Wisconsin artist Olivia Lombardi gave Bucks fans an early look at her newest commission before its official unveiling at Sunday's game at Fiserv Forum, a design built to honor both team mascot Bango and the entire state of Wisconsin. The piece layers Milwaukee landmarks, Harley-Davidson culture and polka instruments into a single image meant to work just as well on a coffee mug as it does on a poster.
Lombardi revealed the artwork on WTMJ's What's On Tap with Sandy Maxx, according to WTMJ, ahead of its formal debut at Fiserv Forum this coming Sunday. The Bucks gave her creative freedom on the project but set two parameters: include Bango somewhere in the piece, and make sure the design celebrated the entire state of Wisconsin rather than Milwaukee alone, the station reports.
Lombardi delivered on both counts. In the artwork, Bango bursts through a basketball in a celebratory pose, wearing a Bucks jersey numbered 68 — a nod to 1968, the year the franchise began play in Milwaukee, per the station's report.
Landmarks, Lighthouses and a Little Bit of Lager
The rest of the composition reads like a scavenger hunt for Wisconsin pride. Fiserv Forum, the Milwaukee skyline, the Hoan Bridge, fireworks, lakefront views and a lighthouse all make appearances, the same account notes. Elsewhere in the piece, a Harley-Davidson motorcycle and a tailgate scene with beer and bratwurst round out the state's blue-collar identity.
Lombardi also tucked in a supper-club sign featuring an Old Fashioned cocktail, a staple of Wisconsin's roadside dining culture, and a Wisconsin Welcomes You sign for good measure. An accordion, a guitar and a trumpet appear as a nod to the state's polka tradition, with Cream City brick — a material the Bucks themselves suggested as a design element — forming the background of the entire piece, the outlet notes.
That brick backdrop lands at an interesting moment for the franchise. The Bucks brought back their own Cream City uniforms as their City Edition alternate for the 2025-26 season, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, a callback to the nickname tied to the city's historic brickmaking industry.
Built for a Keychain as Much as a Poster
Lombardi designed the artwork so it would remain recognizable no matter how small the canvas gets, with plans for it to appear across posters, T-shirts, keychains, koozies and coffee mugs, the station reports. The design is expected to hit Bucks T-shirts and other merchandise beginning Sunday, available at the Bucks Pro Shop inside Fiserv Forum and online at shop.bucks.com, per the same report.
It's the latest in a run of local collaborations for Lombardi, who works as a graphic artist for the experience company NEWaukee, according to WBAY. She grew up in Plover cheering for the Brewers and now lives in the Milwaukee area, the station notes. Earlier this year she collaborated with the Milwaukee Brewers on Pride Night coloring signs, an interactive mural at Milwaukee Night Market, and post-season watch-party T-shirts that fans could screen-print on-site, WTMJ reports.
That mural work included an eight-foot-by-eight-foot coloring piece for Milwaukee Night Market that fans and mascots colored in together, the WBAY report adds. For the Brewers' postseason run, Lombardi also designed a playoff watch-party shirt that was screen-printed on-site at American Family Field, the same station notes.
Lombardi's Bucks design arrives alongside a wider wave of artist-driven merchandise around the team. The Bucks' Cream City collection, for instance, included two T-shirts designed by local artists Lauren Marvell and Whitney Nettles, part of a retail line of more than 60 items that launched at the Bucks Pro Shop and online, according to OnMilwaukee.
A Miller Lite Wish on the Horizon
Lombardi said she hopes fans love the Bucks design enough to buy it as a way of showing support for both the team and the state, according to WTMJ's report. Asked about future projects, she said her next dream collaboration would be with Miller Brewing, especially a Miller Lite partnership — a nod to yet another slice of Wisconsin culture she hasn't painted yet.
