There’s a beautiful story behind Nike’s latest campaign dedicated to Ja Morant, and it was actually It’s Nice That that shared it in an article that immediately caught our attention. It all started with a somewhat mysterious email: Jake Kelly, art director at Nike, reached out to the Danish studio Astrae without revealing too many details. Then came the first slide of the brief: a photo of Ja. For Carl-Emil Storm, founder of Astrae Studio and a lifelong basketball fan, it was clear this would be a special project.

The goal? To create a graphic identity that would break away from the overly polished look of traditional sports campaigns. No clichés, no “perfect” aesthetics: Astrae wanted something raw, honest, and real. To build this imagery, the team began by studying letterforms, searching for graphic shapes that spoke of roots, growth, and family ties—central themes in Ja Morant’s personal story.

In fact, digging into the athlete’s life quickly reveals a deep bond with his family: his father Tee, who built a basketball court in his grandmother’s backyard, has been a constant presence courtside. It’s this sense of familial support that Astrae wanted to infuse into the campaign, while still capturing the grit and energy that define Ja’s game.

The result is a visual collage—reminiscent of a scrapbook—that blends “punched” typography, giving a vintage yet direct feel, with grainy archive photographs, intimate shots of Ja as a child alongside spectacular moments from his NBA dunks. The images look as if they’ve been cut from old film rolls, with imperfections and light leaks that add movement and authenticity. The claim “Get Up” perfectly encapsulates the campaign’s double meaning: Ja’s extraordinary athletic ability and his resilience in overcoming obstacles.

This isn’t Astrae’s first foray into the world of sports and design. Their typeface Chateau had already featured in a collaboration between LeBron and Savannah James, and today the collective also leads Astrae Sports, a streetwear project exploring the intersection of basketball and pop culture.

Carl-Emil puts it plainly: “I’ve always looked at basketball through an aesthetic lens. The culture surrounding the game—music, fashion, film, and art—is just as fascinating as the game itself.” And it’s exactly this perspective that shines through in the Nike x Ja Morant campaign: a sincere visual narrative, unfiltered and deeply rooted.