JR Radcliffe

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

As the Milwaukee Bucks season continues on its track toward becoming one of the most special seasons in franchise history, Allen Witkowski has been documenting each game in a particularly memorable way.

Witkowski, 21, a senior at the University of Minnesota in the Twin Cities and a native of Wauwatosa, doesn’t have any formal training in graphic design. And yet, his poster series – creating what amounts to a movie poster for each game – has become a conversation topic on Reddit and beyond.

“It’s kind of taken off slowly,” Witkowski said. “I posted the first one on the first of the year (in 2019), and the first few went by and it was up-and-down reaction. By the time I posted the Rockets one (for a Jan. 9 game), people on the Bucks subreddit really started to notice. Somebody posted my first 10 or 11 on (the NBA subreddit), and I think that’s the third-biggest subreddit (on Reddit). It got over 5,000 upvotes and hundreds of comments.

His friends in the Twin Cities had seen the posters independently but didn't know he was the one doing them because he was on break.

It's an idea that was borrowed from the Portland Trail Blazers, a franchise that invites a local artist to design a gameday poster for each home game.

Figuring he could do something along those lines, Witkowski began to create once the calendar turned to 2019 – for home games or away. His concepts occasionally pay homage to memorable movies (such as Rocky, Mad Max: Fury Road or Top Gun) and naturally integrate architecture or symbols representing the opponent.

When the Bucks faced Boston on Feb. 21, it was an image of Bango sharing tea with a leprechaun, with the Allen-Bradley clock visible outside the window. When the Bucks hosted the Wizards, we saw a deer walking a yellow-brick road to an Emerald City featuring recognizable Milwaukee structures. Perhaps his most inspired offering was transforming a subway map into antlers when the Bucks visited Brooklyn. His poster for the all-star game landed in the Milwaukee Bucks Instagram story from the event.

Witkowski isn’t using an upper-end design program to make it happen, either. Instead, he uses a freeware program called InkScape and constructs many of the images by hand or using shapes he can trace.

He posts each image on his Instagram account and floats them to the subreddits of that night’s opponent. He likes to have a new poster ready by 9 a.m. of each game day and he estimates they take him anywhere from 4 to 8 hours to complete.

“I balance school work, two jobs, and have time to do the posters and have time to watch the games,” he said. “I like to keep busy. If I’m not busy, I tend to go crazy.”

He’s certainly not coasting his way through his final months of school. The art history and English double major has been applying at jobs both in Minnesota and in his home state, with the hope of finding a job that requires ideas like these.

“I really like the idea of content creation,” he said. “I write films, write short stories and am working on a novel right now, plus working on these posters. I like to get into something where I’m creating every day. The ultimate goal would be to be my own boss, maybe do poster commissions while I’m working on a film.”

Like everyone back home, the Tosa West graduate has been enjoying the ride that the Bucks (44-14) have provided their fan base.

“It’s been wild; I’ve been watching every game that I can,” he said. “I can’t do anything but smile during these games because they’re just so fun to watch, so fun to see. This team that won 15 games a few years ago has turned into a juggernaut.”

You can see all of his designs at his website, AJW3.com, or follow him on Instagram at @AllenJWitkowski. Take a look at each of his posters through Feb. 21 below.

Contact JR Radcliffe at (262) 361-9141 or jradcliffe@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @JRRadcliffe.