Exploring the concept of “what lies underneath the ice”, creative director Paul Mitchell and the crew at Elastic mark the return of NHL games to ESPN (after 20 years) with this ambitious and frosty mix of CG and 2D motion design.

Paul Mitchell: “I’ve been working with ESPN for over ten years now across multiple companies and projects, we have built a strong relationship.

“We wanted to do something out of the ordinary for this project and the team at ESPN let me run with this concept without the feeling of having ‘too many cooks’ managing over my shoulder.

“With a focus on streaming accessibility, ESPN needed a comprehensive set of customizable deliverables that captured the ferocity, grit, and spirit of the sport.

Timothy O’Shaughnessy, Creative Director at ESPN: “The task was to tell the story of hockey. From forming the first ice crystal to the puck finally hitting the net, and exploring what it takes to get there.

“As a company, we want our co-collaborators to take our creative efforts and use them as a platform to build off of, and if they diverge that’s completely fine. We make sure our partners understand that we’re going to let them be as creative as they feel they need to be. And obviously, Paul crushed it.”
 

 
Client: ESPN
Manager of Motion Graphics Design: Benjamin Bieglecki
Creative Director: Timothy O’Shaughnessy

Production: Elastic
Creative Director: Paul Mitchell
Art Directors:Carlo Sa, Olga Midlenko
CG Leads: Lee Buckley, Caleb Ollivant
3D Artists: Jun Kim, Josh Dyer
Designers: Lee Buckley, Renato Marques, Sky Bird, Kaya Thomas, Min Shi
2D Animator: David Wave
3D Animators: Lee Buckley, Savva Tsekmes, Renato Marques
Editor: Jessica Ledoux
Color Management: Andrew Young
Producers: Emily Stave, HJ Kim
Deputy Head of Production: Zach Wakefield
Executive Producer: Luke Colson
Executive Producer / Head of Production: Kate Berry
Managing Director: Jennifer Sofio Hall