By Lauren Fink
Photo by Lauren Fink
Tonia Gloweski graduated from the RTA program at NAIT in 2006 and has been a graphic designer at news stations in Edmonton for over ten years.
When she started in the program, she knew she wanted to be behind the scenes.
“There is something to be said with the production side of things, the hands on doing it, taking a show to air,” said Gloweski.
Though RTA is known for its personalities, it also produces many of the industry’s behind the scenes workers, like Gloweski.
“NAIT gives a little taste of everything,” Gloweski said. “We didn’t dive deep into graphics, but it was a part of the editing process and that’s what intrigued me.”
She now works closely with reporters and producers to enhance storytelling at Global.
“[Graphics are] another tool to use to get our point across and help the viewers digest the story a bit more,” said Gloweski.
She does this by creating full frame boards (which show a few statistics), suspect boards and animations.
Her favourite project was “Fort McMurray: The Road Back”, an award winning 30-minute Global News special.
“This project had a lot of meaning to me because I remember very vividly the day the wildfire hit Fort McMurray. The team came together to bring live coverage to our viewers well into the evening. The weeks and months to follow we covered stories of the community, the people of Fort McMurray and followed their journey to rebuild,” Gloweski said.
“When it was decided that we would put together a 30-minute documentary one year after the devastation, I was happy to be a part of it,” said Gloweski. “It was important to me to tell that story visually through design of these animations and virtual set graphics for our viewers.”
She does have some advice for incoming students.
“Keep an open mind because when I came into NAIT I wasn’t like, ‘I want to be a graphics designer.’ That wasn’t something that was already on my radar, but I felt everything out and the doors opened, and I found what I was really strong at,” said Gloweski.
