If You’ve Been to a Blazers Game, Then You’ve Seen the Work of Koji Matsumoto

The team's motion graphics designer has done a lot to establish the franchise’s visual aesthetic over the past five years.

IMAGE: Bruce Ely.

Koji Matsumoto remembers how nervous he felt at the start of the 2018 NBA postseason, and not necessarily because of the Trail Blazers’ playoff hopes.

As the team’s motion graphics designer, he played a significant role in coming up with the brand new player introduction sequence, which required projecting animations onto a circular curtain at center court controlled by Bluetooth.

“That was horrifying,” he says, “because we didn’t know how it was going to work.” It ended up going smoothly, and the tech has become a staple of the Blazers’ postseason runs.

Matsumoto, 30, has done a lot to establish the franchise’s visual aesthetic over the past five years. He has his hands in at least 60% of in-game graphics: If a player appears in front of a green screen, chances are he was involved.

His chief skill is 3D modeling, which he’s used to create an animated version of mascot Blaze the Trail Cat and to tell the story of the time the team got stuck in an elevator in Boston.

With the NBA season about to relaunch in Orlando, Matsumoto is faced with trying to be creative in an unprecedented situation. But he says it won’t really change how he operates. “I just try to produce the best work I can,” he says, “no matter the circumstance.”

Click below to see more Best of Portland 2020:

BOPWEBSITEFOOTER
Matthew Singer

A native Southern Californian, former Arts & Culture Editor Matthew Singer ruined Portland by coming here in 2008. He is an advocate for the canonization of the Fishbone and Oingo Boingo discographies, believes pro-wrestling is a serious art form and roots for the Lakers. Fortunately, he left Portland for Tucson, Arizona, in 2021.

Willamette Week’s reporting has concrete impacts that change laws, force action from civic leaders, and drive compromised politicians from public office.

Help us dig deeper.