Cartoon Network
Cartoon Network
Digital Product Design
I began my internship with Cartoon Network Digital in June of 2019, and transitioning into such a renowned corporate environment was initially intimidating. However, I quickly rose to the challenge and found myself becoming a functioning member of the team. One of my primary tasks was designing feed cards to promote new figures and content within the Cartoon Network Arcade app, where users could unlock collectible figurines from their favorite shows. During my internship, I had the privilege of working on many exciting projects, including new show releases and feature-length content like Infinity Train and the Steven Universe movie. It was an incredible experience to work on these properties, especially getting to see them before their public release (though NDAs meant no spoilers!).
Infinity Train & Cartoon Network Arcade
One of my favorite projects during my internship was working on Infinity Train. In the Cartoon Network Arcade app, each show gets its own interactive "Island," complete with figurines of the show's characters that users can unlock through challenges, games, or by scanning live episodes. This created an engaging, gamified experience for children, our target audience.
oThe Role
Part of my role was to design the creative elements for these islands, including the environments and various iterations of the character figurines.
For the Infinity Train Island, for example, I worked on both the locked and unlocked versions of the island, ensuring players had a visually exciting experience as they progressed and unlocked new content. Working for pre-made elements and key art, I hand illustrated much of the islands features using my tablet. The attention to detail and creativity in these designs helped build a fully immersive world for fans of the show to explore within the app.
In addition to island design, I attended focus groups to observe how children interacted with the app and their preferred methods of play. These insights helped guide the development of features and challenges that resonated with our young audience.
Design & Creative Challenges
My responsibilities extended to developing feed cards, avatars, and title cards to promote various shows and content within the app. This involved working with key art, characters, and background assets from different series to create custom admats that aligned with the unique style of each show. For some projects, I even had to redraw characters in specific poses or manipulate the environment to blend the figures seamlessly into the scenes. The goal was to make these cards feel like they were an organic part of the show, as if they were taken straight from an episode.
One of the biggest challenges was incorporating the characters and elements in a way that felt natural, ensuring each feed card maintained the visual style of the show while creating something unique. Given the distinct art styles of each show, this required careful editing, redrawing, and manipulation to make the assets blend together seamlessly. I took great care to ensure each card was polished, vibrant, and engaging, while staying true to the unique aesthetics of each series.
Design & Creative Challenges
A large part of this role involved taking raw show assets, character art, backgrounds, fonts, and logos, and turning them into interstitials, overlays, banners, icons, and avatars that could live across two very different platforms: the Cartoon Network app and HBO. Each show came with its own visual language, so nothing could be treated as a template. Every asset had to be built, or rebuilt, to match the specific tone and style of the series it represented.
The hardest part wasn't the individual pieces, it was making them work everywhere they needed to. An avatar or overlay built for one interface had to hold up just as well in the other, without looking out of place or losing the personality of the show it came from. That meant constantly adjusting composition, scale, and framing depending on where the asset would live, while still keeping everything instantly recognizable and on-brand for each series.
Skills & Takeaways
This internship allowed me to expand my design skills in motion graphics and interactive media. It was a hands-on experience in content creation for a highly engaging app, and I developed a deeper understanding of working within a major brand's guidelines while also getting the creative freedom to explore new ideas. Learning to navigate the corporate world and collaborate with a team on tight deadlines taught me invaluable skills in project management, multitasking, and attention to detail—all while supporting a brand I had grown up loving.