Rankin White discovered his love for visual media during his time in college. It was at the University of Texas in Austin where Rankin began immersing himself in the world of visual media—taking photos and capturing video of his old high school football team—, and started to explore the opportunity to combine his passion for sports and storytelling. Determined to strengthen his skills in the creative space, Rankin reached out to the university's Athletic Department and explored different internship opportunities with the program. This was only the beginning. From shooting video for the baseball team to designing different graphics for the department to curating content for the football team, he continued to expand his knowledge in graphic design and content creation. It was only up from there. In 2021, Rankin began working with the MLS Austin FC soccer club as a contracted team photographer and continued to work as a creative intern with Texas Football. The rest is history! Shortly after graduation, Rankin joined the PGA Tour and hasn't slowed down since. Working as a Creative Content Producer throughout the Tour's tournaments, he continues to use his love for sports and visual media as the driving force to not only mold and develop his unique style as a content creator; but to also share the stories of the athletes within the game. Incredible!
Let’s dive into your journey early on! How did you discover you were interested in pursuing a career within the world of content creation and production?
I grew up always drawing. I would be in art classes for all of elementary (school) and middle school. In high school, and even in college, I would doodle on my notes and that would help me pay attention. I just loved that. I've been artistic for most of my life. During COVID, I started seeing on Twitter and Instagram…I would see people posting cool graphics that they were making—people that I followed in the industry. I was like: “Man, I kind of want to do some of that stuff. It looks cool. I feel like it'd be something I could learn pretty quickly.” Then, I saw (that) Texas Football actually posted something. (Something) like: “We want to see your best designs with these three photos. Go for it. Send us your designs.” So I was like, “I'm gonna do it.” I made a design and I loved it. I was like, “Man, this is really fun.” I spent some more time, and made like eight or ten designs over the course of my time in quarantine before I started working for (Texas) Football. When I started for Football, I was doing video—because that's what I had been doing for a while—, but I made a couple of graphics just on the side here and there. When the 2020 season ended, I ended up being the only creative intern for the football team. The other two guys that were interning with me at the time both graduated, so it was just me for like three months basically until we hired new interns. Our biggest need during that time was for more help with graphics for recruiting. My boss was like, “Hey man, I know you love video but is there any way you'd be interested in doing graphic design? Because we need that more than we need video right now.” I was like, “Yeah, I'll definitely try. If you can help me, teach me how to do certain things, and kind of help guide what I'm doing, sounds great.” So I learned from two of the best guys in the industry that worked for Texas Football at the time, Matt Lange and Tony Turnquist.
I ended up loving it, and now that's a primary focus of my job. I ended up getting offers when I was looking for a job to be a full-time graphic designer because I spent like a year learning under those guys and pursuing that. That's another thing for young creatives…you don't want to just be a photographer. You don't want to just be a really good video shooter. You want to be able to do two or three different things well, so that you're more marketable. You know, I'm not just a photographer. I'm a photographer and a graphic designer, and I can shoot video; and I can edit video if I need to (as well). That's something I push people to do all the time is: be able to do multiple things because it makes you more marketable than somebody that can just take photos, just make graphics, or just shoot or edit video. You know, it helps a lot.
You mentioned that you started in the football and baseball space. You’ve also worked with Austin FC, so you’ve tapped into the soccer space as well. You are currently a Creative Content Producer for the PGA Tour. What has this experience been like for you in this role?
Yeah! That’s the beauty of my very short, but very eventful career so far. I've gotten to work in a lot of different sports. I even got to shoot one basketball game when I was working for baseball. They were like, “Hey, do you want to come shoot photos for a basketball game?” I've gotten to work in a lot of different sports so far; and each sport is very different in the way that you cover it, the way that you promote it, the way that you shoot it, and all that kind of stuff. Golf is a completely different beast than shooting football or soccer or baseball. As opposed to having one field or one arena that you're capturing all of the action at, you have basically 18 different “arenas” or 18 different “fields” and like 150 people that are all playing at different times at different spots on each of those eighteen holes. There’s not enough photographers to cover all eighteen holes, so you kind of gotta pick and choose. You gotta know where the best shots are going to be at. You know, what do we want to shoot? Where are the best reactions going to be? All that kind of stuff. You're going to miss a lot of shots, and you gotta be ok with that. Golf has just been completely different and very enjoyable. I was not a big golf fan before I took the job, and have become a big golf fan since then. I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that it's every week. It doesn't stop. There's a champion every week, which is so cool. It's not just one time of the year where we crown a champion, it's every single week. Then on top of that, it's just a game that forces you to be competitive against yourself—which I think is very unique in the sports world. There's not a whole lot of sports like that. It's really you versus you. There are other guys here playing as well, but you're not directly competing against them. You're just trying to get the lowest score that you can possibly get, which is cool. It's been a really, really different and really cool experience for sure.
As a Creative Content Producer, if you could describe “A Day in the Life” to somebody, how would you describe it?
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