Inside the NHL on ESPN Graphics Package: How a Brand-New Identity Came To Be in Just Six Months The package is built for both linear and digital platforms By Jason Dachman, Chief Editor
Friday, October 29, 2021 - 3:21 pm
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
With the return of the iconic NHL on ESPN theme song, U.S. hockey fans knew what this new iteration of the NHL on ESPN sounds like. What it looks like, however, is a very different story. The ESPN Creative Studio team was tasked with the monumental undertaking of creating a fresh identity for the new rights package that could serve both ESPN's linear and digital platforms. And it had to be done in less than six months.
We knew we had a massive amount of work ahead of us and a very short timeframe to create [the graphics package] in a way that could be adapted to the needs of all of the different areas of the company, says Tim O'Shaughnessy, creative director, visual storytelling, ESPN. The music was obviously an influential theme and was good to build on from a design standpoint, but we were truly developing our own path visually.
Balancing Act: Future Fan,' New Tech, History of the Game From the get-go, the ESPN Creative Studio team aimed to create a graphics package appealing to a younger demographic and leveraging new technologies - player tracking, AR, real-time stats - while also remaining true to the history and legacy of the game.
One key for us was designing for the future fan, not just for the existing fan, says O'Shaughnessy. The goal was to be authentic to the current hockey fan so they would be interested but also to have enough energy and motivation so that new fans would feel a relationship with the visual language.
After the rights deal was announced in March, O'Shaughnessy and company began creative development in April with the goal of combining the authenticity of legends past with the elegance of the modern game. The team began designing the full insert package and scorebug in May and then, in June, started on the animations package in partnership with Elastic and began to finalize the type of language used.
We knew we wanted to celebrate some of the wonderful and unique aspects of hockey and also really highlight team identities, says O'Shaughnessy. We wanted to lean into authenticity, but we didn't want it to feel old-timey. We wanted high impact, energy, and intensity for younger fans but also wanted to serve the [more traditional] fan. We didn't want to become an ice clich , but you also can't avoid this amazing texture with ice in hockey. There was a lot of give and take, and everything evolved over time.
The ESPN Creative Studio built the package primarily using Maxon's Cinema 4D software suite and leveraging both Octane and Redshift for rendering. The team also relied heavily on Adobe After Effects VFX and motion-graphics software. The majority of the team, including nearly all artists, worked remotely from home - as has been the case since early in the pandemic.
In the end, the graphics team was still making tweaks and delivering elements until the day of ESPN's first NHL broadcast, Oct. 12. Despite the short timeline, the ESPN Creative Studio team delivered the wholly new package on schedule.
We have some hardcore hockey fans and [recreational] hockey players on the creative team - some of our best creative visionaries - who had a lot of ideas, says O'Shaughnessy. A big part of the process was tapping into the group think and seeing what the team thought. With a new venture came a great opportunity to hear what everyone else had to say and let people take on more creative responsibility.
The OTT Factor: Serving Both ESPN and ESPN ESPN's NHL media-rights deal is among the most ambitious in history in terms of the OTT/streaming component. A whopping 75 national regular-season games per season will be streamed exclusively on both ESPN and Hulu - the most exclusive streamed games of any major U.S. sports league. With that in mind, ESPN's Creative Studio set out to create a graphics package that could serve both ESPN linear and streaming platforms equally.
Whenever you're talking about [creating graphics for] multiple screens, you have two main challenges, says O'Shaughnessy. The first is the age-old challenge of size, scale, legibility, and impact, and you solve for that simply by testing as much as possible on every device possible. But the second, and probably more challenging, is brand integration; we didn't want to be just tacking on logos everywhere depending on which [platform the game] was on. We needed it to be more seamless than that.
ESPN was able to build a future-proof design system with a universally adaptable branding language for use across all linear and direct-to-consumer platforms. This way, the system seamlessly can funnel either the ESPN or ESPN brand into the graphics elements.
It's essentially a double delivery, notes O'Shaughnessy, but the way we built it was very compartmentalized. You'll see that there's not a lot of big rendered 3D show logos. You're not going to see a big rotating ESPN or ESPN logo; instead, you're going to see a bunch of interesting, heavy 3D animation with a 2D logo on top of it. That was intentional because it streamlines [the workflow]. We can brand independently on top of those dynamic 3D animations in a fluid 2D manner.
The Scorebug: The Axis on Which the Package Spins Every great graphics package must have a great clock-and-scorebug graphic, and the NHL on ESPN package does. During early development, Art Director Kynna Randall led an exhaustive audit of scorebugs currently used in the industry to evaluate size, structure, and ways to convey information. After that, the team produced several iterations of the sc
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
06/09/2026
June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
04/07/2026
April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...
01/07/2026
Broadcast Management Group (BMG) has announced the appointment of Kathy Samuels ...
01/07/2026
Shade has announced Custom Objects and Automations, a platform expansion releasing June 29, 2026, that adds database and workflow automation capabilities direct...
01/07/2026
FOR-A America has announced the addition of Jaz Wray and Fernando Cruz to its U.S. sales team. Both report to Ernie Leon, Senior VP and Head of Sales and Strate...
01/07/2026
NBC Sports will air all 15 MLB games nationally on Sunday, July 5, across NBC, P...
01/07/2026
Clear-Com has announced a wireless communications upgrade for Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune, deploying FreeSpeak II and FreeSpeak Icon systems across both prod...
01/07/2026
England's performance team will use Sony's STATSports APEX GPS tracking system to monitor player physical data in real time during FIFA World Cup 2026 m...
01/07/2026
Adder Technology has announced the appointment of Neil Hillier as Chief Executive Officer, effective July 1, 2026. Hillier succeeds Adrian Dickens, who transiti...
01/07/2026
Bitcentral, Inc. has announced a strategic transaction creating two separate companies. The Production and Playout business will continue as Bitcentral, now own...
01/07/2026
DAZN has announced results from DAZN48, its creator initiative for the FIFA World Cup 2026. Launched in April 2026, the program received thousands of applicatio...
01/07/2026
Sarah Rose, VP, global services, Daktronics (NASDAQ: DAKT), will be inducted into the Information Display and Entertainment Association (IDEA) Hall of Fame at t...
01/07/2026
Gravity Media and the World Economic Forum's production team provided broadc...
01/07/2026
Insight Productions has announced the launch of Insight Storm, a 53-foot mobile broadcast unit built for esports production. The truck is built around a Ross Vi...
01/07/2026
ESPN has announced several content initiatives marking America's 250th anniversary, as part of The Walt Disney Company's Disney Celebrates America pro...
01/07/2026
Eleven production kits, REMI workflows, and cloud distribution bring 40 World Cu...
01/07/2026
The conference also discussed the opportunities offered an industry that is endu...
01/07/2026
The Mountain West Conference has announced the launch of MW , a direct-to-consumer streaming platform powered by Kiswe. The platform will carry live Mountain We...
01/07/2026
New AI Assistant, Multi-channel Audio, ARA2 improvements & more
Tracktion's DAW software has just received its latest major update, gaining a selection ...
01/07/2026
Stammering, stuttering, strangulated tones
The Crow Hill Company's latest creation promises to be the most original sound set they've produced to d...
01/07/2026
Exclusive run of limited-edition modelling pedals
Sweetwater and Andertons M...
01/07/2026
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF) is pleased to announce that the ca...
01/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/07/2026
Manfrotto Introduces UNCOVER, the new premium camera bag collection for modern h...
01/07/2026
Blackmagic Design Powers Houston Tamil Sangam Literacy Competition
Brie Clayton July 1, 2026
0 Comments
Volunteers use ATEM Mini Pro, Blackmagic Desig...
01/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/07/2026
PlayBox Technology has published State of Broadcast Infrastructure 2026, an in-depth industry research report examining the technologies, operational challenges...
01/07/2026
LONDON, UK, 1 JULY Jigsaw24 has appointed Alan Henry as Head of Sales for Media and Entertainment, reinforcing its continued investment in helping broadcaster...
01/07/2026
Content Vault, the patent-pending secure content distribution platform protecting high-value media from disclosures, theft and unauthorised access, today announ...
01/07/2026
Bitcentral, Inc. a leading provider of enterprise software and digital media solutions for news, sports and entertainment broadcasters, as well as streaming pla...
01/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/07/2026
Groundbreaking First Nations Screen Business Accelerator launched through nation...
01/07/2026
Chyron Launches the All-New Chyron Academy: A Reimagined, Hands-On Learning Expe...
01/07/2026
Amplium Captures Kawasaki Brave Thunders Game with Blackmagic URSA Cine Immersiv...
01/07/2026
Boris FX Optics Expands Plugin Support to Apple Photos, Capture One, and Affinit...
01/07/2026
UKTV has today announced the appointment of Matt Berry to the newly created role of General Manager - Marketing, effective 1 July.
Matt will take on this senio...
01/07/2026
Sky Zero Footprint Fund-backed TV campaign featuring Deborah Meaden challenges consumers to rethink everyday bathroom wasteWednesday 1 July 2026
Fussy asks Bri...
01/07/2026
Constituency-level analysis reveals where girls miss out most on sport - and where targeted action could unlock more than £640 million in economic and health be...
01/07/2026
Wuppertal July 1, 2026
Riedel and SKAARHOJ Expand Collaboration With SimplyLive IntegrationRiedel Communications today announced an expanded collaboration wit...
01/07/2026
Apple today introduced power-packed updates to Apple Creator Studio, a groundbre...
Inside the NHL on ESPN Graphics Package: How a Brand-New Identity Came To Be in Just Six Months The package is built for both linear and digital platforms By Jason Dachman, Chief Editor 
