ESPN
First Take Seaport Studio, 2018
work completed for Clickspring Design
► animation best enjoyed with sound!
ESPN’s First Take studio, located within the South Street Seaport facility, is unlike a traditional black-box studio in that it boasts views across the East River, towards the Brooklyn Bridge. In fact, capturing the main host’s shot to contain the bridge’s iconic arch drives the creation of a secondary axis within the design, oriented at an angle to the studio’s rectangular boundaries.
A structural column in the middle of the space becomes the element to delineate two zones within the studio: the main anchor area to one side and an informal interview area on the other. With these zones occupying the studio’s center, the solid portions of perimeter walls are clad with LED video arrays, intended to display content and graphics, remote guests, virtual interview set backgrounds, or even complete the image of the East River, as if the studio were truly a glass box.
The design language itself is driven by the show’s dynamic, one of arguing opposing views related to current sports headlines. The anchor table captures the collision of these views — visually, the desk is nested in angular forms that appear to rise up from the herringbone floor pattern precisely along the axis where the two contrasting floor tones converge and overlap. Angled intersecting pinstripes throughout scenic elements further reference the show’s dynamism.
PROJECT ROLES
Design collaboration w/ SVP
Client communication
Modeling + rendering, all [ C4D ]
Animation + effects, all [ C4D, AE ]
