The Picture That Changed Everything

Taking a summer job as junior graphic designer assistant for a freelancer graphic designer in 2022 was supposed to be temporary and gave me experience in the industry. So here we are, in a small cafe in NDG, and she explains that her job is to do props for movies and tv that are in production and she needed my help to do all the projects.

My brain exploded.

Cinema AND Graphic Design?!

The thing the woman didn’t know before going back to CEGEP in graphic and web design, I earned a BFA in Cinema from Concordia. And in one coffee meeting, I now had a job that made me able to combine two my favourite things to do: cinema and graphic design.

Obviously, the idea that we needed graphic designs for tv and cinema seemed foreign as it was never discussed or talked about in class or any of my readings. Yet it is so obvious that it needs it.

The best example I was given by my now new boss, was the tv series Stranger Things. Take the case of one of scene happen in a grocery store. Indeed, in the 80’s. Everything on the tablets had to be design by someone to make it look like the right time period.

Once you open your eyes to graphic design in tv and cinema, you see it EVERYWHERE.

Then and now, I knew this was a thing I would want to pursue after school. And the more I worked on it during summer, the more I had this feeling that I finally found what I wanted to do.

By the end of the summer, my boss handed me to do a project without her, and having to interact with the prop master directly.  Unquestionably, I was proud to know she was trusting me enough for this. But to my surprise, it wasn’t a small project: it was for STAT, Radio-Canada’s next big daily drama show.

STAT

STAT is a brand new serie so everything needed to be done. From the poster in the hallway, to the badge of the hospital staff, to the prescription bottles that will be given. It was a crash course into prop design for a specific genre of tv.

Beside, when they started shooting, the graphic design demand changed and become more in relation to the script. It was amazing to see how one project made me do different things everyday which is somehting I am seeking in my day to day job!

In september 2022, STAT aired its first episode and I saw this simple insert shot of a tube of medecine.

To be honest, I was surprised that this fluor tube was not only used, but it was the center of a single shot where it was the main focus. And I made that fluore tube graphic!

The rush of joy, excitement and pride I felt seeing that picture changed everything: I want to do this kind of job for a long time. This was my dream job after school. Graphic design in tv and cinema

Previously,I had given up on being able to be in the cinema industry, and now not only could I be in it. Do something that felt useful and that had an impact on the actors. Because even if they didn’t show in large plan my work, if it helped the actor to feel immersed in the world they were in.

Later on, the prop master learned that I was also able to code and create after effect videos. It led me to create fake working website page and the different monitor lines next to the patient’s bed.

All of this started because someone was looking for a junior graphic designer for the summer. Now I know where I want to work after school, and I couldn’t be happier.Th