THE DEBATE
My first position out of college trusted me to create graphics that would be viewed nationwide by over 80 million people. Not a small task, nor a small amount of trust to put into a Jr. Designer. Although skill-wise I felt prepared by my college, this was certainly a different type of challenge. I learned on the fly about CNN Design’s file system, remoting into machines, remoting into more POWERFUL machines than the others, and how their critique structure was organized.
THE FINAL
MY ROLE AND RESEARCH
For most of this, I felt like I was flying by the seat of my pants. I probably sent 5 or 6 different passes to my Creative Director before I got approval on the final. I looked through old versions that had been created for other political events and debates, as well as scavenging through the current frame.io to understand what exactly was being created at the time. Meanwhile, I was juggling creating a 8k render of the Presidential Seal, used for print. It needed to be relit and some parts needed to be textured again to make it properly readable for such a large scale. I also found myself relighting a diamond pattern that is now used in the background of most of the sets on CNN.
BEHIND THE SCENES
I can’t share too much here about this whole process due to the very fun secrecy of politics. But I can share some fun photos from my time so far at CNN! I am proud to share that I also helped texture and light the large seal used on the banners and on the transition itself.
