Shifting textures and elegant details replace chroma and narrative in this intriguing and thoughtful opening title sequence for the Pause Fest 2018 conference animated by New York art director/designer Toros Kose.

Toros Kose: “Since my teens, I’ve been fascinated with maps and cartography in general, and the interest was probably born much earlier, as a kid loving to page through atlases with their intricacies and overload of information.
 

 
“Again in my teens, as a big fan of fantasy books and video games (specifically Japanese RPGs with vast worlds and maps accordingly), I started to write my own stories, creating the world maps necessary for the plot and characters to live in.

“This lead to me hand drawing a poster-sized, full world map, complete with continents, mountain chains, countries, cities, forests, lakes etc.

“It’s truly a meditative labor of love, and while the feeling of finishing one of these cartography illustrations is wonderful, the real joy lies in making them. The process is the goal and vice versa.

“Maps can serve as metaphors as well as the more obvious tool many times necessary to embark on and complete a journey.”
 

Animation: Toros Kose
Script: Jamie Sugiyama
Music: Kodomo
Voice record & sound mix: Ground Control Studio
Voice: Oheri Otobo
Thanks to: George Hedon, Oleg Fedotov