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Freelance art director / designer / animator based in NYC

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Between two & three - An Exploration About Motion

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Motion design pieces created by Hitabarity 3D and Mestremotion.

What happens when you mix 2D motion graphics and 3D design?
That was the question, and you're just discovering our answer.
Colorful loops, full of dynamism and motion tricks that will set your day in motion.

This project is a collaboration between 2 artists from different design backgrounds.
Hitabarity 3D (3D Art Director) and Mestremotion (2D Motion Designer) had joined forces to create a collection of motion design loops, mixing the 3D taste and volumes with the 2D rythm to push motion design boundries a little further.

Let's keep it moving!

www.hitabarity3d.com
www.mestremotion.com

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Even physically apart, technology allows us to be close to each other, to keep connected with those we care most and with what happens around us. Interconnections is a subtle motion film about the power of connection through digital means.

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Here's my contribution for the launch of Buck's new website and brand identity. Was quite a fun task to try and find the appropriate tone for this new chapter in Buck's evolution. Music by the one and only https://www.antfood.com/

Hope you like!

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Resistance.

My interpretation of a disagreement between 2 stubborn people.
My aim was to express the tension that can manifest during a fight. A fight can be a very complex mind game. It was interesting to symbolise with an abstract animation.

I had the chance to team up with the talented composer David Kamp who added the magic sound touch on it. 
Thank you David, such a nice collaboration.
 
CREDITS
------------------------------------------------------------

Directed by Romain Loubersanes 

Sound Design : 
David kamp ( https://www.studiokamp.com )

Animation / Design : 
Romain Loubersanes 
(http://www.romainloubersanes.com)
(instagram.com/romainloubersanes)

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Project: Primitive Construction
Client: Mr Kaplin
Music & Sound Design: Box Of Toys Audio

BACKGROUND /
Our latest experimental collaboration with fellow East London schmoozers, Mr Kaplin.

APPROACH / 
In order to avoid the obvious we composed a drum solo driven by the on-screen action. Occasional wooden percussive elements were used to connect with the materials at play and lighten the overall mood.

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Title Design Studio: Jam3Art Direction: Mike LamontMotion Direction: Cyrill Durigon3D Design & Animation: Mike Lamont & Cyrill Durigon2D Animation: Cyrill DurigonType & 2D Design: Mike LamontGenerative Art: Amélie Rosser, Fabio Toste, Keita AbeProduction: Katie CanadasMusic & Sound: Yann RouquetWord…

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Patterns on Patterns - CK One Collector's Edition (Dir Cut)

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This mix of 2D motion design and 3D animation plays with patterns. A simple square evolves into a geometrical pattern that multiplies, and eventually transfers to a white bottle of perfume.
Playing with the concept of "print on print", the bottle hides into a background of animated patterns.

Follow us on
facebook.com/parallelstudioparis/
dribbble.com/Parallel_Studio
instagram.com/parallel_studio_/

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We are the children of the atom. Radiation gave birth to mutants. What will kill the humans will only make us stronger.

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Design and motion renaissance man Ash Thorp just released a new three-minute abstract piece for YouTube he describes as "an experiment in two-dimensional design, showcasing an intrinsic depiction of science and technology."

Ash Thorp: "Each frame of Modular was carefully designed to be able to stand freely on its own as an individual piece of work.

"We went to great lengths to allow every frame to be appreciated independently, but yet also maintain its connection to the entire piece as a whole."

Client: Youtube

Director/designer: Ash Thorp
Animator: Alasdair Willson
Producer: Monica Thorp

Music: Aeph

Special Thanks: Jason Sao Bento

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Ash Thorp Explores "Modular" Design for YouTube

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Design and motion renaissance man Ash Thorp just released a new three-minute abstract piece for YouTube he describes as "an experiment in two-dimensional design, showcasing an intrinsic depiction of science and technology." Ash Thorp: "Each frame of Modular was carefully designed to be able to stand freely on its own as an individual piece of work.

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A short animation. 

Inspired by "2001 : A Space Odyssey" written by Arthur C. Clarke (1968)
Excerpt from Yasushi Yoshida - Silent Park (2006)
Excerpts from “2001 : A Space Odyssey” by Arthur C. Clarke (Audiobook) narrated by Dick Hill
Excerpt from Freda Payne - Mama’s Gone (1971)

Directed by Stéphane Gibert (@crisscross.studio)

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The Nike TIMA FA20 was an internal event which happened at the Elyseum in Paris, a special venue with 3 big screens in the main room. We provided the motion direction and the animations for the show, following the techy and awesome art direction created by Midi:quinze for the occasion.

It’s always interesting to experience on a different canvas, especially this time, since we had the opportunity to create nice immersive effects.

Production & Creative direction : Midi:Quinze (http://midiquinze.com)
Motion direction & Animation : crisscross.studio

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Algorithmic Architecture.
We created a base algorithmic structure that served as a blueprint for each form and movement in the film. The CGI architectural structures were covered in high‑resolution photographic textures and embellished using a custom‑designed system that controls the foliage, architectural details, and other nuances. The result is a monolithic structure of massive scale and incredible detail.
I was working as part of the in-house team at ManvsMachine as Technial Director. I designed a lot of systems that made up a majority of the superstructures in this film. I did texturing, lighting and helped out on the compositing.

CREDITS —
Concept, Design & Direction:
ManvsMachine

Client:
Apple

Audio:
Zelig

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Max Cooper - Repetition (Official Video By Kevin McGloughlin)

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Music: Søren Stenager
Cut to Bliss: Force of Fashion is an abstract motion graphic film of vignettes that explore fashion as a way to express female empowerment. 
Rather than telling a narrative story, reconstructing the modern female fashion history as geometric thought-provoking visual impact, abstracting the sensitive emotions into unique animation shifts are my distinctive visual language to convey the concept, in the meanwhile, encouraging the viewer to add their own observations.

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Almost everyone in the motion design industry has likely heard of School of Motion — and that’s because they’re one of the best places to learn anything and everything you need to know to excel as a motion designer. So we were thrilled when they reached out to us asking us to direct a manifesto video unveiling their new brand and capturing their mission.

Partnering with some of our design heroes, we developed a concept where the visuals would begin as simple shapes + line work, and gradually increase in complexity to incorporate multiple styles of design in all three dimensions working together — all to illustrate how School of Motion’s education philosophy can help take almost anybody from novice to superstar.

As always, we’re so thankful for the amazing designers, animators, writers, and sound/music folks we are privileged to team up with on projects like this — we wouldn’t be able to do what we do without them!

Directed by Ordinary Folk
Creative Direction: Jorge R. Canedo E. 
Production: Stefan Green
Script: Julie Rybarczyk
Design: Jay Quercia , Nuria Boj, Loris F. Alessandria
Animation: Jorge R. Canedo E., Victor Silva, Greg Stewart, Joélie Sémoulin, Jordan Bergren, Manuel Neto, Claudio Salas, Jose Peña
Featuring Animation from SOM Alumni: Taylor J Peters, Deanna Rilley, Francisco M. Quiles N., Abbie Bacilla
Music & SFX: Ambrose Yu
VO: Megan Hensley
School of Motion production team: Joey Korenman, Reaghan Puleo

See project details:

https://www.behance.net/gallery/85447591/School-of-Motion-Brand-Manifesto

https://www.ordinaryfolk.co/work/som-manifesto

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This was my collaboration for Pop-Up Magazine, a magazine performed live. The shows feature never-before seen or heard multimedia stories performed on stage by writers, radio producers, photographers, filmmakers, and musicians. The show happens every year in several cities in the US.

Escaping a room, escaping work/city/nature, escaping a mindset, identity, escaping from your past and future? This project was a journey to explore how to escape in abstract ways. This ride suggests to escape all the time, but at the same time, we are opening the doors to discover something new, out of our comfort zone and learning from that.

Pop-Up Magazine Art Direction: Annie Jen
Music: Magik*Magik Orchestra
Composer: Minna Choi
Design, Animation and Direction: Rafael de Araujo

Created by Pop-Up Magazine

Check the process:
https://www.behance.net/gallery/91836425/Pop-Up-Magazine?tracking_source=for_you_feed_user_published

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Credits:

Directed by: NotReal

Creative Direction: Valeria Moreiro & Milton Gonzalez
Executive Production: Roberto Connolly

Art Direction: Valeria Moreiro
Animation Direction: Milton Gonzalez

Design: Luján Borzi, Josefina Llano, Macs Riedel, Sergio Fuego, Valeria Moreiro, Milton Gonzalez
Animation: Macs Riedel, Sergio Fuego, Joana Cabrera,  Milton Gonzalez

Rendering and Compositing: Milton Gonzalez.
Lighting & Shading: Valeria Moreiro
Modeling: Nahuel Belich & RotoArt

Music & Sound Design: Facundo Capece 

Agency: Cinco Design

Client: Nike
Year: 2020

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je trouvais ça intéressant tout n'est que lignes et traits distordus par des angles différents et on distingue quand meme des éléments 

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je trouvais ça intéressant tout n'est que lignes et traits distordus par des angles différents et on distingue quand meme des éléments 

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CLIENT - Fissler Korea

PRODUCTION - MAT.

3D PRODUCTION - WOOT Creative.

Director - Park Sungwoo
Modeling - Park Juyoon
Texture / Lighting / Animation - Park Sungwoo, Park Juyoon
Compositing & Editing - Park Sungwoo
Sound - Keats seoul

휘슬러는 독일의 명품 주방용품 회사로서, 시대를 초월하는 클래식한 디자인과 기능으로 사랑받고 있습니다. 
휘슬러코리아는 'Fissler and I'라는 캠패인을 통해 젊은 작가들과의 콜라보레이션을 이어나가고 있습니다. 
우트크리에이티브는 2020년 휘슬러와 문연욱 작가의 콜라보 캠패인인 의 3D 영상을 제작하였습니다. 

Fissler is a German luxury kitchenware company that is loved for its timeless classic design and function.
Fissler Korea continues to collaborate with young artists through a campaign called "Fissler and I."
Woot Creative produced a 3D video of , a collaboration campaign between Whistler and Mun Yun-wook in 2020.

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The idea was from my little observation that there are many interesting shapes happening in our daily lives. Something like… shape of numbers. 

By living in NYC there are different kinds of people with different personalities, careers, tastes and lifestyles. I started making numbers design with illustrations of different character’s close-up while observing the variety of the people and surroundings in the city until a set of 40 animated gifs from number 0 to 9 is completed.

And I call it Number Who.

*More process at https://gungkaikoo.com/Number-Who

________________________________

Full Credit:
Directed by Gung-Kai Koo 
Design & Animation - Gung-Kai Koo 
Music & Sound  - Zing Audio 
Additional Music Editing - Gung-Kai Koo

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Animate a day - geometric shapes.

Animation:
Jordan Henning

Sound:
Ark Noah
https://soundcloud.com/a-r-k-noah

This is a non Profit Video.

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We teamed up again with the awesome team Webflow for their upcoming conference about the future in software development, where no code is required.

Credits:
Creative Direction: Jorge R. Canedo E.
Design: Nuria Boj Haewon Shin
Animation: Victor Silva, Greg Stewart, Jorge R. Canedo E. Joélie Sémoulin, Jose Peña, Jordan Bergren, Drew Jackson
Music & SFX: Ambrose Yu
Production: Stefan Green
Script: Julie Rybarczyk

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A biologist once told a story about his Harvard professor named Louis Agassiz, who taught him a simple habit to help him see more than he ever dreamed. The lesson he learned is also the secret to lifelong and life-changing Bible reading: keep looking.

One reason we see so little when we read the Bible is that we do not give ourselves long enough to look. John Piper shares the story “Agassiz and the Fish” in his new book Reading the Bible Supernaturally. In the seemingly ordinary act of reading the Bible, something miraculous happens: God gives us new eyes to see more of him — if we are willing to slow down and keep looking.

Find the full resource at desiringgod.org/keep-looking

Script: David Mathis, Marshall Segal (Adapted from an excerpt from "Reading the Bible Supernaturally")
Production: Stefan Green
Voice Over: John Piper

Creative Direction & Animation: Jorge R Canedo E.
Design: Chris Anderson
Additional Animation: Victor Claudio Silva, Phil Borst
Music & SFX: John Poon

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Title sequence for Motion-Motion, the graphic arts festival in motion.
The festival's program : www.motionmotion.fr

Credits:
Concept, direction, animation: nöbl
Music & sound design: Mooders

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Générique du début du film Arrête-Moi Si Tu Peux

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"Mathematics, rightly viewed, possesses not only truth, but supreme beauty — a beauty cold and austere, without the gorgeous trappings of painting or music."  —Bertrand Russell

By Yann Pineill & Nicolas Lefaucheux

http://parachutes.tv

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https://youtu.be/FQF_Wm1_7co

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Down The Rabbit Hole
24 - 26 juni 2016 | De Groene Heuvels | Beuningen
downtherabbithole.nl

Artwork: Merijn Hos | Animation: Jurriaan Hos | Sound: Wilco Alkema

For the past DTRH and other films follow us on Vimeo
https://vimeo.com/channels/hosbros

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Directed by Gunner

Music & Sound Design: Ambrose Yu
Design & Illustration: James Noellert
2D Animation: Nick Parente, John Hughes, James Noellert, Collin Leix, Nick Forshee 
3D Animation: Collin Leix, Nick Parente
VO: Ryan Fitzgerald
Produced By: Brandon Delis
Creative Agency: Giant Spoon

Giant Spoon Team:
Copywriter: Sarah Wagner
Producer: Jeremy Lewis
Creative Director: Elias Stern

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Ident submission for Node 2018.

Check out the others at www.nodefest.com.au/idents

Software: Houdini, Redshift

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A collective motion design piece by montrealer designers.
Made for MAPP Montréal and originally video projected on a wall.

In order of appearance:
OELHAN | Rémi Vincent | Vincent Hurtu | Lorry Barbedette | Sébastien Camden | Josselin Bey | Louis Robert | Vincent Raineri | Maylee Keo | Hugo Hugo | Jean-Christophe Henry | Mat&Fab | Vincent Bilodeau | Stefano Gemmellaro | Elizabeth Laferrière | Amélie Tourangeau | Aurélien Jeanney | Jean-Sébastien Lavoie

Sound design by:
audiospheric

Curated by:
Rémi Vincent - www.remivincent.com

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Title Design Studio: Jam3Art Direction: Mike LamontMotion Direction: Cyrill Durigon3D Design & Animation: Mike Lamont & Cyrill Durigon2D Animation: Cyrill DurigonType & 2D Design: Mike LamontGenerative Art: Amélie Rosser, Fabio Toste, Keita AbeProduction: Katie CanadasMusic & Sound: Yann RouquetWord…

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Last year I dedicated time to create personal work - different loop animations with a geometric theme. I had the idea to play with simple geometric shapes and to experiment with pace and timing. My goal was to give a feeling of timeless, without boundaries, while finding creative connections transitioning between different worlds.
By maintaining the simplicity of the design, it gave me the freedom to express my animation skills. It was super exciting and interesting to work on each loop. I’ve just compiled each piece to create a full video and tell a story. 


I consider sound to be extremely important and can have strong impact to your work. I had the idea to collaborate with different sound designers to take over different sections of the animation. I reached out to 4 talented sound designers (Joe Basile , Yuta Endo, Ambrose Yu, Wesley Slover ) whose work I’ve followed for some time now. 

The best part is that they all accepted the challenge, which brought more life to this exciting project. They all put together amazing work, creating different moods along with the animation, so BIG thank you to you guys!! Killer team and great to work with :)

I hope you’re enjoying watching it. 

Thanks.

CREDITS
------------------------------------------------------------------

Sound Design : 
00:00 - 00:11  / Joe Basile ( https://www.thechicken.net/ )

00:12 - 00:20 /  Yuta Endo ( http://www.yuuuta.com / )

00:20 - 00:29 /  Ambrose Yu ( https://ambroseyu.com/)

00:30 - 00:46 /  Wesley Slover ( http://www.sonosanctus.com/ )

Animation / Design : 
Romain Loubersanes ( instagram.com/romainloubersanes/ )

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We are inspired by the idea that the daily, routine things we do can have a lasting impact, and we teamed up with some of our favorite collaborators to introduce ourselves with this short animation

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NŌBL rebrand. New identity, new website & new projects soon :)

Thanks to our friends from ByHaus

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CROSSCALL, creator of the outdoor mobile technology market, launches its new CORE range for outdoor pros. NŌBL developed an animated graphic language showcasing the unique features of these new devices.

More infos at www.nobl.tv/crosscall

Directed by: NŌBL
Client: CROSSCALL
Creative Directors: Cyril Izarn & Julien Nantiec
Design: Federico Maksimiuk, Rocío Galarza, Mathieu Dellabe, Julien Nantiec, Cyril Izarn
Animation: Mathieu Dellabe, Julien Nantiec, Cyril Izarn, Federico Maksimiuk
3D: Hocuspocus
Live action: Rom Bianco
Music & sound design: Kambiz Aghdam

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skyTV에 대표채널인 SKY Channel이 새롭게 리뉴얼 되었습니다 2049의 폭넓은 연령대가 타깃인 만큼 유쾌하고 화사하며 그래픽적으로 확장성있게 디자인 하였습니다 클라이언트 - 스카이 티브이 프로듀서 - 김동준 로고디자인 - 백민정 디자인스튜디오 - 브로앤시스 사운드디자인 - 선우숀킴 Client - Sky TV Executive Producer - Dongjune Kim Logo Design - Minjung Baek Design Studio - BRO&SIS Sound Design - Sunwoo Shanw Kim Special Thanks - Dongjune Kim, Minjung Baek

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Paris est à nous - Opening titles - Netflix

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Opening titles for "Paris est à nous"
A movie by Elisabeth Vogler
Production: Netflix
Visual Direction: Nina-lou Giachetti
Design & animation: Romain Gauthier, Benjamin Geffroy, Nina-lou Giachetti, Paulin Girard, Anais Mak
Orchestral original music: Jean-Charles Bastion
Electronic original music: Laurent Garnier

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The Panics director Erwin van den IJssel worked with Gecko Theatre to create the opening titles and end credits of their film Institute. 

Institute aired on BBC Four on Sunday 19th 2020. 

Directed & Animated by Erwin van den IJssel 
Produced by The Panics

Producer: Bruce Bigg
Music by: Dave Price

GECKO THEATRE

Creative Director: Amit Lahav
Executive Producer: Rosalind Wynn

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The Enneagram

The Enneagram is a system of personality typing that describes patterns in how people interpret the world and manage their emotions. The Enneagram describes nine different personality types and maps each of these types on a nine-pointed diagram which helps to illustrate how the types relate to one another.

We came up with a way to visualize each of the 9 types in a unique and minimal way.

Take the test here:
https://www.truity.com/test/enneagram-personality-test

https://www.behance.net/gallery/102225957/The-Enneagram?


Created By
Doug Alberts
Jonathan Sichak

Sound
Ambrose Yu

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Direction, Design & Animation: Flatwhite Motion

Music & Sound Design: Aimar Molero

Full credits at https://www.behance.net/gallery/105031201/OPPO-Breeno

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Reading is a cognitive process of decoding symbols into meanings. 

For a dyslexic person this essential necessity becomes a difficult process to digest, sometimes ending in frustration.

This animation touches on the anxiety of growing up with dyslexia. Thank you to Maria Jose Monge for her testimony.

Design and Animation by Wendy Eduarte
Song by Kosta T - выходной

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“Azulejos" is a heartfelt tribute to Portugal. 
Emanuele Kabu's illustrations reveal a personal view of Lisbon, disclosing the more mysterious, psychedelic and seductive side of the city. A kaleidoscopic journey through Barrio Alto's narrow lanes, hopping on and off the Alfama tram, sailing down the Tejo river and under the 25 de Abril bridge, all the way to the feet of the Cristo-Rei.
*
More details about the concept here: 
https://www.vice.com/it/article/4xkpy3/premiere-il-nuovo-video-di-populos-e-un-viaggio-psichedelico-animato
*
First single from the upcoming album out on Wonderwheel Recording and La Tempesta Dischi
http://www.wonderwheelrecordings.com/
http://latempesta.org/international/

Purchase single on iTunes: https://wonderwheelrecordings.bandcamp.com/album/azulejos
Pre-Order 'Azulejos' LP/CD/Digital: https://wonderwheelrecordings.bandcamp.com/album/azulejos
*
Populous contacts:
https://www.instagram.com/populousmusic/
https://www.facebook.com/populousmusic
https://twitter.com/populousmusic
*
Directed by Emanuele Kabu
Thanks to: Laura, Faye and Andrea.
*
2017
London

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www.likeminds.camp

--

Titles by Joyce N. Ho (www.joycenho.com)
Music by Alabaster (www.alabastermusic.co.uk)
Thank you: Meredith Jenks, Wash & Fold, Baking Supply Co, Pizza Laferrara, Brooklyn Brewery, Dig Inn

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The word 'resonance' holds meaning in both sound and astronomy. It describes the intensification and enriching of a musical tone by vibration and when orbiting bodies exert regular, periodic gravitational influence on each other.

This is an improvised exploration of these ideas, created through intuition and spontaneity.

---
Direction, Design & Animation
Joyce N. Ho

Music
Alabaster

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Director focused on design, visual arts and films. Using 3D animation, I try to create funny and stunning movies.

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Introduction movie for the new Moscow Design Museum! More information at http://www.lava.nl

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Just like last year, we continue to play around with the Beijing Design Week identity. Since there are so many more areas in this upcoming edition of Design Week, we extended the BJDW shape family and made a shape for each one. This shape can be stretched and squeezed and morphs into new exciting shapes. For the subjects related to BJDW in general, not area specific, all shapes morph together.

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Beijing Design Week 2015 - Area based identity for Beijing Design Week

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Just like last year, we continue to play around with the Beijing Design Week identity. Since there are so many more areas in this upcoming edition of Design Week, we extended the BJDW shape family and made a shape for each one. This shape can be stretched and squeezed and morphs into new exciting shapes.

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Animation means motion. But how do you show motion in things that don't move? At a festival there are a lot of offline and physical items. How do we translate the energy, the liveliness and the dynamics of what KLIK is all about, to all their moments of brand interaction? Next to this, they deal with a target audience that is very diverse. Grandparents visiting with their grandkids, sector professionals, students, makers and many more. This brings another challenge: serving all audiences in a way suiting to their needs and expectations, while keeping the KLIK character as a steady factor throughout.

We created a cinetic system that moves - even when it doesn't. Typography rotates, twirls, tumbles and spins. With a custom made brand-system we ensure that for every item needed, the KLIK energy can be applied. Waving flags with spiraling letters, pirouetting page numbers and wheeling wayfinding. To radiate the dynamic vibes of the festival, we select a bright colour palette that is age-transcending. For every edition we cooperate with another illustrator, who is not afraid to push the boundaries of the expected. One year you might be watching a wrinkly old lady in a bathing suit taking selfies, while the next you're bubbling away in a hot tub with undefinable creatures.

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KLIK - A cinetic identity for an animation festival

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Once a year, the entire EYE museum in Amsterdam is taken over by a colourful invasion of movement. KLIK. A six day animation festival of unlimited possibilities. It showcases the rich and diverse animation sector at an international level. In six days people get to explore four hundred films coming from eighty different countries.

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The M6 logo takes center stage. It drives the overall system and accompanies the layouts, refined to reflect the digital age.

The opening ad breaks create a smooth transition towards the ad while the closing jingles act as openers to signal the return to the program.

From the logo comes multiple shapes that inspire surprise and arrythmia and emphasise a vibrant and eclectric brand.

In the trailers, information is sequenced to improve readability and the animations reflect navigation by touch.

The triangle guides the viewer whereas the line gives a sense of temporality and rhythm.

The new visual and audio identity has been conceived for all communication formats (TV - Online - Print - Radio).

The new visual and audio identity has been conceived for all communication formats (TV - Online - Print - Radio).

The new visual and audio identity has been conceived for all communication formats (TV - Online - Print - Radio).

The new visual and audio identity has been conceived for all communication formats (TV - Online - Print - Radio).

The new visual and audio identity has been conceived for all communication formats (TV - Online - Print - Radio).

The new visual and audio identity has been conceived for all communication formats (TV - Online - Print - Radio).

The new visual and audio identity has been conceived for all communication formats (TV - Online - Print - Radio).

The new visual and audio identity has been conceived for all communication formats (TV - Online - Print - Radio).

The new visual and audio identity has been conceived for all communication formats (TV - Online - Print - Radio).

The new visual and audio identity has been conceived for all communication formats (TV - Online - Print - Radio).

The new visual and audio identity has been conceived for all communication formats (TV - Online - Print - Radio).

The new visual and audio identity has been conceived for all communication formats (TV - Online - Print - Radio).

The new visual and audio identity has been conceived for all communication formats (TV - Online - Print - Radio).

The new audio identity of M6 is a mix of both natural and digital sounds.

It creates a sensation of softness and modernity that can be used many times and will stand the test of time.

PRODUCERS

Emmanuelle Lacaze & Eglantine Guitard

ART DIRECTORS

Nicolas Famery & Lazare Bessière

FONT DESIGNER

Black Foundry

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The M6 logo takes center stage. It drives the overall system and accompanies the layouts, refined to reflect the digital age. The opening ad breaks create a smooth transition towards the ad while the closing jingles act as openers to signal the return to the program.

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To kick off the FITC Tokyo 2015 conference, a superteam of artists working around the world (and sometimes around the clock) created a sublimely glitchy homage to the culture of Japan.

The way this team met and worked together is just as interesting as their finished project. Their globally distributed workflow is a testament not only to the power of collaboration but also to the way technology has allowed like-minded people to find each other and create amazing things, regardless of geographic distance.

Check out the process reel, and then dive into our exclusive interview with the team below.

"Tokyo" Process Reel

Making "Tokyo," behind the scenes with the team

Who are all of you, and how do you know each other?

We are a group of creatives, directors, designers, artists, animators and programmers. Some of us are long-time collaborators and others coming together just for this project.

Ash Thorp: I am a freelance Director/designer/artist working out of my home office in San Diego.

I have known some of the members on the team for many years like my long time friend Alasdair and others like Albert Omoss and Andrew Hawryluk through The Collective podcast. I am lucky to have met some of the other epic talents on this project for the first time through Andrew or friends of friends.

Andrew Hawryluk: I'm a freelance animator and compositor that just moved to Los Angeles. I met Ash through The Collective Podcast, which we co-produce. Ash and I have also worked together on a couple of design and animation projects in the past, including the OFFF Barcelona 2014 Main Titles.

Michael Rigley: I'm a freelance motion designer, animator and occasional art director working in LA. This was my first time working with this group, aside from Chris Bjerre, whom I had freelanced with on a number of projects in the Bay Area.

Andrew stumbled upon my site and struck up a conversation. A few weeks later, he was telling me about a potential job with Ash for FITC. From there, the three of us got rolling on the project, and Andrew built out the rest of the team.

Albert Omoss: My name is Albert Omoss, and I'm a computational artist. I know Ash and Andrew through The Collective Podcast. They asked me to be a guest on the show, and we've stayed in touch ever since. I didn't know any of the other guys before this project, other than by their work.

Chris Bjerre: My name is Chris Bjerre, and I'm a motion designer from San Francisco. I knew Michael from having worked together on several projects at different studios in the past few years. Everybody else I only knew by reputation, which in all cases is very impressive.

Alasdair Willson: I'm Alasdair Willson, a freelance motion designer now based in Berlin. I met Ash when we worked together at Prologue some years ago. Ash and Andrew invited me to contribute some type animation for the project.

Nicolas Girard: My name is Nicolas Girard. I'm a graphic designer based in Toronto. I think Ash randomly found my work online, and it just so happened that I was an acquaintance of Anthony Scott Burns. We both worked at MTV Canada around the same period, but never had the chance to work together.

Franck Deron: I met Ash while we were working at Sony in San Diego a few years ago. I became his go-to editor for his various reels.

We're good friends now, and through him I met some of his other collaborators, like Alasdair and Andrew - all really cool and passionate guys spread all over the globe.

What was each person's role for this project?

Andrew Hawryluk: In the beginning, Ash determined the mood and feeling he wanted to convey in the piece based off of his initial poster design.

At this point, everyone involved in the project began pulling a ton of design and motion reference from around the web, which we thought fell in line with his direction. From there, Ash and Michael led the charge in terms of creating style frames, developing a cohesive look, and nailing the creative direction.

Nicolas developed a custom typeface with kanji-inspired glyphs for all of the artists' names. From there, Alasdair and Nic started churning out all of the foreground typographic animation, and Michael, Chris, and myself were responsible for the background glitch animation.

When Albert jumped on board, he began creating code-powered simulations based off of Nic and Alasdair's work to give the piece an added layer of complexity and detail. In the home stretch, all of us began tackling any remaining odd-jobs involved in giving the piece its final touches.

As we neared the end, we got Franck involved to help us cut a process reel in an attempt to shed some light on all of the hard work we put into the project.

Self-organization and working in the cloud

How did you manage your workflow with so many people involved?

Andrew Hawryluk: All nine of us were working remotely from three different countries and time zones.

Normally, this would have been a tremendous stress on everyone involved, but with the help of Dropbox we were all working out of the same folder hierarchy, sharing references, project files, and assets without any headaches. We then used Basecamp to store inspiration and references, coordinate everyone's availability, set deadlines, and share our thoughts on progress made along the way.

Overall, I believe everyone involved felt very much a part of the team, mainly because we were all super passionate about making this piece something special. With the unique opportunity to collaborate with such a dedicated and talented group of artists on the title sequence for a conference that typically doesn't have one, this project seemed to be a perfect excuse to try something groundbreaking.

How did this opportunity come about?

Andrew Hawryluk: When the conference was announced in November, I was immediately inspired by Ash's striking and complex poster design.

I reached out to Shawn Pucknell (who organizes the conference) - armed with Ash's blessing - and proposed the idea of doing the titles.

Even though FITC doesn't normally do titles for its Tokyo show, Shawn's reaction was really positive, and he gave us the go-ahead. Soon after, Ash and I quickly realized we'd need some extra hands on deck, so we began reaching out to a few artists and friends to see if anyone would be interested.

Channeling Tokyo: chaos and control

Can you tell us more about the concept behind the design?

Ash Thorp: As Andrew mentioned, the project came about from the poster comps that I helped Shawn with. Those posters were built on my obsession and appreciation for Japan and the feeling and energy that I get from a city like Tokyo.

I then began focusing on the key themes behind what FITC is all about as an experience and tried to pull it all together. As the iterations began to build, the project's true form revealed itself and it took on a life of its own.

Michael Rigley: Two themes that emerged from Ash's posters were the contrasting harmonies of traditional Japanese culture and the pure madness and over stimulation of a city like Tokyo.

These binaries really laid the foundation for our design development and guided our decision making process throughout. This is part of the concept behind contrasting elegant and intricately key-framed typography with abrupt and abrasive glitch.

Were there any specific people that inspired you?

Ash Thorp: I am influenced by so many creatives from around the world and through time. It's hard to bring up one and leave out any but I know that I was personally influenced by what my friend Patrick Clair and his team created for the show title Halt and Catch Fire, which is perfectly stunning in its own right.

Early on, I brought up the title sequence to Gaspar Noe's film, Enter the Void, mostly due to its rule breaking format and its abundance of stimuli. As the project progressed I pulled muse from various designers and minds, like Paul Rand and Galileo Galilei, which helped me as a director to develop and foster the growth and potential of our team.

The design process

Did you guys iterate on the design process with FITC, or was it entirely up to you?

Ash Thorp: Since we had a basic starting point with the rough poster concepts I made, we built on those by using design cues from the colors and various shapes and style languages.

We did a few rounds of style frames and shared them with one another to see what was resonating with us most. We focused on those key things and continued that process until we had a decent visual roadmap to move into motion. The process was amazing and highly collaborative, consisting of many group Skype calls and fun Basecamp discussions.

Michael Rigley: The design process was very collaborative within the group, but we shared very little with FITC. Shawn had great trust in Ash and Andrew and allowed us to create uninhibited. With projects like this, everyone is contributing their time for the sheer passion of the work and it's an amazing opportunity to work with a client that has so much trust in the artists and collaborators working on the job.

Experimentation and software
Given the experimental nature of the design, how did you go about production? Did you find yourself using tools in different ways in order to produce the effects you were going for?
Michael Rigley: The key tools we used were Creative Cloud, After Effects, Cinema 4D, Houdini and Processing.

We used Cinema 4D primarily to set up the environment and do all of the camera moves in 3D. We imported that data as the base for our timeline, which served as our initial edit. We also used it to animate particles for the logo reveal.

The bulk of the work for this piece really happened in After Effects. Nicolas designed all the type in Illustrator and imported it as hundreds of shape layers for him and Alasdair to animate via thousands of keyframes.

Typographic explorations

Nicolas Girard: After testing out a few faces, I designed a typographical one-sheet to experiment further with Norm Replica. That became my main reference for the language I was going to build.

The way some of the letters are sliced worked really well with our plan to typeset each name into a strict grid system, which we'd planned to navigate with a 3D camera.

I simplified a few of the original characters and designed a large set of custom glyphs based on Replica's geometry. Each glyph is a blend between slices of Roman letters and Japanese characters: abstract on their own, but legible when contextualized and combined.

Once we had a language and a motion test that felt right, I designed all the name cards following Michael's camera work. Alasdair and I then started to cut and animate the glyphs individually. We animated almost around the clock for two weeks - him being in Berlin and me taking over later on Toronto time.

A glitch is not a glitch

Michael Rigley: The biggest part of producing the glitch effects was really just building up a massive library of textures and mattes that could be repurposed throughout the piece.

The "glitch" here isn't really a glitch as you would think of it in a traditional sense - distortion or degradation of source content. This is more of an editorial-style glitch. Building the feel of a glitch with sequencing and layering of textures and simple graphic shapes that together create more complex compositions.

The challenging part of this approach is that it's almost entirely a manual effort, becoming more of an edit than anything else - cutting together thousands of layers that may only be on screen for a frame or two. We really wanted the glitch to be a controlled chaos that relied on some kind of underlying logic or grid system and not just wild pixel manipulation. It was important for us to elaborate on the textures and not use them as the default mattes we had originally built.

A lot of this was just crunching alphas, coloring, layering and combining to generate unique assets that distinguished itself from our library. This gave us an almost endless set of combinations that wouldn't feel overused in the spot.

For the most part, building up our library of assets happened pretty early during the design phase of the project. We used a lot of Form to serve as a grid system and fed a variety of particles through various noises to generate the textures.

For some of this we were experimenting with kaleidoscope techniques that yielded some pretty interesting results. While the majority of these tests didn't make it into the final spot, they're still rather beautiful experiments on their own.

Color was also a really important part of the project. We used Ray to manage our color workflow inside After Effects. I remembered seeing Sander van Dijk post a tutorial on working with color in AE. In tracking that down, I saw that he had just released it as a script, which made life a little easier.

Albert Omoss was kind of our wild card on this job - generating really interesting pixel-based procedural glitches in Houdini and Processing that we would cut into our AE comps.

Controlled chaos and the "Genetic Grid"

Albert Omoss: I think we all really wanted to create some unique effects that had never been done before.

I experimented in Houdini extensively. Through the course of research, I developed some custom compositing filters in VEX code to glitch video in a very controlled way. I also built a system in Houdini to turn video pixels into particles and advect them through various force fields.

We were really aiming to make every pixel come to life and act as autonomous intelligent agents. I prototyped a genetic algorithm-based grid system in Processing, where the video would drive the birth of 'organisms', that would traverse the grid, spreading their genes, mutating, and evolving.

After the algorithm was worked out in Processing, the "Genetic Grid" was rebuilt with Python in Houdini, to provide finer rendering control, and to take advantage of Houdini's ability to cache the simulation data.

The role of sound

Can you talk about sound and the role it played for this project?

Ash Thorp: This was a huge topic of conversation. In my opinion, music is often times 80% of the experience, so we knew we had to nail this aspect.

We passed around tons of examples and all agreed that we wanted something very unique and classical in tone. We first shared a few really beautiful Phillip Glass tracks, along with some Nils Frahm and Max Richter - which ended up being the direct muse that we sent over to our composer, Pilotpriest a.k.a. Anthony Scott Burns.

He loved what we where building and although completely consumed with the various projects he already had on his plate, he agreed to help us out. Anthony and I had many discussions about the core themes and about what I saw in my mind and was hoping to achieve.

I loved the idea of something starting out silent and fragile and becoming this massively powerful experience, one large gradual build that released the moment it all came together. Anthony is such a phenomenal creative power and I feel he really nailed what this project needed.

What was the most difficult aspect of this project?

Michael Rigley: Getting to the rough cut. Definitely.

The animation process for both the type and the glitches were extremely intricate and time consuming. Looking at an empty two minute animatic is kind of daunting. Once we had a rough of everything, we were able to really tweak, refine and carve out the pacing we were looking for.

But for the most part, this was a project where things just flowed very easily, due to the skill level and dedication of the team. We kept a fairly loose process and everyone's commitment really drove the piece to the place it is today.

What's next for all of you?

Andrew Hawryluk: I'll be flying out to Tokyo to see our work premiere at FITC, followed by a week exploring Japan, eating weird food, and sleeping in a capsule hotel.

After that, I'll be back on my freelance grind in Los Angeles, probably rotoscoping a dog for a cereal commercial or something. Whatever actually ends up being next for me, I hope it's something half as fun as this project was - and with artists as rad and inspiring as this dream team ended up being.

Ash Thorp: 2015 is a big year. I am currently developing a few film projects with my buddy Anthony Scott Burns, along with my massive project, !

I am thinking about creating a video game and maybe making tutorials towards the end of the year. I plan to continue making these passion projects as well; they remind me how important and amazing things can be with the right team and passion.

Michael Rigley: I just recently relocated to LA. So right now, I'm just enjoying meeting people and working with new shops. I'm hoping to fill the next year with exciting and engaging work and continue to collaborate with some of the talented folks I met on this job.

Albert Omoss: I'm a staff employee at Buck, so I will continue my day job as a creative technologist. I'll keep making personal art, and I'll never be able to turn down the opportunity to work on cool passion projects like this.

Chris Bjerre: I'm currently working on a short film in between freelancing. Otherwise, I would love to do more titles like these with any of the guys involved.

Alasdair Willson: I've just moved to Berlin and will be working on projects both onsite and remotely.

Nicolas Girard: I just opened a new studio in Parkdale, Toronto called WORSHIP.

While being a motion studio, its core focus will be on traditional graphic design. It's a new challenge that allows me to keep working with other studios and directors but also gives me the chance to collaborate with designers on projects I would otherwise not be able to take on alone.

I also hope to get more into unconventional motion and design work - rather than your typical 30-second broadcast commercial.

Franck Deron: I'm directing a personal project I'm producing in Mexico next month. Looking forward to lots of new film adventures!

Buy the title sequence

The Collective Podcast has produced TOKYO, a series of hand-numbered, limited-edition art prints based off of select visuals from the FITC Tokyo 2015 Titles.

Shop the sequence on The Collective Podcast's Store.

Links

The Team

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Superteam proves power of collaboration in title sequence for FITC Tokyo

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To kick off the FITC Tokyo 2015 conference, a superteam of artists working around the world (and sometimes around the clock) created a sublimely glitchy homage to the culture of Japan. The way this team met and worked together is just as interesting as their finished project.

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See the titles: https://vimeo.com/118919656

♫ Hauschka - Agdam

Credits
Director: Ash Thorp
Producer: Andrew Hawryluk
Art Director: Michael Rigley
Type Designer: Nicolas Girard
Designers: Ash Thorp, Michael Rigley, Nicolas Girard
Type Animators: Nicolas Girard, Alasdair Willson
Animators: Michael Rigley, Chris Bjerre, Andrew Hawryluk 
Computational Artist: Albert Omoss
Process Reel Editor: Franck Deron
Composer: Pilotpriest

Links
Ash Thorp: http://ashthorp.com/
Andrew Hawryluk: http://andrewh.tv/
Michael Rigley: http://michaelrigley.com/
Nicolas Girard: http://worship.to/
Alasdair Willson: http://alasdairwillson.com/
Chris Bjerre: http://chrisb.tv/
Albert Omoss: http://albertomoss.com/
Franck Deron: http://franckderon.net/
Pilotpriest: http://pilotpriest.bandcamp.com/

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Now in its sixth year, FITC Tokyo 2015 consists of presentations from some of the most interesting and engaging digital creators from all around the world. To commemorate FITC Tokyo’s inaugural title sequence we sought to encapsulate the city itself—distilled to graphic form. Aiming to contrast the harmonies of traditional Japanese culture against the backdrop and sensory overload of present-day Tokyo, we meticulously crafted elegant typographic forms to collide with abrasive, overstimulating glitch—giving way to a progressive journey where moments of extreme chaos fold into temporary tranquility.

Credits
Director: Ash Thorp
Producer: Andrew Hawryluk
Art Director: Michael Rigley
Type Designer: Nicolas Girard
Designers: Ash Thorp, Michael Rigley, Nicolas Girard
Type Animators: Nicolas Girard, Alasdair Willson
Animators: Michael Rigley, Chris Bjerre, Andrew Hawryluk 
Computational Artist: Albert Omoss
Process Reel Editor: Franck Deron
Composer: Pilotpriest

Links
Making-of: https://vimeo.com/118998266

Ash Thorp: http://ashthorp.com/
Andrew Hawryluk: http://andrewh.tv/
Michael Rigley: http://michaelrigley.com/
Nicolas Girard: http://worship.to/
Alasdair Willson: http://alasdairwillson.com/
Chris Bjerre: http://chrisb.tv/
Albert Omoss: http://albertomoss.com/
Franck Deron: http://franckderon.net/
Pilotpriest: http://pilotpriest.bandcamp.com/

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Studio Philippe Apeloig is a member of Vimeo, the home for high quality videos and the people who love them.

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Studio Philippe Apeloig is a member of Vimeo, the home for high quality videos and the people who love them.

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Experimentations with kinetic and dimensional typography for the 5th edition of 36DaysOfType (2018).

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"Let's not be shy to say it," says Christian Buss, Der Spiegel's cultural critic, about TV show Babylon Berlin. "[Germans] are big again - as the world champions of angst."

If the spending behind Babylon Berlin is any indication, German angst is indeed big again. Created by Tom Tykwer (Run Lola Run), Henk Handloegten, and Achim von Borries, it had a budget of €55 million, making it the most expensive TV series ever produced in Germany. The series, which was picked up by Netflix and debuted in 2018 in the United States, Canada, and Australia, takes place towards the end of the Golden Twenties of the Weimar Republic. It taps into growing international interest for depictions of German history and the rise of Nazism, deftly exploring the anxieties swirling through many cultures today. Hailed by critics as dazzling and dynamic, the 16-part series has been likened to the "German angst cinema" of the 1920s including silent film classics The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920) and Metropolis (1927), both of which feature landmark title sequences.

This angst is front and center in the show's vibrant, hypnotic, and Art Deco-infused opening. The sequence, created by designer Saskia Marka, was named Art of the Title's number one title sequence of 2018 and was one of the finalists in the 2019 SXSW Title Design Competition. Marka created a "seething energetic fireball" of bold colour, typography, and tension, everything moving ceaselessly forward like a ticking clock. The theme composed by Johnny Klimek and Tom Tykwer serves the same function, the notes speeding up and climbing to a higher register; a kettle about to blow. Marka, who also designed the openings to Deutschland 83 (2015) and its successor Deutschland 86 (2018), wanted to depict a Berlin that is always in motion, always changing, and dangerous. "Nothing is ever safe," she says, and we feel it.

A discussion with Babylon Berlin title designer SASKIA MARKA.

Congratulations on your work for Babylon Berlin! It was named number one in Art of the Title's Top 10 Title Sequences of 2018 and it was a finalist at SXSW this year.

SM: Thank you! I still can't believe this. This is a dream come true, seriously. You and other people from America are coming to me and are interested in my work but in Germany, no one is interested in title design! When it gets on the air, everyone talks about the show but no one ever talks about the titles. Almost never. You're always doing your best and giving your best and no one seems to care, as if it's not there.
You've been doing a lot of amazing work, especially for German productions.
SM: Thank you.
The title sequences for Deutschland 83 and Deutschland 86 particularly stand out.
SM: I was very lucky that I got the Deutschland 83 title sequence because they already had one for German TV. But Anna LeVine, one of the showrunners, didn't like it. She came up to me and we started this job from no concept to delivery. I had six weeks! But in the end I think it turned out pretty nice and the show was a success. That opened the doors for me, for Babylon Berlin. I'm also very happy that they came back to me for Deutschland 86.
For Deutschland 83, they already had a sequence for the German market but they wanted a new one for the international version? Does that happen a lot?
SM: No, actually not. I think it was an exception that Anna wanted a new one. She saw one of my title sequences at a movie premiere and then came to me and asked if I could do it. I said of course I would love to do it! She made it possible. She can make anything possible.
So how did you get into designing title sequences? Give us a little background.
SM: Actually, I knew pretty soon I wanted to be a title designer. I love movies and I think a title sequence can set the tone for what to expect and get the audience into the right mood. When I studied design I realized there has to be more than putting print layouts together. At that time, the movie Se7en came out and I was really hooked. Kyle Cooper and Imaginary Forces and all those US studios just became my role models. I started to learn After Effects by myself.
Wow, Se7en really inspired you.
SM: Very classic, isn't it? [laughs] Yeah. It did. Of course there were others before, Saul Bass and all that, but you can't compare that. Se7en was really killing me. It was crazy. At that time there were no classes or even the phrase "motion design" in Germany. I loved New York so I went there with some of my work and knocked on the doors of Balsmeyer & Everett and R/Greenberg and you name it! But I didn't even get one foot in the door. I had no references. That was 20 years ago, in 1999.
You went to the offices of R/Greenberg and B & E?
SM: Yeah, I just couldn't get an appointment! [laughs] I was young and dumb, I would say. After that, I went to Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg to study motion design. It was called "TV and Film Design" at the time. That's where I learned a lot about filmmaking, also. That was the stepping stone for my first projects and also a great network for filmmakers in Germany.
Do you have favourite German title sequences in film or TV?
SM: The only one I can think of is a classic from the '70s that's been repeated to death in Germany. The titles for the crime series Tatort. It's timeless and it still gives the series its unique face. They always put it in front of the show and it has nothing to do with anything but still it's beautiful.

Tatort (1970- ) main titles

SM: It's very reduced... very timeless. I also like the music, how it fits together. It's hard to explain what it's about because it's very associative.
On that note, let's talk a bit about Babylon Berlin. How did this project come to you?
SM: I had worked for one of the production companies before and they invited me to pitch, among others. I don't know who else was pitching. My first meeting was a brainstorming session with one of the directors, Henk Handloegten. We didn't talk that much about the show itself. I had read their screenplays and they had shown me a first trailer of the footage. He was telling me about the Absolute film movement and movies from the 1920s, that something surreal might be right. He mentioned the movie Secrets of a Soul, 1926. In German the name is Geheimnisse einer Seele.

Clip from Secrets of a Soul ( Geheimnisse einer Seele) (1926)

The Berliner Funkturm or Funkturm Berlin (Berlin Radio Tower), constructed between 1924 and 1926, is a former broadcasting tower in Berlin, Germany.

SM: He liked the appearance of the massive steel of the Berliner Funkturm that was a monument built at that time. It was just first thoughts, like collecting images and moods. But I remember the key word was "hypnotic." That the title sequence should be hypnotic was very important to them. Then he played me music for the titles that was already composed by Tom Tykwer and Johnny Klimek that was hypnotic by nature. I really love the score. If you have great music that already sets the tone it makes it so much easier to come up with ideas. For the briefing, the music was settled and the directors knew they wanted to use the abstract Opus sequences from 1921 to be the underlay of the end credits.

End titles of Babylon Berlin episode 1, featuring original footage from the Opus films created between 1921-1925 by Walter Ruttmann

SM: They're from the German Absolute film movement. It's original footage. They weren't sure they were going to get the rights for it but they did. That's what they always wanted - those abstract forms, different ones for each episode. Over it we would run the typography.
Did you present a number of directions for the opening?
SM: Yeah. I wanted a visual connection to this Absolute film movement because the abstract forms in motion are really like moving paintings, just timeless. I really liked that and I wanted to refer to that. I developed two different concepts for my presentation. The first one was a clip that picked up on the idea to use footage of Walter Ruttmann. Because those Opus sequences would be in the end titles. So I took the film about Berlin, Die Sinfonie der Großstadt by Walter Ruttmann, and distorted and edited it like they did in the '20s. I put on prism and kaleidoscope effects, multiple mirror effects, and so on. With the music it develops its own energy, it feels surreal and true at the same time. It gives room to find your own interpretation. In terms of typography I chose something very clean and simple which is also referring to the style of the absolute film movement.

Concept #1 designed by Saskia Marka

Concept #1 colour variation

Concept #1 "SINFONIE" motion test

SM: The second concept was picking up on the idea of being hypnotic, an abstract implementation of the city of Berlin as a seething cauldron. The circle, energetically charged, constantly changing, like a ticking clock, and unpredictable - like the explosion at the end. I wanted to show that Berlin is always in motion, always changing, vibrating and is also dangerous at the same time. Nothing is ever "safe." I liked how the radial wipe gives you this feeling of a ticking clock, especially in regard to what is going to happen in Berlin and to the world after the Golden Twenties. As the sequence continues, the circle is supported by abstracted frames of a seething energetic fireball that finally explodes. In some parts the circle also functions as a mirror or an entrance to a "darker place," with the colours reversed inside the circle.

Concept #2 designed by Saskia Marka

Concept #2 "ENERGIE" motion test

SM: The directors liked both concepts but they were very proud that they didn't have to use any real footage from the '20s [in the show] so that should not be part of the title sequence. They also weren't big fans of the clean aesthetics of the fonts I used. [laughs] But I thought they wanted a minimal '20s look. They had really clean typography back then, if you do not think of the artistic elements. But Tom Tykwer said he also wanted the title sequence to be glamorous so the decision was made to combine both concepts and use footage from the show instead of the Walter Ruttmann film.

I put in clips from the show that set the tone for crime, drugs, sex, lavish wealth and glamour, mixed it up with Art Deco elements and landmarks

-Saskia Marka

Stills from the Babylon Berlin title sequence showing steel structures and sexual images in the background

So I put in clips from the show that set the tone for crime, drugs, sex, lavish wealth and glamour, mixed it up with Art Deco elements and landmarks like the victory column, the massive steel of the Funkturm Berlin. The distortion and kaleidoscope effects put on those sequences are inspired by experimental films like Ballet Mécanique, that worked a lot with prism effects and abstracts as well.

Ballet Mécanique (1923-24), directed by Fernand Léger and Dudley Murphy (with cinematographic input from Man Ray).

Which tools and software do you use to put everything together?
SM: I used Photoshop, After Effects, and Red Giant Universe. From Universe I used all those flicker effects and shrink ray effects. Sometimes I use effects not for what they're actually made [laughs]. That's about it. To create the old film look. For the distortions, of course the kaleidoscope effect and the others are pretty simple.

Since there is a lot going on in this title sequence, the clean but special and modern letterforms seemed to be the right choice.

-Saskia Marka

What can you tell me about the typography and your choices there?

SM: Since there is a lot going on in this title sequence, the clean but special and modern letterforms seemed to be the right choice. I used the font Saveur Sans with alternates that have a strong Art Deco look.

I wanted the credits to be integrated into the overall design of the title sequence and not just another layer with info text. When it gets to the head of department credits I split up the lines and put them into the corners separately to emphasize the Art Deco style even more and to have a cleaned up and controlled result, since there were so many people involved.

I got away with this unusual formal approach, letting the logo of the show sit there for the whole sequence, like a branding plus credits in the corners.

-Saskia Marka

I love that you have the title on screen almost the entire time and that you have the credits split up into the corners. Both of those ideas we almost never see. Was it hard to keep that structure?
SM: I was so happy that they let me get away with it! I got away with this unusual formal approach, letting the logo of the show sit there for the whole sequence, like a branding plus credits in the corners. Throughout the whole production time of the title sequence I was really mentally prepared that they might kill it. But they didn't! It makes me happy that I can look at it and I don't have anything to nag about. Usually I'm never satisfied with my work.
I also enjoyed your end sequence for This Is Love, which has really interesting typography too.
SM: Thank you. For that I received a certificate of typographic excellence from the Type Directors' Club. Kyle Cooper was on the jury. I was just so happy. That was in 2010.
So you've kind of come full circle.
SM: Yeah. If you want to put it that way! [laughs]

The final frame of the Babylon Berlin opening

View the credits for this sequence

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"Let's not be shy to say it," says Christian Buss, Der Spiegel's cultural critic, about TV show Babylon Berlin. "[Germans] are big again - as the world champions of angst." If the spending behind Babylon Berlin is any indication, German angst is indeed big again.

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In times of uncertainty and upheaval - which 2020 certainly was - people tend to gravitate towards that which is comforting. The voice of a loved one, a favourite food, a familiar song, warmth, television.

In 2020, the scripted series that Netflix subscribers turned to the most, with a whopping 62 million views in its first month, was The Queen's Gambit, according to the streaming service. The tight seven-episode mini-series created by Scott Frank and Allan Scott is an adaptation of a 1983 novel by Walter Tevis and stars the enigmatic and wide-eyed Anya Taylor-Joy as Beth Harmon, an orphaned chess prodigy struggling with abandonment, addiction and other demons as she works her way up the ranks. Remarkably, the show bears no opening title sequence - just a simple title stamp during the beginning of each episode.

The Queen's Gambit (2020) main title card

But in chess, opening moves are everything. It's a beguiling bit of direction, allowing viewers to focus on Beth - and perhaps enjoy an uninterrupted binge experience - while saving some dazzle for last.

When the title sequence does arrive - a surprising closer capping off the show's seventh and final episode - it's a demonstration of skill, a celebration of Beth's journey and a visual delight. The checkerboard abstractions are the brainchild of title designer Saskia Marka, most well known for her work on Babylon Berlin, which earned the top spot in Art of the Title's Top 10 Title Sequences of 2018. The hypnotizing patterns used as the basis for the graphics were created by physicist-turned-animator David Whyte (aka Bees and Bombs) using the coding language Processing. The imagery, framed by dark vignetting and doused in dusty particles, is lifted to joyful heights thanks to the elegant, triumphant theme by composer Carlos Rafael Rivera. Watching the swagger of shapes in black and white transform, shift and dance, one can't help but hear the warm echo of Beth's last word: сыграем. Let's play.

A discussion with Title Designer SASKIA MARKA and Animator DAVID WHYTE.
Congratulations on your work this year, Saskia! It's been a difficult year to get anything done but you managed to work on three titles projects - Deutschland 89, the update to the Babylon Berlin titles and The Queen's Gambit. How have things changed for you, given the pandemic and everything that's going on?

Title Designer Saskia Marka

SM: Thank you so much! I'm very thankful for the great projects I was still able to work on but it was definitely a challenge during lockdown and throughout the year, working, with the kids running around, homeschooling and everything. I have to recover from it one day.
Dave, tell me a little bit about your work as an animator. How did you get into this mode that you're in now where you create these patterned, animated GIFs?
DW: Before I was an animator, I was a physicist and I was doing a PhD in physics. I was playing around with software to visualize data and I realized you can create these geometric and quite interesting looking forms out of just geometric patterns and so during my PhD I was hanging on Tumblr, just as a hobby. When I finished the PhD I knew that I didn't really want to continue in academia but I didn't know what I wanted to do professionally. I was getting a few freelance offers and I said, you know, I'll try this out, see if I'm able to do it full-time. It's been about three years now. A lot of my commissions are from start-ups looking for a cool animation of their logo, things like that. I've done visualizations for music videos or mini music videos. This is my first time in the TV sector.

Examples of GIFs created by David Whyte aka Bees and Bombs

Saskia, how did this project for The Queen's Gambit come to you?
SM: Scott Frank liked the Babylon Berlin title sequence, so Mick Aniceto, one of The Queen's Gambit producers, asked if I could pitch for their titles.

SM: He knew from the start that he wanted a title card in the beginning and an end title sequence for the very last episode. Scott mentioned the tonality of German Expressionism and the mood of that time period but in general he was open to anything new - and what could be better than that?

Slide of initial title typography sketches for The Queen's Gambit by Saskia Marka

Did you present multiple directions for the title - the opening and closing?
SM: For the opening card I had multiple layouts with different fonts and colors. I also designed all location charts for the show, which was also a topic on our Zoom meetings.

For the end titles there were two concepts. A short animated layout of the abstract concept - that made it - and another one that worked with the footage of the show in stills. After the presentation of the abstract concept, Scott didn't really look at the second idea. He was already hooked to the first one.

End titles of Babylon Berlin episode 1, featuring original footage from the Opus films created between 1921-1925 by Walter Ruttmann

These end titles reminded me of our conversation about your work on the end titles to Babylon Berlin. The German Absolute film movement and the Walter Ruttmann Opus films from the 1920s.
SM: Yes, these were definitely inspirations. I wanted to relate to that but also create something with a modern approach. That's why I thought processed animations would be the right choice. Dave's work came up during my research about Processing. He's known for his looping GIF animations, which he designs by writing codes. For the first internal presentation I used his GIFs just as a layout to show what is possible.
Tell me a little bit about Processing and the process behind the GIFs.
SM: Processing is creative programming. Designing by writing codes. It is a rule-following, logic system like chess.

DW: Processing is like, I would say, a slimmed-down version of the Java programming language with a load of in-built stuff that makes graphics much quicker to get off the ground. With other languages it can be an ordeal even to get a triangle on the screen, whereas with Processing it's got in-built functions like square, circle, line. You can use hex codes for colours.

SM: Dave sells licenses of his GIFs, which I bought. Except for one, they all existed before the show. I'm very thankful he was into it, though. His work is very special and a lot of it just fit so well with what I had in mind for the title sequence. If Dave's work wasn't available, I would have found somebody else, or I may have come up with something myself.

SM: My aim was to turn this status into an emotional experience, like you feel for protagonist Beth Harmon. The look is 1920s with a warm fuzziness but the credits are very modern in style and typography. My intent was to create opposites on different levels. The presented concept was meant to be a first rough internal mood layout - just to give an idea.

After the concept was bought I reached out to him and asked if he was okay if I "messed around with his work."

Comparison image showing the final look of the sequence and the original GIF by David Whyte (bottom-right inset)

DW: She said since this is all about chess, she was thinking that a checkered animation might make sense as something to include in the credits sequence.

SM: I was able to choose from a big pool of existing GIF animations that he created, like stock footage, which was great.

DW: Saskia dug through my quite extensive archives on Tumblr, just grabbing anything that was chess- or chessboard-adjacent and some of them were going quite far back, so I had lost the original source files. On Tumblr they're quite small and they're quite colour-limited whereas for the credit sequence, of course, you need high-def stuff.

SM: Some needed to be adjusted, because GIFs are very small in resolution and the title sequence had to be in 4K. So he wrote some of them into a larger scale or slowed them down for me.

DW: Some of them I re-rendered in high-def and some of them, where I'd lost the source files, I had to cast my mind back and remember how I'd made them in the first place and remake them from the ground up, which was quite fun. All the nice particular and glow and dust effects, they are all on Saskia's end. She did a great job in making the graphics look almost physical. It almost felt like the light was shining through in real life which I thought looked really compelling behind the titles.

How did you give the animations texture and life, giving it a three-dimensional feeling? What tools and software did you use?

SM: It's After Effects combined with a few effects from Red Giant Universe. I used a few layers of grain, Noir Moderne, tint and Finisher on top of it. The three-dimensional light effect comes from a radial blur - that has a nice depth because it's a 32bit project that was downsized for delivery. The square GIF animations were animated with corner pins and classic transformational tools. It's a 2D project.

I had total freedom of the background. After Scott greenlighted the concept, he just let me work on the sequence and he did not change one thing. We were only talking about the credits. As soon as the heads of the show or film give me their trust and some freedom, I'm at my best. That's when I'm able to reach the best results. Thank you, Scott!
Given how the series ends, the closing titles feel like a treat, a celebration. How did you make decisions about the graphics to create this atmosphere and mood?
SM: Overall, the sequence is an abstract and emotional visualization - and yes, a celebration - of playing and enjoying chess. It should be as abstract as possible to leave it up to the audience for individual interpretation.

In terms of editing and composition I just did what felt right to me. There were parts in the music where I knew for myself that animations should be flowery, or very heavily graphic with impact, or no impact at all. I decided intuitively and moved them out of focus, off center, unbalanced them. But there are also symmetrical moments to break this pattern. There is no rule. Opposite to the game.
How did you work with the music by Carlos Rafael Rivera?
SM: I was very enthusiastic about the main title track. To me, the music sets the tone to moving forward, to a positive future. It has such great energy and is so complex, just fantastic. I tried to cling the visuals to the score. Until the last version of the main title music I kept readjusting animations. I wanted to visualize the relief of overcoming, enjoying the game and going with the flow without any strings attached. Freedom.
Dave, has this project opened up a new world to you?
DW: It was a really enjoyable process and to see my work come up at the end of that final episode was lovely as well. I had gotten so engrossed watching the show that I'd forgotten that I would see my own animations.

Saskia wasn't aware when she reached out to me but I'm like, totally addicted to online chess! [laughs]
Saskia, what kinds of projects are you looking to work on now, moving forward?
SM: If I would be able to choose I'd choose to create title sequences that go new ways. I don't know the new ways yet and that's the challenge. With Babylon Berlin and the typography - it was creative problem solving, because there were so many credits. And that's how new things can happen. It was a great experience to work for an international production. I want more!
View the credits for this sequence

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Designer Saskia Marka and physicist-turned-animator Dave Whyte discuss their work for Netflix hit The Queens Gambit

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A selection of client and personal projects I’ve produced over the last 12 months. 

Creative, design and animation by Al Boardman. 
Music and Sound design: Joe Watkinson

Work included for: Greenpeace, EatRight, Bloomberg, Alpen, HSBC, NYT, Totaljobs, IBM, CNN, Nike

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Typographic animation of Ginetta's motto.