The sun is CBS Sunday Morning’s longstanding symbol. Over the years, more than 9,000 viewer-created suns having been used in the show. We took part in this tradition with our own sun, made in-house by a cross-disciplinary team. We were initially inspired by the French curve—a form that has been used for over a century in manual drafting and fashion design to draw smooth curves of various dimensions. From there, we developed four distinct sets inspired by the elements of architecture.

Planes and Screens

If the quickest path between two points is a straight line, the simplest architectural path is the plane, the flat or level surfaces. Capturing light and casting shadows, these planes imbue a space with details and nuance that change over time as the sun moves. Our screens are delicately but unmistakably etched with a sun story, informed by the show’s history and its exchange with audiences.

Columns

The simple stacked arrangement of the column allows it to perform an essential task: bearing the load of a building. Over centuries columns and our use of them have evolved, creating restraints for designers that when embraced can become opportunities. Our columns are cut metal, illuminated from inside, to shine with the light of viewers’ submitted suns and artwork.

Dome

A curve which can support a structure or carve out space to draw the eye to the air beneath. Domes have been used around the world to articulate how architecture can bend but not break. Truth to the idea that good design ideas can withstand reality. Our dome, inspired by the pantheon, includes an oculus to invite sunlight. With ornamentation surrounding the dome, and ground level, featuring suns by the CBS audience.

Thresholds

Thresholds anticipate a journey. They create an opportunity for depth, representing invitations to a new space, new worlds. Every ritual we design begins with that entry and invitation. Here you are welcomed to an ornamental tunnel, a network of suns brought together through simple elegance to achieve depth. At the end of the tunnel, we have placed our contribution to the constellation of suns, a sun made of the French curve, combining the emotional and the mathematical.

Narrative and stories find their meaning in the arrangement: as the show progressed, the stories and suns built upon what came before. Like Gaudi’s nature-inspired approach to structure, our design facilitated dialogue between earth and sky, shadows cast in patterns of memory.

Watch the episode's preview here.