Waterproof phones are trending now. WNW Member #3973 Billy McDermott and the team at Wieden+Kennedy decided to take waterproof to the next level with the new Underwater Apps for Sony. If you have a Sony Xperia Z1s, you can download the six submergible apps for free here.
WNW Member #2245 Lauren Hom's super cheeky, Webby-winning blog Daily Dishonesty has just been released in book form. Published by Abrams, Daily Dishonesty hits shelves today. The hilarious and stylish collection features over 150 "beautiful little lies we tell ourselves every day," reveling in an array of familiar phrases of self-denial. Buy the hardcover or eBook here.
WNW Member #544 Robb Harskamp illustrated kits for all 20 Premier League soccer teams for ESPN. Check out ESPN's story on desktop for the full experience, which showcases Robb's work and includes a playful scrolling feature.
WNW Member #2571 Stefan G. Bucher recently completed an incredibly extensive project, a music video for "Goodbye Jane" by Wesley Stace using rotoscoped animation. After many months and 12 pounds of tracing paper, Stefan still somehow had the energy to share this experience with readers on his blog. Why? Because on top of all of the new challenges, physical exertion, and lessons learned, this project was as much a labor of love: Stefan was working with one of his idols of over 20 years. And so, Stefan has written all of the following text, detailing the day-to-day processes and epiphanies that only the artist himself could share.
By Stefan G. Bucher
Wesley Stace has been one of my favorite artists for over 20 years. I first heard him on the dearly departed KSCA 101.9 in Los Angeles when he still went by his stage name John Wesley Harding, and again shortly thereafter on the “High Fidelity” soundtrack. We had a chance to speak after one of his concerts, and I told him that I’d love to do some animation for him should he ever have need. To my great surprise and delight, he said “Yes! As a matter of fact, I need animation right now!”
Wesley was touring in support of his excellent new album Self-Titled and was working on the accompanying videos. Director Matt Grady — with camera men Adam Ginsberg, Ryan Balas, and Jorge Torres-Torres — had filmed the band performing six of the songs in the studio. Now they needed extra material to edit into those performances to have a distinct look for each piece.
I’d originally fallen in love with Wes’s music for his sharp and often funny lyrics, as well as for his quick and self-effacing banter between songs. When I offered him an animation, I had thought of singing Daily Monsters. He rightly felt, though, that they weren’t a good match for the more personal and wistful songs on his new album — the first he’d released without the armor of his pseudonym.
Around this time, I was at the tail end of taking a few months off from work. After having improvised a lot of animation for the Monsters using a program called Anime Studio, I wanted to teach myself at least some aspects of “proper” animation. I’d begun fiddling with a little sequence where my own head would turn into that of a monster. I filmed myself in the mirror, going from a placid look into a wild whiplashing spasm.
I started the animation by tracing my head on transparent paper — a homemade version of rotoscoping — and then morphed myself into monstrous shapes. A lot of the initial pencil work happened while I was on jury duty. You can see the original demo below, and you’ll understand why I got some strange looks from the people around me in the waiting room at court.
This is the piece that I showed Wes. For me, it would be an homage to the classic 80s video for the band A-Ha, directed by Steve Barron. It was one of the videos that made me want to become an artist. I asked Wes, “Don’t you want… don’t you deserve… to have your own version of ‘Take On Me’?” “On any level!” he replied, “I should think it’s every singer’s dream come true!” And we were off to the races!
We talked about different concepts for different songs, but settled on “Goodbye Jane” and on the very simple idea of the images getting darker and darker towards the end, when they’d be obscured by an ever denser field of pencil lines to show the character vanishing inside his own memories. With this I went to work.
Based on a few quick tests, I’d settled on ten frames per second instead of the 12 that are usually considered the absolute minimum for animation. (By comparison, the classic Warner Bros cartoons had 24 frames per second, Pixar has 30.) I liked the languid, dream-like feeling that fewer frames created — images arising and vanishing in a memory, just as they do in the lyrics of the song.
ONE SECOND OF MOTION. IT’S LIKE AN OLD JACKSON 5 VIDEO, ISN’T IT?
The original plan was that we’d leave the verses as live action footage and fade over into animation for the choruses, but when Wes saw the first 10 seconds he smartly played on my vanity. “Wouldn’t it be great if the whole thing was all your animation?” Yes. True. Obviously. How could I argue, when he was so clearly correct? Of course, that pushed the frame count from maybe 400 frames to 1,810. But again… vanity.
I began by making printouts of the original studio footage. One frame per sheet. I’d slip each one underneath a piece of vellum paper and started tracing. The trick was to figure out the minimum amount of detail to bring the performance alive on paper. Too few lines, and the animation becomes too abstract to make sense. Too many lines, and faces start looking wrinkled, and everything vibrates from frame to frame. A little vibration in the lines is the great appeal of this method, but too much would be frantic.
SMALL FACES AMPLIFY MISTAKES. GOTTA KEEP A STEADY HAND...
Motivated in equal parts by artistic vision and base expedience I decided to omit all detail from the bodies. Just for starters, a Martin guitar has six strings and 20 frets. And a bridge. And a hole. Even if the guitar only shows up in half the frames, that’s 25,200 extra things to draw. 25,200 chances to forget a part, or make it go squiggly. Besides, leaving out all those details really does look great! It focuses the eye on the faces. And I love how the guitar melts in and out of the silhouette of the body. It gives you a lot of information on the shape of the instrument. Back in college, the great Norm Schureman always pushed us to edit our drawings — to put in detail only where it was needed, and to describe the rest of the subject with as few lines as possible. It’s our job to guide the eye.
AFTER A FEW MONTHS OF THIS WORK, ALL OF LIFE DEVELOPED A PENCIL OVERLAY IN MY MIND. IT’S WORRYING.
My original plan was to draw 100 frames a day, which would mean about three weeks of pencil work, another few days of scanning and putting the frames in order in After Effects, maybe two days of color work, and I’d be done in a month. Seemed totally reasonable, and of course it had no basis in reality whatsoever.
As it was, I averaged about 20 frames a day. Some days I managed up to 60 frames, other days I was lucky to make it to ten. Cables and tuning pegs take time, and as much as I’m a disciplined worker, my brain simply couldn’t handle more than a few hours of tracing each day. I wanted a Zen project, but as it turns out, I’m no monk. The tedium becomes a physical force. To get through the whole lot took three and a half months. The resulting stack of tracing paper weighed 12 pounds.
12 POUNDS 14 OUNCES OF TRACING PAPER, 20 POUNDS 5 OUNCES OF TRACED PAPER. BEFORE A QUARTET OF HABIT WINE.
The scanning process actually went pretty smoothly. I whipped through it in a week. I oriented the scans by tracing two big registration marks printed along the top of the original footage printouts. Same method I’d been using since I was 15. Low tech, but effective. Proper animators use registration pegs, which makes a lot of sense and would’ve helped me in a number of ways later on, but sometimes enthusiasm wins out over diligent advance planning.
Early on I’d noticed something that had escaped me when looking at the original footage. The video had been shot with a handheld camera for a documentary feel. This looked great within the full studio environment, but of course I’d decided to show Wes, his lead guitarist David Nagler, and bassist Eddie Carlson stripped of their surroundings. In this minimalist setup, free of all spatial context, the handheld camera shake made it look as if I was drunk at the scanner.
When this dawned on me I was 100 frames into the project, and I had no solution. I had a vague hope that the shake would look cool once it played out over three minutes, but I was pretty sure it wouldn’t. The sensible move would have been to re-asses, to stabilize the live action footage, and start over on the trace. The ideal move would’ve been to reshoot the whole thing with a tripod. On a white background. Without anybody being artfully blurred. But that’s loser talk. I’d muscle through. My true worry was that I’d not find a workable solution straight away, and that I’d throw in the towel. Instead I doubled down and decided to trace the entire piece as it was. This way I’d be so invested that I’d have to find a solution later on. You don’t walk away from almost 2,000 drawings.
In the end, the solution was to stabilize the traced frames in After Effects, which involved going through the shots and manually defining two points in each frame that were stable relative to each other — the top and bottom of a microphone stand, for example. The farther apart those two points are, the better, because there is more tolerance for being a few pixels off in the marking process. The application would then rotate the frames to always keep those two points in the same position relative to each other.
A CLOSER LOOK AT SOME OF THE MOTION TRACKING WORK.
As it turns out, this would have been infinitely easier had I done it in the live action footage, what with its sharp edges. Squiggly pencil lines really keep everything a bit looser than one would hope. After the initial pass, I went through a few more times to make adjustments. Yes, that was another month of work, but nobody likes an unsanctioned shoulder shimmy.
One unhappy side-effect of rotating the drawings to stabilize them is that many now had detail that fell outside the frame and areas where there was no more drawing to show. Some of those instances I could fix by zooming in, others required going back to the original drawings and adding things.
AH, TUNING PEGS… MY OLD ENEMY!
While working on all of this I began to notice that I didn’t like some of the edits between shots. Wes would jump from one end of the frame to the other, for example. Other times we’d go from a now static setup to a tracking shot. Both had worked well in the original edit by Rachael Fiorentino, but felt jarring without the context of the studio environment and the unifying element of camera shake. So I added a few of my own camera moves in After Effects. Lastly, there were one or two shots that cut on the beat of the song, but left Wes with his mouth open in mid-sound. Again, no problem in the original footage, yet not quite graceful in my version. It bugged me. I had to create a few extra frames for which I had no original footage, so I carefully frankensteined suitable faces, bodies and guitar strums.
Could I have asked for additional frames from the original footage? Frames that certainly exist and would’ve been easily retrieved? Of course, but by this point I was propelled by a mixture of obsessive-compulsive madness and embarrassment for not planning the whole thing out better from the get-go. Every action now started with “Well, shit. Hm. OK, let me just… .” And the weeks were drifting by.
ONE OF THE LOVELY AESTHETIC MOMENTS THAT HAPPENED GOING FROM ONE SHOT TO THE NEXT.
Part of the joy of a project like this is figuring things out on the fly, and building elaborate workarounds. Of course, there would have been much more efficient ways of doing all these things, but the whole point is that I know that now.
The one thing I knew would be a breeze was adding color. I’d designed the frames to be easy to mask. I’d tested this on my own transformation from man into monster. Of course, I’m bald. And I wasn’t holding a guitar with fiddly little tuning pegs. These things really, really confused the otherwise near-magical After Effects Roto Brush tool. It didn’t much care for my ten frames per second, either — too much of a jump from frame to frame. All of this called for tons of little manual adjustments, each of which the program would then helpfully propagate across adjoining frames whether I wanted it to or not. Several times I finished a few hours of work only to realize that other parts of the mask had been utterly corrupted. When I finally had things just about right, I rendered a flat version of the video, and fixed the last bits by using a cloning brush.
AND SOMETIMES THINGS JUST WENT COMPLETELY OFF THE RAILS.
Aesthetically, I had started with the idea of keeping the skin and hair white, making the rest of the silhouette a solid black, and placing the whole thing on a solid color background. Maybe the background color would change through the video, but I certainly had something very minimal in mind. Once I saw the assembled pencil drawings in motion that seemed way too heavy-handed, so I started playing around. With every project there are dead spots where I can’t quite figure out what the shape of the whole will be. Those are unpleasant if not downright scary days, particularly on a very involved project like this. That’s where discipline and experience come in. At this point I know that an impasse won’t last, and that I just have to muscle on.
The somewhat delicate art demanded a light touch. Smothering everything in a heavy Béarnaise would’ve ruined the dish. I couldn’t figure it out for quite a while, but when I hit on the orange gradation into white I started getting excited. From there I just let the song guide me. I’d made the decision to just let the performance stand on its own — instead of cutting away to conceptual images, for example — but I wanted the color to help tell the story that was already evident in Wes’s face and motion. Things start out with a sunrise, storm clouds appear, night falls, and in the end it all fades away. (This is why I don’t write the lyrics.)
I NEVER MEANT 2 CAUSE U ANY SORROW. I NEVER MEANT 2 CAUSE U ANY PAIN.
All along the way I had kept the colors on separate layers from the drawing. I wanted to be able to remove dust from the scans without affecting anything else. That whole process happened on a parallel track. Unfortunately, each time I updated a newer, cleaner version of the drawings Roto Brush decided to recalculate the masks, creating endless little areas of havoc. It took me a few weeks just to figure out that this was actually happening. Until then I just thought I was losing my mind. By the time the penny dropped the drawings seemed pretty dust-free, so baking the line art and colors into one solid piece of footage seemed wise.
No… I know… Of course it wasn’t wise. There was so much dust left! So much. Each clean-up pass allowed me to notice another level of little dancing dots, and led to two more weeks of removing over 20,000 individual grains of dust one by one. I know that figure, because After Effects automatically assigns a number to each correction. I always thought I had a clean scanner. I don’t. Filthy. Filthy, filthy scanner. Still not clean. Never clean. Especially if you turn down the Gamma on your monitor to take a better look. Never turn down the gamma on your monitor. It’s horrible.
I’VE HAD IT WITH THIS MOTHERFUCKIN’ DUST ON THESE MOTHERFUCKIN’ FRAMES!
And through all of this, Wes hadn’t seen anything beyond the initial 100 frames. Which he’d liked. But he had also been concerned that some of the drawings didn’t actually look like him. Which they didn’t. He was right. I’d noticed the same thing. So this was a concern. A big part of the project for me was learning to draw better likenesses. I’ve always felt self-conscious about not being able to draw solid portraits.
It’s part of what motivated the designs I did for Jason Bentley and John McCarty years ago, as well as this (sadly rejected) flyer for Ben Watt.
THIS MAY WELL HAVE BEEN THE LOOK BEN HAD ON HIS FACE WHEN LOOKING AT THIS FLYER ILLUSTRATION. OH WELL…
I figured that I’d get more skilled as the video went on, and that a better likeness emerging over time would be a cool part of the video — the singer becomes more himself as time goes on and he knows himself better. Ex post facto rationalizations are a crucial part of the creative process.
Still, I was sweating bullets. With any regular project, I’d show work in progress along the way to make sure everything is coming together as it should. In this case there were so many parts I hadn’t quite figured out yet that the “in progress” versions just looked dispiriting to me. I thought that showing the video in that state — especially after having taken so much more time than anticipated — would’ve killed everybody’s enthusiasm. So I waited to get everything right, and my client was kind enough to let me. I gambled. Getting the enthusiastic thumbs up from Wes was a serious relief and a genuine delight.
In the process of making this video, I listened to “Goodbye Jane” hundreds of times, and I still love it. That’s the mark of a great song. I hope you’ll enjoy it, too. In fact, you should download the whole album on iTunes or buy it on Amazon.
Most of the time, jobs have tight deadlines and demand a clearly predictable outcome. It’s a rare luxury that I get to take this much time to play around and learn new things in the pursuit of something that’s unknown to me until it’s done. The fact that I got to do it for an artist I admire makes it that much more enjoyable.
EACH TRACING PAPER PAD IS COVERED WITH A RED SHEET. I USED THEM TO MARK A FINISHED BATCH OF 100 FRAMES. RED SHEETS = PROGRESS. RED SHEETS = HAPPY SHEETS!
Elisa Tan, Christine Gignac, Julia Neumann, Laura Fegley, Alison Tsoi (left to right)
Shout-outs are in order. Business Insider just released its list of The 36 Most Creative Women In Advertising Right Now. WNW Members Julia Neumann, Christine Gignac, Elisa Tan, Alison Tsoi, & Laura Fegley made the cut, all ranking in the top 15. Check out some of their work below.
Water Is Life "Bucket List" Campaign
Oreo "Life Raft"
Hot Wheels Stunt
Verizon "Inspire Her Mind" Campaign
Vaseline Spray & Go
WNW Member #2782 Shane Griffin and Method Studios created a promo toolkit for TYRANT, a new original drama from FX Networks. Shane spoke to use about the inspiration and goal for this project:
FX Network challenged us to create a colossal labyrinth of middle eastern architecture to promo their new drama "Tyrant". Taking influence from the shows themes and art direction, we knew we were going to create something heavy, grand, and intimidating, yet abstracted from reality. It was paramount to us that the only sense of orientation in the spot was the setting sun, leaving our viewer to distinguish what is up and what is down.
Shane also touched on the creative process used to accomplish this look:
We created several animatics to experiment with composition, as many of these shots will never sit next to each other editorially, it was important to encapsulate the shows themes in each shot. The intense 3D texturing posted a huge design effort to familiarize ourselves with middle eastern motifs, and color palettes.
The custom Tyrant typography was also created in 3D, and re-designed to house a incredible amount of traditional middle eastern motifs and details. Notice how the logo locks to the camera in the final shot to create a sense of power, it's not willing to be moved!!
We developed the look with VRay in Maya, and composited in Nuke.
Our friends at Infinite Pitch created some bespoke audio for our own montage.
Keep your eyes peeled for future stellar work from Shane.
WNW Member #314 Jonnie Hallman is a designer and developer living and working in Brooklyn, out of co-working space Studiomates. He's worked at Adobe and with the likes of Etsy, 53, and Dropbox. Jonnie spoke to us about the influence of his freelancer parents and the benefits of a shared creative atmosphere and support group.
I started freelancing full-time about 2 and a half years ago, but it feels like much longer.
I work out of a studio space in Brooklyn, called Studiomates, which is where I feel like I do my best work. My best ideas come to me when I'm away from my desk, either walking around the city or washing the dishes.
I work a lot, even on personal projects in my spare time, so there are more like two ratios—client work to personal work and work life to personal life. Ideally, I would spend 3 weekdays on client work and any days/nights in between on personal work. If I work full-time on a client gig, I end up needing a longer break before I start the next one.
As for work life and personal life, I typically take two or three nights off during the week and leave Sunday for relaxing. These days, I'm too excited to work on personal projects, which don't really feel like work to me, so I often end up at the studio on a Saturday.
Both of my parents are freelancers, too, so they know the life—my mom is an illustrator and my dad is a book cover illustrator. I've grown up learning about the freelancing life and seeing it first-hand, which has had an amazing impact on me. As for the type of work I do, I think they understand the gist of it.
Easily the morning scene from Pee Wee Herman's Big Adventure (my all-time favorite movie). If I were unfathomably wealthy, I would have an exact replica of that house.
Stack Overflow, so I could ask how to get off the island. My personal website, so I could alert everybody that I'm stranded. And sadtrombone.com, so I could properly express the situation.
Every Saturday morning, I play basketball at the Pier 2 courts of Brooklyn Bridge Park with a group of fellow studiomates and friends. I'll also play at a more relaxed court throughout the week in Carroll Gardens or Park Slope. In between, I go to the gym and listen to podcasts (it's the only time I allow myself to listen to podcasts, which gives me more incentive to go). For the less physical activities, I love drinking coffee, playing chess and seeing movies.
Besides being able to make farting noises with my elbow pits and wrists, I know a card trick. Just one.
The best advice I can give is to surround yourself with other freelancers. They can become an invaluable support group in keeping you sane, but also by providing insights into how they work. At Studiomates, we're constantly talking about how to handle specific client situations or how to charge for a project, and these conversations happen organically at lunch or at cookie o'clock. I'm always bouncing ideas off of others or asking for their input on a direction I might take with a project.
(I also wrote a few other tips in this blog post.)
I don't think it's new this week or anything, but a friend of mine sent me this gif and I think it hits too close to home for a lot of us.
Andrew Clark - Director, BMD Los Angeles
WNW recently spoke to Andrew Clark, director of the new Bruce Mau Design office in Los Angeles. After working in BMD's Chicago and Toronto offices, Andrew's now tasked with transporting BMD's exceptional culture to Southern California. But Andrew sees LA as a vibrant and inspiring environment that can only benefit the new office. Currently, he and the design team are driving the brand design and touch-points for Sonos.
Diverse, Collaborative, Immersive
LA is awesome. This is a city with a legacy of combining design, creativity and entertainment. You can see it everywhere you go: fly postings, nostalgic store signage, galleries, architecture, street art, music and movies. Everywhere you go there’s creative inspiration.
We’re figuring our vibe out right now. Everyone in the studio has the responsibility to shape the studio’s culture. Our team is mostly transplants, who bring with them a real diversity of experience, skill and culture. BMD in general has a long history of bringing together people from all over the world with diverse backgrounds, and in our experience, that diversity leads to really interesting creative outputs. We also hope to infuse a little bit of the Canadian spirit here, which I think fits nicely with a laid-back California attitude. I also hope our LA office has an envious work-life balance; I’d love if our designers were out surfing before they come into the office. And obviously we’re all really nice.
The ones that create great work and an irresistible studio environment, those I’m importing in bulk. Listening is important. We believe in team-based work. Everyone has their own ‘superpower’ if you will, but it’s the mash-ups that create the really interesting results, and we often get there by really listening to eachother and our clients. We’re highly collaborative. We’re radically visual. We’re constantly surrounded by the work. We pin up the work everywhere so it surrounds us. We think through problems with sticky notes and sharpies. We’ve incorporated all of that in LA.
Also, BMD Toronto has an extensive library, and we’re building our LA library quickly. I’ve asked Alec Donovan, a senior designer who came from Toronto, to be our cultural attaché and he’s taking this very seriously.
I see more sunrises than I expected being on EST calls! While the process of collaboration is ultimately the same, we’re finding new ways to communicate in real-time. Technology is key. Skype replaces looking over a teammate’s screen. Box.com replaces a traditional server system to share working files. I know when a deadline approaches, we appreciate the extra 3 hours in the day from coast to coast.
Perspective, Passion, Professionalism
I’ve used Feedly too long, so I tend to forget their names. Let’s say Forgotten Nobility, Laist (or Chicagoist), Rdio.
Seth Godin recently wrote not to send your resume, and I somewhat agree. Instead, send me a well crafted two paragraph or less cover letter why we both could learn something new together.
Oregon Manifest – Annual bike competition that my former studio - MNML - is gonna win with Chicago Blackline.
London-based illustrator and WNW Member #2154 Dan Woodger completed a massive project, creating 1000 emojis in just 10 weeks for social networking app LINE.
You can check them out and use them for yourself by downloading the app for free. It’s available on all smartphones (iPhone, Android, Windows Phone, Blackberry, Nokia).
Read more about Dan's experience in his interview with our friends at It's Nice That.
WNW Members #96 Ivan Cash & #3412 Andy Dao are the disobedient minds behind Occupy George, which launched back in 2011. The premise? Money talks, but not loud enough for the 99%. By circulating dollar bills stamped with fact-based infographics, Occupy George informs the public of America's daunting economic disparity one bill at a time. Because knowledge (not money) is power.
Facing a systemic problem that does not have an overnight solution, Occupy George's clever yet especially direct approach has clearly kept this project relevant. From July 26th through February 1st, 2015, Occupy George will have a home at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London as part of the museum's Disobedient Objects exhibition. Learn more about the exhibition here.
Print your own Occupy George bills here.
WNW Member #3094 Kirsten Lepore is an animator and director based in Los Angeles. Her films have taken top prizes at SXSW and the Vimeo Awards, and she's given presentations everywhere from Pixar to Portugal. Some of her clients include Google, MTV, Yo Gabba Gabba, Newsweek, Whole Foods, Toyota, Facebook, Nickelodeon, Nestle, and Glamour Magazine. Kirsten spoke to WNW about her life as a freelancer and advice from Fred Seibert that she never forgets.
I think it's been about 7 or 8 years?
Definitely late at night - once most people are asleep - I have my quiet late night work session of intense focus. I also get super inspired being out in nature....or the craft store.
I usually love to have something I'm working on constantly or I get bored. I also never usually have consistent days off...I'll just work more on some days than others. I'd say 85% working 15% not working?
Surprisingly yes! They're super supportive! There have also been several instances where I was watching TV with my mom and an animated commercial came on, and she'd be like "Was that done in Flash?" and guess the software, haha. Sometimes she's way off, but I'm always impressed with her understanding of animation.
Pretty much any scene from Wayne's World, like this one. I can pretty much quote that entire movie.
I regret to admit it'd probably be facebook...but probably also Vimeo and SoundCloud. Does email count too??? Might need my gmail out there...
Cooking!!! ...and eating!
I guess it might be considered "hidden" to my current friends since they've probably never seen me do it, but I've played piano since I was about 2. Music was the biggest part of my life before filmmaking or animation ever entered the picture.
I also used to be really good at making armpit farting noises.
The best advice I ever received from a client that was eye-opening at the time was from Fred Seibert (the guy responsible for all the awesome creative direction for 80s MTV and Nickeodeon). I was doing a project for him and pitching a few concepts that I must have thought he would "go for." He stopped me at a certain point and told me that he'd rather me come up with a bunch of ideas that I loved and that excited me, rather than trying to just do what I thought the client wanted. He was such an awesome, brilliant guy and I've been thinking about and have tried to stick to that advice ever since.
It's a tie between these guys and the moon emoji meme.
WORKING NOT WORKING
Commonwealth connected with WNW Members #184 Greg Collins and #91 Emil Nisowski for the global announcement of Manchester United's new Chevrolet sponsored kit.
The two New York-based freelancers created and produced four :60 spots for the effort, including directing two of them themselves. They also contributed to a complete site reboot of www.chevroletfc.com, which has over 100 unique pieces of original content celebrating Chevrolet’s worldwide commitment to the power of play, and aggregated all the social media conversations surrounding the tagline “What Do You #PlayFor?”
In addition to sponsoring Man United, Chevrolet is donating 1.5 million virtually indestructible soccer balls to children around the world and restoring soccer pitches globally in places where play is needed most, such as in the slums of Bandung, Indonesia.
Greg and Emil spoke to WNW about the process of this extensive campaign:
"The 'Glory Glory' spot was filmed in and around Manchester, England - a proud city that has enough architectural history to pull off a sense of time travel. As for the shirts themselves, after the idea was sold, we went back and did extensive research to find the winningest and most iconic Man United jerseys in the history of the club-and since it’s Man United, there are a lot!"
"After that, we found the architecture around the city to match and then film at. Once those eras and shots were established, we worked to add in cameo appearances by some of the Manchester United legends-that is, the guys who proudly wore the shirts during those times. Legends like Sir Bobby Charlton, Dennis Law, Dennis Irwin and Gary Pallister-nine in sum."
"What we didn’t realize going into this was the amazing amount of security and confidentiality that needed to be baked into the shoot itself. So to prevent photo leaks and potential counterfeiting of the shirts, extensive NDAs were signed, entire city blocks were closed off (including closing down all of Old Trafford stadium for a day). Large scrims were used to surround the sets with armed guards in front of them, and the shirts themselves were held under tight security by club personnel."
"All in all, it was a six month project, creating, creative directing and ultimately producing everything. There are a million people to thank on it, but in this case, if it weren’t for Working Not Working, we wouldn’t have had such an amazing opportunity, and for that, we’ll always be grateful."
Greg Collins & Emil Nisowski
WNW Member #1332 Dan Kenneally, Droga 5, and Newcastle are starting a new holiday. It's called Independence Eve. Before fully submerging ourselves in Red, White, & Blue and fireworks displays and celebrating our freedom from the Brits, it's only respectful to grab a Newcastle Brown Ale this eve and toast the Red Coats. Join in on America's second favorite July holiday at IfWeWon.com.
In his mission statement, WNW Member #2197 Andrew Goldin wrote: The Foo Fighters haven't rocked Richmond, VA in more than 15 years. So to convince them to come back, we're selling 1400 tix to a Foo Fighters show that doesn't exist (yet)."
The efforts of Goldin and the city of Richmond have paid off. In addition to the Crowdtilt Open campaign surpassing its goal of $70,000, Foo Fighters responded to the city of diehard fans via twitter, writing "See ya soon...let's have a good time." Kudos to Andrew for making rock-n-roll history.
Congratulations are in order! The Drinkable Book, an incredible accomplishment for charity WATERisLIFE, just earned WNW members #3922 Brian Gartside and #3096 Juan Carlos Pagan a Gold Lion at Cannes. That's on top of pulling home a Bronze and shortlisting in two other categories. More important than heavy hardware is the sheer brilliance of The Drinkable Book. The video above details just how revolutionary this book can be for creating and educating about clean water. Could a Kindle do this?
When we launched The UnJobBoard™ last month we asked Working Not Working creatives to choose the one place that would get them to give up the freelance life. We were overwhelmed with the variety of responses. Of the 187 total agencies, brands, studios, networks, magazines, publishers, blue chippers and startups that were mentioned, these were the 46 most popular. Some want to work in advertising, some want to work in tech and just a few want to shoot themselves into outer space. The diversity of these companies serves as both a testament to our members for finding new places to create and to the companies on this list that they're doing something right.
WNW Member #2257 Kate Bingaman-Burt contributed illustrations for the Chipotle: Cultivating Thought Author Series. Kate's illustrations accompany the wise words of Judd Apatow. To see Kate's work in person, buy a tasty burrito and refreshing beverage at a Chipotle near you.
WNW Member #3739 Jim Golden's work has been recognized by Wired, PDN Photo Annual, International Photography Awards, HYPEBEAST, and the list goes on. The Portland-based photographer's newest project is both a fascination with and dedication to relics of technology:
"The seeds for the Relics of Technology project started when I found a brick cell phone at a thrift store in rural Oregon. Since finding it, similar bits and pieces of old technology and media kept grabbing my attention. The fascination was equal parts nostalgia for the forms, and curiosity as to what had become of them. One thing led to another and I was on the hunt for groups of media and key pieces of technology, most of which have now been downsized to fit in the palm of our hand. These photos are reminders that progress has a price and our efforts have an expiration date."
Originally from China, WNW Member #2465 Zipeng Zhu is now a full-time designer at Sagmeister & Walsh in New York City. WNW spoke to Zipeng about working full-time. Most recently, he's been working as lead designer on the new identity for The Jewish Museum.
I have been full time since the day after I graduated last year in May.
But I take on various freelance projects and do lots of personal projects at the same time.
When I'm taking a hot shower or when I wondering around in the city.
4 days working 3 days not.
They understand what I make but don't understand why it takes so long.
If I choose google, would I be able to search and use gmail?
If not will be Facebook, YouTube and Hulu.
Eat eat eat.
Sleep sleep sleep.
Eat again after sleep...
I am really good at karaoke. (at least I think I am)
Do what you want to do most through personal projects.
