Karen Song, Head of Network Design/The glue of this entire organisation/Style icon/All round legend.
Off the back of the Paramount Upfront, The Water Cooler sat down with Karen to find out how her and her team created the overall design of the event, and what makes her tick!
What is your role and what does it entail?
As Head of Network Design, I have the privilege of leading and growing the talented design team who create internal and external brand content to market, and promote our shows across our eight brands.
We collaborate with multiple departments (Promos, Marketing, Social, Publicity, Sales, Corp Comms, Digital, Production), to find the best design solutions for their briefs.
I help visualise and steer the creative to best answer the brief, ensure it fits within our brand values and at a high standard. I also drive the designers batty with tweaks until it’s ‘just right’!
You and your team were responsible for the incredible graphics at our Upfront event last week. That’s an enormous task. How far out do you have to start planning and how do you manage that on top of all the other work your department is responsible for?
We had roughly six weeks from when we design the invitation, which sets the tone for reels, trade marketing, sales decks, the event space and even right down to the napkins.
We start planning resources and realising the vision, but it really peaks in the last two weeks when the promo reels and speeches get locked in.
We try to plan resources as best as we can but each year it’s different and has it’s own set of challenges.
This year it was the surrounding walls. It was a format that had a huge workflow attached; for each piece of content we had to create five screens. And nearly the whole team had to pitch in to get all the content done, while juggling day-to-day.
It comes down to an amazing team who have relentless pride in their work, agility to change gears, communication and… 16 hour days!
You are such a talented creative. Is this something you always wanted to do?
Aw, thanks! In school I wagged Math to work on Art (which is also why I am not to be trusted with budgets!)
I aspired to design news corner frames; it was where I first saw graphic design on TV.
My passion for broadcast design was cemented with the 10 brand IDs of the 90s, and I explored rebranding a shopping channel in uni.
So, I guess it has been my destiny!
What’s been your favourite Paramount campaign to work on?
Definitely rebranding 10. It was such a historic moment.
More recently, Hunted had a fun brief – didn’t make it look like a TV show. And I think we succeeded there.
It’s rewarding when you see the immediate results and the public feedback is so positive. Our line of work gives instant feedback and that keeps things exciting and interesting.
Where do you find your inspiration or what things do you like to do outside of work to get those creative juices flowing?
There’s no juice left outside of work, haha! I actually enjoy tuning out to mindless TV like Beverley Hills Wives to recoup.
But I do find myself on Pinterest a lot. I have lots of virtual moodboards including typography, colour, 3D and motion design, movie posters, set design, ad campaigns and more!
When I start a job, it’s the first place I go and often just finding that one right image, will send me down a rabbit hole of inspiration.
You have been part of the Paramount family for a long time. How has it evolved over the years?
When I started there were four of us in a room, one channel, and one week to design a promo for Law & Order: SVU.
We are now SIX times that size, with eight channels, and our juniors are often tasked with designing in one day!
The pace and output has exponentially increased but design is now inherently part of so many parts of the business, and that is exciting for design and the value of good design.
Finally, what Paramount show are you loving right now?
The Traitors. It’s so good and refreshingly different.
