What’s tha news?
My job as a graphic designer and editor at KHQ sees me doing a wide variety of things. I am most often working with reporters, creating small animations that are used in their stories to help convey information to the audience. Another common thing that I am making daily is maps, ranging from fires or car crashes to parade routes. Background graphics for the anchors to sit in front of at the main desk are another daily assignment for me as well. From time to time I am tasked with editing full stories or working with an editor/anchor/reporter to add extra animated graphics into a story to enhance production. The news business isn’t always so serious though, from time to time, my Photoshop and animation abilities are used for some more silly or funny segments that are aired on TV. Overall, I love my job. My interests in graphic design are very wide, and while I would consider myself to be mostly an artist, I enjoy editing a story or putting together animations to enhance a story as well. My position I am in right now allows me to touch on multiple avenues of graphic design, and I love that.
The War Within was a special put on by KHQ about the Spokane County Veterans Court. The Veterans Court is a special program that takes in veterans who have committed misdemeanor offenses and takes one year to graduate. The process sees multiple court hearings, treatment, evaluations, classes, and check-ins with an assigned mentor. The court has been a huge success in turning around the lives of struggling veterans with over 400 graduating from the program.
The above graphic I created shows veteran Ricky Hale, a graduate of the Veterans Court, the left half showing him during his time serving and the right being him currently. This graphic was the face of the special, shown several times through The War Within, along with all the promotional material leading up to the Special. As well as being tasked with the main graphic for the project, I was also tasked with doing other smaller animations that played throughout the special.
The Opening Segment from The War Within
The War Within received an Emmy award in 2023
Game Day Friday!
It’s 11 am Friday morning when Cory Howard comes to my desk after concluding the newsroom’s daily morning meeting. He pitches me an idea for a new segment for the 4pm newscast, it’s Game Day Friday, and they need a fresh new animation to introduce this segment. “Do you think you can do it?” Cory asks.
I immediately get to work with the idea of what I want to do clear in my mind, it will be a 3D animation created in After Effects having the camera moving along the path of a board game, with a castle at the end of the path revealing Cory and Leslie inside. I gather my assets and get to work, knowing I have several hours to work, but also knowing that I will need to hustle to get this project done on time given the other work that needs to be done for the evening news. I push the pace, and with nearly an hour to spare, the project is complete. I return to Cory Howard, who gives me a soft and tearful “This- this is amazing.”
Reporter Stories
Below are some examples of where animated motion graphics are used, made in collaboration with the reporters writing and telling the stories, to enhance what they are trying to convey. Some stories require more graphics than others depending on what the specifics of the story are, what we are allowed to show, and what we have available to us.
When it comes to making graphics for the reporter stories, time management is exceptionally crucial. Being able to balance what multiple people are asking for, and making sure that each person has what they are looking for before needing to be on TV themselves is very important.
Graphics from: 0:12-0:22, 0:21-1:00. 1:21-1:33 2:35-2:43
Graphics from: 0:27-1:27, 1:45-1:54. 2:26-2:50
Graphics from: 1:22-1:42, 2:06-2:14
Stories Edited By Me
While the former projects and stories had my graphics in them, they were not edited by me or not edited exclusively by me. These two below however are stories that were edited by me from start to finish. The story on the left goes over an unsolved cold case of Archie Gonia a veteran and employee of the Davenport Hotel, found murdered in the 12th-floor stairwell. The story on the right Looking back at the history of Joe Albi, and Joe Albi stadium. Along with its demolition that was ahead of the opening of One Spokane Stadium.
The Archie Cold Case
History of Joe Albi Stadium