Helmet to helmet: Gamecocks design concepts a hit for USC grad

What started as a labor of love is now paying the bills for Ted Hyman.

Hyman shared a photo edit of Bruce Ellington via his newly created Twitter page Gamecockology in January of 2014. The South Carolina wide receiver liked it and shared it with his followers.

“It gave me a lot of momentum,” Hyman said. “I thought it could turn into something.”

A year later, the 24-year-old Hyman is heading to Nashville, Tenn., to be director of visual content for 247Sports. He spent this past football season doing design work for Saturday Down South.

Hyman was born in Greenwood and moved to Greenville as a young boy. He graduated from Mauldin High. A lifelong Gamecock fan, he graduated from USC in 2013 with a major in business and a minor in media arts.

Today, Gamecockology has more than 3,300 followers. His work is more popular on Instagram, where his “tedhymanimages” page has more than 24,000 likes.

He went from a USC focus to designs on all 14 SEC teams. Now his work with 247Sports will expand his reach to all other college and professional teams.

Few things have stirred up more social media reaction than his Gamecocks helmet and uniform concepts. We talked with Hyman about that and more.

Describe what you have done through Gamecockology.

I try to capture the total brand and emotion of Gamecock athletics and the players. I put it all together in social media format, which is editing photos and doing a lot of work in Photoshop. I don’t consider it work. I consider it a hobby. I get feedback from Carolina fans and players as well, and appeal to the fan base. My artwork is always promoting Gamecock athletics.

How was Gamecockology born?

I was at my girlfriend’s apartment, and I was like, ‘I’m making a lot of these things. I should probably start a social media account.’ She was shocked I didn’t already have one. I created it that day.

How rabid was the response to your helmet concept designs?

I started doing the entire Carolina uniforms. Eventually I realized people were mainly just talking about the helmets, and the images I was making were really small. I decided I would do just the helmet. I personally am not too fond of our helmet. Without our logo and how intricate it is, the little tiny block C on a helmet doesn’t do it justice. A lot of my helmets are the Gamecock superimposed on the helmet, whether it’s just the tail or the beak and the wings and feathers. There’s a lot that could be done with out helmet, and I focused in on that.

Have you had good feedback from USC athletes?

They would say, “This looks awesome.” And then they would post it on their Instagram. It was really cool to get that interaction with athletes because I’ve always been a die-hard Gamecock fan.

And you get a bigger response on Instagram?

It’s perfect for what I do. Instagram is solely for images. It’s not about the caption or the words. And that works for me and what I’m doing. Images work so well with the way social media works. You just see it and it all hits you at once.

Did you ever dream all this would gain as much traction as it has?

I never thought I would have a job doing something like this, not for one second.

What’s the goal of doing a helmet/uniform concept? To get picked up by Nike or Under Armour?

That would be really cool, but that’s not the goal. I do it because I like to do it and the fans like it. I’m showing my ideas to a lot of people. I’ve already got two jobs because I started the Gamecockology social media account. My goal has somewhat been achieved, so I probably need to make another goal.

MORE FROM HYMAN

... Ted Hyman’s all-sports images on Instagram

... Ted Hyman’s USC work on Gamecockology (Instagram)

... Ted Hyman’s USC work on Gamecockology (Twitter)

This story was originally published March 3, 2015 at 3:29 PM.