns have added a fun visual stamp to the on-court and on-field affairs.

"We have six designers and they all have unique styles," Bailey Mincer, a senior graphic designer with the Cavs, told Scene. "So it's fun to see how everyone looks at games in a new way. It's a wide variety. Some represent theme nights, some lean into the opponent or city itself."

Scan Facebook Marketplace or eBay and you'll find people hawking the Browns posters, which, to Kinder, is a testament to the relationship between fans and the art.

"What's fun is people are collecting these," he said, noting that many of them contain easter eggs for fans. "That's the goal. The demand for them is incredible."

"Obviously, it's information that's pertinent to what's happening today for the game," Mincer said about the Cavs posters, "but fans are catching on and asking what the poster is going to be today."

Check out the 2023-2024 Browns gameday posters and 20 hand-picked selections from the Cavs below.