London freelance director/animator Isaac Holland transforms a rational and carefully constructed mini-essay on the benefits of psychotherapy into an engaging piece of promotional infotainment for The School of Life with the help of engaging characters and whimsical vignettes. [Watch]
Montreal art collective Fluorescent Hill (Mark Lomond and Johanne Ste-Marie) take the anti-hype route to promoting their brand new, limited edition comic called The Rooster, a decidedly low-key, 36-page opus unencumbered by action, dialogue, color, words or uplifting messages. [Watch]
Nickelodeon International launched their Animated Shorts Program in 2012 to hunt down and feed up-and-coming animation talent into their TV series pipeline. So which of these mini-pilots should you know about? We suggest “Scoop!” created by The Brothers McLeod and “MooseBox” from Mike Scott [Watch]
Directing collective bif, aka Jules Janaud and Fabrice Le Nezet, (both seasoned 3D artists in The Mill’s London studio) combine motion capture and procedural animation/rendering to build an full-CG chroma-fest of escalating action for rising Parisian electro artist Azel Phara. [Watch]
Great character and color work here from Acme Filmworks directing duo (and recent Supinfocom grads) Burcu Sakur and Geoffrey Godet who craft a low key but uplifting advert/manifesto for Nature’s Path foods thru Vancouver agency Will Creative Inc. [Watch]
Meet Serap, a Nepalese Sherpa who’s led 28 expeditions to the summit of Everest and the captivating spokesman in this Doctor’s of the World spot from Mill+, Chemistry Creative and Publicis asking us all to help provide long term medical care to the survivors of Nepal’s devastating 2015 earthquakes. [Watch]
Hypnotically dense collage work from Not to Scale director Chris Curtis keeps you glued despite the dry-ish voice over of this summary of the The Internet of Things for Deloitte University Press, all with the goal of “Bringing a human touch to infographics, with people not pie charts.” [Watch]
Blinkink directors The Layzell Brothers (Matt and Paul), who first caught our attention back in 2011 with their mad holiday idents for E4 and then the insane “Future Travel” short for Cartoon Network, have fun with real security footage of shoplifters at Harvey Nichols to promote the UK retailer’s Rewards App. [Watch]
Nobody explains sports like animator/director/writer Fraser Davidson and the crew at Cub Studios in London. The breezy wit and rant-like pacing keep your interest even through the most arcane details while the vibrant palette and playful art direction help expand the visual appeal beyond hardcore sports fans. [Watch]
My interest in heavy metal music is minimal but a great story is a great story, especially when the hero overcomes severe, even ironic adversity. So it happened 67 years ago when a Birmingham welder (and future Black Sabbath guitarist) named Anthony Frank “Tony” Iommi lost two fingers to a metal stamping machine. [Watch]
As the design world drowns in demo reels (invariably a string clips cut to music), what can a studio do to punch out of the noise and deliver a clearer picture of who they are? The company manifesto is a good start. Witness this snappy 90-sec romp created by We Are Royale and timed for the launch of their new site [Watch]
Trip backstage with GMUNK and crew for Mr. Munkowitz’ ambitious chapter of The Connected Series sponsored by Samsung; an exploration of the power of technology to re-pattern the way we see ourselves, allowing us to relive the past and embellish the present. [Watch]
Meet Steve Frykholm who joined Herman Miller in 1970 as their first in-house graphic designer. Charming, unassuming and humble, I find the story of his eccentric company picnic posters, their induction into the Museum of Modern Art and recent reprinting, a refreshing tonic to today’s hard charging design environment. [Watch]
Fred Astaire’s groundbreaking rotating set dance number from the 1951 MGM musical comedy Royal Wedding gets a DIY update in this video for “Julia” by Toronto’s Fast Romantics with frontman and director Matthew Angus handing the VFX. [Watch]