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Polymath and Semaphore Design a Diagnosis for EosDx

Posted on Tuesday, October 31, 2023

Cincinnati-based brothers Kevin and Douglas Gautraud bring together their respective studios (motion design house Polymath and prodco Semaphore) to elevate the art of the explainer for cancer diagnostics company EosDx.

Kevin Gautraud: “We were approached to collaborate on the narrative and design of the piece early on by Semaphore who had a great vision for the project but typically work in live action.

“Creatively we wanted to establish a design language that was appropriate for the subject matter. We are trying to help the viewer see the problem with current cancer diagnosis and also provide a positive vision of change. We landed on simple primitives as our main characters and a minimal aesthetic for our set designs.

“We wanted to embrace the tactile nature of real materials in CG. We use Octane render and Cinema 4D and light our scenes as we would do on a video production but of course it’s so nice to be able to break reality and get hyper picky with how our light interacts with the scene and subjects.”

“Our work began with really understanding the core technology and the problem it was solving. I don’t believe anything is boring if you zoom in close enough.”

Douglas Gautraud: “The biggest challenge with a project like this is how to take something that is on its face quite dry and bring it to life. The way I do that, is I don’t believe anything is boring if you zoom in close enough.

“So, our work began with really understanding the core technology and the problem it was solving. The key is to take those insights and organize them into a narrative: Cancer sucks, and it sucks in a particular way as it pertains to diagnosis, wouldn’t it be great if that could be fixed?

“We designed the characters, wood pegs for people and cancer being a heavy concrete ball. We needed something heavy and ominous, that could move in a way that sort of felt inevitable. Like the giant boulder from Indiana Jones, you don’t really want to be in its way.”

Watch the BTS reel: