THOUGHT IN MOTION

Well guys, I’m back.It’s been a while since I don’t write in here, a lot of reasons for that, but I have to tell you.. something was missing to me and I definitely want to keep this blog alive.
In this post  I want to have a talk with you about Nik Ainley aka Shynybinary. I’ll try to explain why his work is so great. I follow his approach to graphic design since early works: at the beginning he was focused much more on traditional  “depthcore-abstract” illustration, but right now Nik seems to be shifting into “typographic illustration”.
All the secrets he discovered and achieved on illustration are applied to type, becoming the main subject of his peculiar research. He still does not quit on producing elaborate illustration artworks but he’s making a step forward on designing detailed and graceful shapes for each letter or word submitted to the message he has to represent in his layout.
I think his style is easy recognizable for each precise and acute choice taken on fonts, colors and decoration elements. An artistic sense makes possible a not common understanding of spaces and relationship between all elements bringing to life abstract and floating designs, capturing viewers attention. Colors are bright, text is always perfectly readable, deep ethereal backgrounds, all together merged for creating the right atmosphere required by the subject. Nik main core seems to be a deep understanding of a 3d environment invigorated with depth, lights, shading and awesome letters extrusions. Simply amazing..just wondering how long does he take to accomplish just one piece!

Throught last decade technologies have been developed fast and increasingly, computers have grown up, you can do whatever you want with them: you can play, you can work, you can listen to music, you can watch a movie and more important, they became a mass media gate for accessing multiple data via the perfect medium existing right now. The net. An endless database based on a networking system where you can get all information you need in a eye blink, and where you can share all the input you want, wherever you are.

A non-stop rising of communities, blogs and portals sharing knowledge of “something” and where, exactly for this reason, people are spending time on it more and more.

I do think the next step will be web tv. In my vision all TVs will be aired through fiber optics internet cables and what we are seeing right now is a baby learning to walk. Each one of you know what is net 2.0. In my opinion it can be also defined as “video revolution”. Portals like Youtube, Vimeo, Joost are revolutionizing the way of thinking web.

That’s why today I’d like to present you COKEZEROGAME website. Cool expression of this subtle change. You ever wanted to be in a tarantino movie? You ever wanted to watch a football game surrounded by gorgeous girls, trying to reach the stadium over-passing obstacles and at least but not last drinking in beetween a fantastic coke? Well guys, this website is stunning for all this things but not only.

It’s a perfect merging of flash coding that allows the entertainment through a game, a mix of storytelling, artworks and dramatic vfx in a pulp-fiction game movie. All concentrated and shaked up, offering to viewer the best possible web-movie-gaming experience linked to a product branding. This attracts viewers so deeply (also publishing time has to be underlined just because close to european football championship that will be held in June) and makes loyal to the product scoring.

Big thanks to NorthKingdom (Swedish studio) great guys that also shared backstage clips that can be seen here, but more important, I’d like you to deeply consider the hard work for conceptualing the plot and all the process made to achieve this great result.

When I started interesting and producing some graphics and studying communication and branding for television the world wasn’t so full of studios or at least the motiongraphers community wasn’t so developed at all. About 5 or 6 years ago the world started wondering in which way TV brand could have been developed. And wondering which techniques leaded by new technologies and perfectly taken from movie imaginary could have been used.

At that time came to my eyes Belief design studio, L.A. California based. I was completely flashed.

Producing a package like Zoom network at that time was completely a blast. It was a state of the art statement, copied and pasted in any way by studios and individuals. A pleasure for the eyes with so cool transition, so gentle and fascinating colors and so well integrated branding submitted by channel intentions. It was like tasting the ever wanted candy and falling in the job of your dreams.

And this is just one package among others like Discovery Health, Ananda, Sahara, NY first stop and many others. Have a visit to their website for a comprehensive range of their style. This posts is a pean to their works, and of course, for me that I’m Italian and I live in a country where motion graphics industry isn’t developed at all, represent a big thanks for sharing since then, their magic and full-of-knowledge work.

I like innovation, I do think is with experimentation and keeping on trying new methods and new ways of mixing and blending technique is the only way to reach art or at least accomplish the “best piece” of our life. Somewhere I read is not important working to reach an award, a featuring on this or on that magazine, conference and so on. Well I like to think that trying to reach a goal, having an objective and working with that in mind, stimulate joy, collateral thinking and effort to experiment new undisclosed sides of communication and design. I think is the native effort of human being transmitting emotions , through signs, words, sounds and images. Is the power of communication and for sure we try to achieve each day a new kind of experience that creates emotion.

This work of Tavo (Spanish Studio) is mix of this consideration. Is a event package made for Madinspain conference. A symposium featuring great artists that make the difference in design and communication side of our life. From web through print reaching motion design and explaining, which solution, which process had been taken to create outstanding artwork.

This packaging is really simple, microphones (speakers), ink (graphics), and text (names). The result is so simple but meantime so powerful.

Is the next step on my previous post about “oh another ink footage”…..”wow” I thought “That is real ink spread all over”. Is the next step made. That kind of jump we like to do because we are human. Innovate ourself again.

I’ve been following motion design over the net since a lot of years right now and actually i had the opportunity to follow process evolution of ink footage in motion graphics pieces. The first time I saw it in NY1 FIRST STOP NEWS by Belief design, I felt completely in love and I remember those days struggling and 1framing forward and 1framing backward to try understanding this fantastic method. Actually the technique is pretty simple, consists in ink footage shot and used as luma mask over colored layers. But what impress me the most is the way this approach attracts the observer and eventually clients. I’d like to consider this organic motion makes graphics less cold and “computer generated” and add a hit of human feeling to the whole artwork. Moreover big studios and designers have been using a lot this way of coloring and that means this technique has a really big and heavy impact to viewers. Sadly however, is starting to be unoriginal, because overused and near to be classified as “oh..another ink footage”. This said, in the shots I propose above are shown different examples of this ink coloring and use by big brands and individuals. Please if you got any comment don’t esitate to drop a line on this topic.

1 BELIEF DESIGN - “NY1 First Stop news” - COMMERCIAL

2 BLIND STUDIO - Honda “Los Angeles Marathon” - COMMERCIAL

3 EXOPOLIS - FUSE TV : 7th Avenue Drop - SHOW PACKAGE

4 BLIND STUDIO - Gnarls Barkley “Crazy” - MUSIC VIDEO

5 JOHNASON LO - HBO “Japanes connection” - PROMO

6 SEHSUCH- Symphony in red - EVENT PACKAGING

7 PHOENIX ART - Fox Crime - PROMO

8 IMAGINARY FORCES - The numeber 23 - FILM TITLES

9 STARDUST STUDIO - Budlight: Weekend - COMMERCIAL

10 G3O - Brady Barr NGW - PROMO

I want to share with you my appreciation for this UK multi disciplined graphics boutique. I love dust is a small studio composed by seven skilled members from different side of the world and is a based nearby London. Their work is impressive. As often happens is attention for details that pays you back and in each work they made, this approach is easily recognizable. Their artworks are so deeply inspirational and their wrangler design process made possible big brands such like Nike, Pepsi, Sony BMG among other to choose their style for innovative communication.

As occidental people we are used to look for new trends especially in US or Europe.When we find something new usually comes from this part of the world. Johnason Lo is a Taiwan based Art Director and that’s the reason I’m pointing you out his great style and work.Though some designs can be recognized among usual trends other astonishing graphics interpretations are simply unique and fascinating. His elegant and graceful design, in between comic manga character and hi-tech works underline his different point of view in design process. Also in here communication is so powerful even when sometimes the artwork is a bit messy. The power of the color, the rhythm of the animation, the straight-to-heart designs makes this great art director winning different Asia Promax between other recognition.