NBC Today
Superheroes
Art, Design & Creative
Real kids, given
their own superpowers.
For a Today-show feature, young patients at Hassenfeld Children's Hospital were reimagined as the heroes of their own comic universe — each with a name, a costume, a power and a painted world to fly through. The result aired on NBC, and let a few brave kids see themselves the way everyone around them already did.
One hero per child — no two alike.
The project paired NBC's Today, the Fashion Institute of Technology and Hassenfeld Children's Hospital at NYU Langone. Every child was interviewed about who they wanted to be, then built a hero from the ground up: an original character, a bespoke costume, an origin story. Legendary science-fiction illustrator Vincent Di Fate painted the cosmic backdrops. As Visual Design Lead I steered the look across all of it — character design, costumes, key art and the on-air package — so each kid's world felt singular and truly theirs.
Not a costume on a child — a hero built around one.
Four kids. Four legends.
Their reveal, on the Today show.
The full segment brought the kids face to face with their heroes on national television — costumes, backdrops and all. It's the payoff the whole project was built toward: the moment each child got to flex, and mean it.
