Way Back Wednesday: Carol Hammer

By: Annmarie Dean 

I work with a lot of fun and really nice people here at WNED and Carol Hammer is one of them. In fact, I always find myself insanely jealous of Carol’s jewelry, particularly her eclectic bracelets. Carol started working for WNED in 1982, beginning as a temp and becoming a permanent employee in September of that year. We were able to steal her away from Channel 29 (WUTV 29) where she had previously worked for eight years.

Carol has been our Art Director for the past 29 years and is responsible for art direction of the monthly WNED Magazine, creating beautiful logos, ads and room designs, among many other tasks. During her years here, she has seen drastic changes in the technology she uses in her day-to-day responsibilities as one half of our Graphics department.

“We worked on large drafting tables, used art waxers, and physically did everything. We would use press type letters or send things out to be type set,” Carol says. “We had a darkroom where we would produce our own halftones for ads and our photographer would pull her own prints. In the late 80s we finally got a computer, which two of us had to share. Now everything is digital and, of course, we each have our own computer; I work primarily with Photoshop, Illustrator, and QuarkXPress.”

*As part of Way Back Wednesday posts, I’ll be bringing you short interviews with people who have worked for WNED for 20 or more years. You’ll get to know some of us a little more and learn about the changes they have seen within their own jobs and WNED itself.