Photo Courtesy: Raeford Dwyer Photography

Clickspring Design’s work for the CNN 2008 U.S. Presidential Election coverage was awarded the Emmy for Outstanding Achievement in scenic design. The News & Documentary Emmy Awards recognize outstanding achievement in news and documentary programming by conferring annual awards of merit.

CNN’s Election Center in New York became the broadcast epicenter for the historical 2008 Presidential elections. “The Most Trusted Name in News” received the highest-rated coverage in both network and cable sectors. Using the banner headline CNN = Politics, a fundamental equation for all design and production related to the election season was immediately established. The primary objective was to succinctly communicate a perception of unassailable editorial expertise. The secondary objective was to establish a strongly branded alignment between multiple CNN events - twelve debates in twelve different locations, five primaries, and ultimately, election night.

Clickspring achieved these objectives by developing a consistent graphic identification that was translated into a 3-D environment. The tumbling cubes from the CNN traveling stage-set for the Democratic and Republican presidential debates became icons for CNN election coverage, and lent a consistent, branded “look”. The graphic application on each cube, depending on which face was turned to the front, was as editorial as any political pundit’s commentary.