How to Organize Graphics for Large Events

As a creative producer and director at conferences with tens of thousands of attendees, which had general sessions spanning several hours, each containing over a thousand unique graphic cues, I’ve seen many effective and sadly also my share of ineffective workflows for coordinating, rendering, and playing complex graphics.

Often the solution is a real-time character generator system. These allow data to be entered in bulk, which then use dedicated hardware to generate graphics in real time during your event. However, these don’t allow for a design team to carefully finesse the typography or layout of individual graphics. For high-impact events that demand attention to detail across a large set of pre-produced graphics, many times a design team is involved with each graphic, making it critical for them to use a dependable system to stay organized.

Scripting & Planning

A good system begins as early as possible in the scripting & planning process. As soon as the script writer determines the need for a new graphic, they should be able to add a graphic cue and capture any relevant information the design team will need. This might include specific on-screen copy, descriptions of the intended design, and links to relevant assets.

Critically, this allows the script writer the chance to type exactly what they intend to appear on screen, and spell-check the exact language that will be entered into each graphic from the very beginning.

Numbering Scheme

Another reliable way to keep organized is to commit to a unique numbering scheme. For example, Script Elephant adds a unique identifier like  [12.140] in filenames to indicate that that file belongs to production  12  and is that production’s  140 th graphic.

These short identifiers are helpful ways to collaborate during pre-production, and can also help the show callers and graphics operators cue a specific graphic during the show.

Script Elephant includes a table view, showing the status of each graphic