U.S. KIDS GOLF
THE POP-UP STORY

A thirty-year story that had to fit inside a 4D immersive experience

U.S. Kids Golf is equipment, tournaments, and coaching, but before it was any of that, it was one family's story. Dan Van Horn cut down a set of clubs for his sons, watched them struggle, and built something better. Thirty years later, that story sits underneath every club, every championship, and every coach the company certifies, and almost nobody outside the family has heard it. The assignment was to find that story and build it so it holds up anywhere the brand shows up.

PROBLEM

The story had to live in a fifteen-second TikTok, a YouTube documentary, a permanent 4D installation, and an interactive website without becoming four different stories. Youth golf brands usually solve this by making a separate asset for every channel, and the narrative drifts a little further each time. What U.S. Kids Golf needed was one canonical version and a structure that could be cut apart and reassembled without losing the thread. Fun for a nine-year-old on the range. Credible for a parent deciding where to spend a Saturday. Serious enough for a donor.

Role

Art Director - Narrative & Experience Design

Skills

Figma, Illustrator, Photoshop, and After Effects

Location

Atlanta, GA

Year

Jul 2026 – Sep 2026

Young golfers in yellow shirts carry Colombian flags in a U.S. Kids Golf tournament parade

INSIGHT

The pillars are what U.S. Kids Golf sells. The family is why anyone believes it. Equipment, tournaments, and coaching each read as a product line on their own; told through Dan and Jennifer, they read as one continuous decision to make the game work for kids. So the structure wasn't three pillars with a story attached. It was one story that produces three pillars.

SYSTEM

A single canonical narrative, written once, then cut into modules. The long form runs the founder story end to end for the 4D experience, the website, and YouTube. The short form breaks the same material into four segments: Dan's Calling, Kids Club Creation, Community Support, and U.S. Kids Golf Today, sized for Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook. Each module stands alone and still points back to the whole, so the brand can add a segment in two years without reopening the story.

BEHAVIOR

The story never ends on a summary. It ends on an invitation, and every touchpoint asks for one step more than the last. Social asks for attention: a segment in the feed, a playlist keeping the rest a tap away, an episode a parent hands to a family who's never heard of U.S. Kids Golf. The website asks for identity: a kid builds a golfer in Dan's Workshop, and My Clubhouse keeps the fitting, the stats, the tournament history, so the brand stops being something they watched and becomes a profile. The 4D experience asks for the swing, a fitting, and a coach on the map. Same story, escalating ask, calibrated to whoever's standing there. The last line of the film is the whole model in four words: are you ready to play?

IMPACT

One story framework built for 30 years of founder history, delivered as a modular video plan, a 4D experience concept, and an interactive website across 7 stakeholder audiences. The system lets U.S. Kids Golf tell the same story in a 15-second social cut and a permanent installation without maintaining two versions of it, and adds a segment years from now without reopening the narrative. Approved at final presentation and moving into later phases.

Art Director - Narrative & Experience Design

ROLE & CONTRIBUTION

• Led a 23-person cross-disciplinary team through a storyboarded origin film, 3D models of the built space, and an interactive prototype site. Client approval for Phase 1 of an immersive brand experience that the client carried into 3 further phases

• Direct the visual, motion, and sound design, converging 3 concept territories into the single narrative direction with an experience narrative, storyboards, and touchpoint design intent for physical and digital space.