
World Cup 2022: How GameDay Creative Built Telemundo's Eye-Popping Graphics Package Customization and flexibility were key goals in the design By Jason Dachman, Chief Editor
Friday, January 27, 2023 - 7:00 am
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
Gameday Creative, a full-stack creative studio, has been developing on-air graphics packages for live coverage of sports, entertainment, esports, and other events for more than a decade. Though having worked on high-profile properties like Jeopardy!, Twitch Rivals' Streamer Bowl, NBC's Football Night in America, and MLB Network Showcase (debuting this spring), the studio made its biggest splash when it was enlisted to create Telemundo Deportes' graphics package for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022.
The graphic and insert package that Gameday Creative designed and developed for Telemundo's FIFA World Cup presentation exceeded our expectations, says Roberto Pardo, SVP, sports content, Telemundo Network. It was instantly identifiable, clean, colorful, and dynamic. They are great partners and delivered a best-in-class visual identity worthy of an event like the FIFA World Cup.
Celebration': The Axis on Which the Package Spins Gameday Creative had previously worked with Telemundo on its Rumbo Al Mundial (Road to the World Cup) graphics package, which was designed and executed in 2020 and debuted in 2021 leading up to the World Cup. It was Gameday's first major collaboration with the Telemundo broadcast and sales team, and the Spanish-language network opted to bring the studio back for the World Cup.
Gameday Creative Executive Producer Scott Flato and his team were looking to capture the spirit, scale, and prestige of the World Cup while remaining authentic to Telemundo's brand and audience. Studying the World Cup, they landed on a keyword to capture the energy of the tournament and the broadcast - Celebration - and proceed to create a package built on that idea.
When a team scores, says Flato, and legendary Telemundo sportscaster Andr s Cantor screams GOALLLLL' - let's face it, it's always better to hear that goal call on Telemundo vs. anywhere else - the whole stadium ignites, living rooms and bars explode with excitement, and people all over the world go nuts in celebration. We wanted our graphics to capture that energy.
The Creative Process: From Concept to Delivery Telemundo's initial conversations with Gameday started about 10 months before scheduled delivery of the insert package in October and the full-screen and TD elements in November. After getting the green light and a start date of May 2, Gameday and Telemundo agreed on a very detailed timeline, with the space to explore, try things, fail and succeed creatively, according to Flato. This also provided Telemundo with enough time to bring in the gigabytes of files Gameday would deliver and implement the content into the trucks and studios for a successful launch.
We are used to working on much tighter deadlines, he says. We often joked with one another throughout the production that this felt like one of the few projects we've had with a realistic timeline, given the amount of graphics we needed to deliver. It felt refreshing.
Flato's team began, as is the case with most projects, with a research phase. This involved understanding the personality and intention of the Telemundo broadcast and knowing the audience, as well as what was important to the Telemundo team and the viewer watching at home. GameDay's staff also studied graphics running on film, television, print, social media, live events, etc., to stay up to date on current trends and styles. We studied the World Cup itself, Flato explains, its identity, its history, what makes it stand out as a truly special event vs. other sports tournaments. We looked at Qatar, the host country, and learned about their culture and history, their style, and the different locations [where] the matches would be held. Even the stadiums had their own design and architecture, which added a ton of detail and inspiration.
After completing the research phase, Gameday Creative designed multiple creative directions, produced hundreds of style frames, explored techniques and technology, and narrowed in on a few graphics identities to be pitched to Telemundo. When Celebration was chosen as the design direction, the team undertook the massive task of bringing it to life through motion.For production and delivery, Gameday Creative deployed Maxon's Cinema 4D software and Redshift 3D render pipeline, compositing and templating in Adobe After Effects.
We needed to design our projects as design systems,' says Flato, to create a visual identity that can inform the creation of various and future elements as well as provide toolkits that can quickly and efficiently create new graphics that follow that identity.
The Insert Package: Massive Undertaking for a Massive Event Crating an entirely new insert-graphics package is a massive lift under any circumstances, let alone for one of the biggest events on the planet. Insert packages typically are extremely robust and technically challenging, and meeting the challenge was key for Gameday's Telemundo World Cup graphics package.
In addition, the insert system was to become Telemundo's standard insert look beyond the World Cup, which meant that Gameday had to create a system that is customizable to satisfy the World Cup needs yet flexible to service Telemundo moving forward. [Insert graphics] are some of the most-viewed and most-played graphics on a broadcast, notes Flato, so we wanted to make it a priority, which involved ensuring function and form. We created a system that used a visual separation of elements that we thought not only was a unique look versus other Insert looks but created the modul
More from Sports Video Group
02/07/2025
Progressive realism: Aurora on taking up the broadcast reins for World RX alongs...
02/07/2025
Great speed: New host broadcaster Aurora on getting the World RX 2025 season pro...
02/07/2025
Seat of its pants: Aurora boxes clever and looks ahead for the FIA as new host b...
02/07/2025
UEFA Women's Euro 2025: EBU, BBC Sport and Sunset Vine talk coverage plans, ...
02/07/2025
UEFA Women's Euro 2025: Women's Super League launches new content series...
02/07/2025
UEFA Women's Euro 2025: Ignite puts fans and players front and centre with t...
02/07/2025
Storytelling in the Live Game Broadcast: ESPN Director Jimmy Platt Breaks Down t...
02/07/2025
CONCACAF's Miguel Angel Garcia on the Gold Cup's Enhanced 2025 Productio...
01/07/2025
SVG New Sponsor Spotlight: Spyrosoft's Jonathan Witty on Futher Business Exp...
01/07/2025
The NIL Effect: How the Shifting Business of College Athletics Impacts On-Campus...
01/07/2025
Cherry on the cake: Inside the technical production of the Tour de France 2025 w...
01/07/2025
NESN's Josh Jun on Keeping Alternative Broadcasts Fresh for Boston Red Sox, ...
01/07/2025
TNT Sports Races Back Into NASCAR With Fresh Look, Familiar Edge Production approach emphasizes creative freedom, bold storytelling, casual-fan-friendly tone B...
27/06/2025
How smarter compression is creating a sustainable future By Michael Burns
Monday, June 23, 2025 - 14:13
Print This Story
Live sport is especially vulnerab...
27/06/2025
Behind the Mic: FOX Sports Ratchets Up UEFA Women's EURO 2025 With Top-Class...
27/06/2025
RTL Group To Acquire Sky Deutschland By George Bevir, Editorial Director, SVG Europe
Friday, June 27, 2025 - 8:00 am
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story ...
27/06/2025
Frictionless, At Scale: The Current State of Live Video Streaming Techology Leaders from Bitmovin, Comcast Technology Solutions, Harmonic, IMAX, and Phenix brea...
27/06/2025
Marquee Sports Network's Nick Steger on Meeting the Moment of the Contending...
27/06/2025
NHL Draft 2025: The League Is Primed for First Decentralized Draft in Non-Pandem...
26/06/2025
10th-Annual SVG Regional Sports Production Summit Presents Useful Roadmap for th...
26/06/2025
The Big Cloud Debate: Public vs. Private vs. Hybrid Tech leaders from CineSys, Diversified, and Net Insight breaks down all flavors of cloud By Jason Dachman, ...
26/06/2025
Program Productions' Jess Kowatch on Training the Next and Current Gener...
25/06/2025
SVG College Summit 2025: Select Sessions Now Available to Watch on SVG PLAY Tackling the latest in college sports video: NIL, live production, virtual productio...
25/06/2025
ESPN Is Set To Bring AR Graphics to Wimbledon, Revamps Bunker and Studio 18 VO B...
24/06/2025
2025 NBA Draft: ABC/ESPN Prepares for Two-Day Draft at Barclays Center Partners Game Creek Video, CP Communications, NEP Specialty Capture will be on hand By M...
24/06/2025
Cloud Broadcast Tech Update: Google Cloud's Jane Day on the Impact of AI on ...
24/06/2025
Cloud Broadcast Tech Update: AWS's Dana LaGattuta on Data-Driven Innovation ...
24/06/2025
Lions live: Dublin opener sees Sky Sports take remote route By Fergal Ringrose ...
24/06/2025
Pumas maul Lions as S4C and TG4 deliver first-ever joint host in Dublin By Ferg...
24/06/2025
ABC/ESPN Prepares for 2025 NBA Draft, the First at Barclays Center Partners Game Creek Video, CP Communications, NEP Specialty Capture will be on hand By Mark ...
23/06/2025
Adventures in Live Cloud Production: Stories From the Trenches with MLB, NHL, NB...
23/06/2025
Finding the edge: How Badger & Combes produces live-streamed coverage of county ...
23/06/2025
Masters of Madness: New football format shakes up the rules of sportainment By Adrian Pennington
Monday, June 16, 2025 - 11:38
Print This Story
The ball i...
23/06/2025
New State-of-the-Art Mountain Media Center Launches in Former Starz Encore Build...
23/06/2025
ESPN Says Goodbye to Seaport Studios, Hello to New State-of-the-Art Production F...
20/06/2025
Feeling Unlimited, Part 1: Athletes Unlimited Softball League Deploys Remote Pro...
20/06/2025
A True Test? Cricket's Growth on the Global Stage and the Role Broadcast Can...
20/06/2025
Sky Sports goes large for the British & Irish Lions Tour with AR graphics, UHD a...
20/06/2025
ESPN's Men's College World Series Finals Coverage Combines Innovation, L...
19/06/2025
SVG Rewind: PGA Tour Introduces Drone AR Smart Tracing, Reflects on Winning Geor...
18/06/2025
Technology focus: Fan expectations drive advances in the in-stadium experience By Jo Ruddock
Tuesday, June 3, 2025 - 08:36
Print This Story
For years, att...
18/06/2025
Making connections: How stadiums are meeting the ever-growing demand for data an...
18/06/2025
SVG Venues & Teams Summit Keynote: RWS Global Powers the Stadium Environment at ...
18/06/2025
SVG Rewind: Behind the Scenes of Producing Tottenham Hotspur's Europa League...
17/06/2025
SVG New Sponsor Spotlight: Mercury Intermedia's Tom Richardson, Mike Ligon o...
17/06/2025
Total Sports Performance from Relo Metrics, VideoAmp, Offers Next-Level Media, B...
17/06/2025
From Stage to Stream: Producing Live Esports Events in 2025 Leaders from ESL FACEIT Group, Riot Games, and more break down the latest trends By Jason Dachman, ...
17/06/2025
Inside FIFA 2025 Club World Cup Operations With FIFA's Oscar Sanchez, HBS...
17/06/2025
Production ambitions: Over Exposed on making the National League Promotion Final...