Hooked on the Hooks

Caller-Times / cchooks.com
May 11, 2004

Even after Adam Nisenson was advised to quit his high school basketball team, he didn't lose his passion for sports.

He blended his love for art with sports and designs calendars, tickets and banners drawing fans into Astros, Rockets and Texans events and, now, brochures and billboards for upcoming Hooks games.

"I'm a sports junkie," the 36-year-old Corpus Christi native said Monday during a visit to the Corpus Christi.

Because he is a Corpus Christi native and has experience with sports marketing, Nisenson was a natural fit to design some of the Hooks marketing information, said J.J. Gottsch, president of the baseball club.

Studio Simon, based in Louisville, Ky., designed the team's logo and Active Imagination, Nisenson's firm in Houston, has taken that design and created the team's official souvenir shop logo and some of the local billboards and brochures.

"It's not a learning curve with Adam," Gottsch said. "He understands the whole picture. He's taken the logo Studio Simon created and brought it to life."

Nisenson first found a practical application for art when he was a junior at Carroll High School in the mid-1980s. After his basketball coach suggested he look for another extracurricular activity, he fell into journalism and designed two school yearbooks, he said.

While selling ads for the school newspaper, Nisenson discovered how to market creative ideas.

After graduating from Carroll, Nisenson attended Del Mar College and later earned a bachelor's degree in fine arts from the University of Houston.

Without a business plan, Nisenson started out freelancing from his bedroom in a house he shared with three other guys. Then, he moved up to his living room and then, opened a 300-square-foot office in Houston.

Now, Nisenson shares a 2,100-square-foot office with a team of 10 designers and marketers and calls himself the creative director and head coach of Active Imagination, a Houston-based design firm he recently founded.

Besides leading campaigns for some of the state's best professional sports teams, Active Imagination handles marketing efforts for restaurants, hotels, the oil and gas industry and entertainment events.

Marcia Weltman, Nisenson's grandmother, said her grandson started drawing when he was very young.

"He's done pretty good," Weltman said Monday while standing inside her dining room.

Marjorie Walraven, retired journalism teacher and Nisenson's high school yearbook adviser, said she's not surprised by her former student's success.

His designs ranked with the better ones, she said.

"He was talented," Walraven said. "He was fun to be around."

Nisenson declined to give company sales information, but said the company has been profitable in recent years and has unlimited potential.

Aside from his schooling, Nisenson said his success wouldn't have been possible had he not taken educated risks and pursued a variety of interests early in life.

"Fear is just in your head," Nisenson said. "When you're young, there's so much time to recover."

And now, there's nothing the 36-year-old sports fan would rather be doing.

"I'm doing the things I love for the things I love," Nisenson said. "Sometimes, it's like, pinch me."