Drawing on Talent

Lacy Talley merges graphic design and visual art to national acclaim.

Next, Talley was selected for the MGP’s 2019 Summer Boot Camp, where the cohorts act as an advertising agency that creates a campaign for a particular brand. She was the art director for her team, which created a 360-campaign for Google Inc.’s second launch of its 360-pixel buds.

“Google went with all of the ideas we had for the commercial rollout,” Talley says. “They went with our target audience and our idea of keeping the earbud in focus while people did everyday life things.” justice and upholding the NBA’s values of equality, respect, and inclusion. Talley and her team were part of the award ceremony before the start of an NBA game on April 3, 2022.

Lacy Talley picked up drawing from her dad when she was only three.

“When I stopped doing art and tried to do other things, I realized I wasn’t good or happy doing anything else,” Talley says. “I always came back to drawing because it fuels my blood and soul.”

After a period of artistic doubt and uncertainty, she had an epiphany to merge graphic design with digital art while at Kent State University (KSU). Since graduating from KSU in 2018 with a bachelor of arts in Visual Communication Design and Pan-African Studies, Talley continues to find her artistic self as an alumnus of the Marcus Graham Project, freelancing and in partnership with the Maker’s Mark Art and Soul Program.

Classmates told her about the Marcus Graham Project (MGP), a national marketing, advertising and sports incubator that helps find the next generation of industry talent. As a result, Talley was selected to participate in their 2019 “I Create Sports Marketing” workshop with the Cleveland Cavaliers. She served as the team’s visual and graphic designer, creating an “in-game ordering” app at the Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse and allowing users to order food and beverages from their seats.

Larry Yarrell, co-founder and chief development officer for the MGP, interviewed Talley for acceptance in the workshop.

“Over the phone, Lacy seemed very shy and quiet,” Yarrell says. “But during the workshop, she displayed that she was a quiet force. She understands her strengths and weaknesses and uses them to pull herself out of her comfort zone. For every workshop, we choose an MVP, and she was a finalist for the year.”

As Talley excelled nationally, she expanded her portfolio by doing commission art. All of her work was noticed when she was asked in 2021 to be a creative team member for the National Basketball Association (NBA) Inaugural Kareem Abdul Jabbar Social Justice Champion Award, which recognizes a current NBA player for pursuing social

MGP also picked Talley to be on the design team for the Cleveland Summit Location Marker that will mark the 55th anniversary of when Muhammad Ali and a group of African American athletes held a news conference in Cleveland after Ali refused to serve in the United States military in Vietnam. The historical marker will be installed this fall at the former Negro Industrial Building — now the American Cancer Society at 10501 Euclid Ave. — where the news conference was held.

Clayton Pasley Jr., program director of the I Create workshop for MGP, says they look for that “it thing” and personality in applicants. “Lacy’s portfolio is very impressive, but her presence stands out,” Pasley says. “We bring her on as a freelance creative because of her energy, curiosity to create and the way her mind thinks. I’ve gotten to see her get started in the industry in 2019 and evolve into the pure artist that she is today. It is beautiful to see the transformation.”