TV design

I used to work at a local TV news station, where I made graphics on the weekends. Sometimes a producer would request something ridiculous, and I would make a "funny" graphic just for laughs. Since I am no longer employed there, and all these graphics are from 2 looks ago and not in HD, I think it's safe to share them with the public. With a few exceptions, none of these ever wound up on the air.

More TV Graphics

frozen cat

Request was for a "Frozen Cat" OTS graphic. This was another one from the infamous producer with no visual sense. How do you show a frozen cat in a graphic without it being offensive? If this had gone on the air, viewers would have been outraged, the phones would have rung off the hook all night, and heads would have rolled in the newsroom the next day. In broadcasting, you have to accommodate the most sensitive members of your audience, because they are the ones who will complain the loudest. As it turned out, the story was a filler about a stray cat that was found out in the snow .. so we used a nice, safe Winter Weather graphic instead.


funnels ahoy

The graphics request was for a "Funnel Sightings" plasma. We already had a Tornado plasma which I simply slapped the title on .. but I liked the phrase "Funnel Sightings" so I made this one just to be silly. It wasn't used, of course.


no immigrants

The request was for a "Day Without Immigrants" plasma. This was that day, a few years ago, when all the immigrants in the U.S. took the day off from work so we could all see the impact they have on our daily life. White folks were nervous, and the title of the graphic reminded me of old 1950s horror movies, so I whipped up this scary-looking thing. The graphic we actually used was not much different from this; it had a slightly less lurid color scheme, and a normal font instead of the horror-movie letters I used here.


totally irish

Request was for an "Irish Festival" plasma. I thought this one was funny because it is nothing but a huge cliche. From the cheesy font, to the green background and the clip-art "Celtic" borders at the top and bottom, this graphic proclaims absolute laziness and unoriginality on the part of the artist... But cliche is the bread-and-butter of TV news, and -much to my shame- we DID use this graphic on the air. In this business, being predictable is better than being original.


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Contents copyright 1994-2009 by JW Kennedy.