Branding development for the flagship Vice news show.
@ PPL SEA, for Vice Media
S Creative Direction, design, animation
50+ multidisciplinary pieces for an interactive platform that helps personalize your Android.
PPL Sea partnered with Slanted Studios to direct and help produce this irreverent, sprawling, multi disciplinary series of 50 videos for Google's #myAndroid campaign with Droga 5.
Our videos editorialized and compared options for the ultimate taste test quiz on steroids. Based on the user’s choices, the platform generates a list of Andoid widgets, launchers, wallpapers, icons, and keyboards to suit their tastes.
Always fun, a little witty and sometimes silly, the visuals were designed to keep the users engaged and surprised. Users are urged to “Tap first, think later.”
Work,
Communication,
Gaming,
Or Everything?
Fast Company called it the “quiz to make your Android phone more palatable“ which we think sums it up nicely.
More info quickly,
A cool look,
Or something different?
A fun production, great team, happy clients and an amazing splash launch at SxSW made this one a keeper!
Credits: #myAndroid: Taste Test Campaign
Client: Droga 5 / Google Senior Interactive Producer: Ryan McGrath Producer: Alyssa Cashman
Production Company: Slanted Studios
Creative Director: Alex Mapar, PPL Sea Producer: Jennifer Vance
Concept Development: Alex Mapar, Ana Kim, Jennifer Vance Storyboard & Design Layouts: Alex Mapar, Ana Kim
Design: Alex Mapar, Ana Kim, Terra Henderson, Claire Kho, Dennis Moore 3D Modeling: Terra Henderson, Alex Mapar Lighting: Alex Mapar Animation: Alex Mapar, Terra Hamilton, Ana Kim, Dennis Moore, Stephanie Swart
Stop-Motion Art Director: Ana Kim Stop-Motion Animation: Ana Kim, Anthony Galante, Matt Christensen Fabrication: Junko Shimizu, Ana Kim, Anthony Galante, Matt Christensen, Kelsey Brewer
Compositing: Alex Mapar, Ana Kim, Stephanie Swart, Terra Henderson
Special Thanks: Charlie Whitney, Manny Higa Fox
Being asked to redesign the Vice logo was surreal to say the least. It was a dream to do show package development for the flagship news show.
A whole new logo, typography, show opens, chapter opens, lower, upper and corner thirds, subtitles, maps, news video screens, magazine quotes and music direction were all on the to do list.
Tone & balance
It's a deeply serious topical news show. But also youth oriented -- and cinematic too! A critical balance to be sure. Our direction boiled down to a phrase: A design system centered around cinematic film, bold typography with an edge, a Kendrick Lamar soundtrack, accents of vivid color and subtitle-border grid.
Logo
Refreshing the logo was core to the task at hand. The goals were to bring it closer to the energy of the parent brand, but also let the logotype mature and be more versatile. The door was wide open for wider use as part of a larger rebranding exploration - meaning this was a chance to update the parent company logo itself. (No pressure!)
The original Vice logo
HBO show logo
Our new logo
The through line on the VI nods to the graffiti heritage of the original while still being legible. Lots of space for dynamic text transitions here.
Show Open
The nut to crack for the show package, and where everything came together as a whole.
Type system
Typography was the backbone of the design direction, lower, upper and corner thirds, subtitles, news video screens, magazine quotes were all on the table to problem solve.
The newly released Mena Grotesk was a perfect typeface family - modern, punchy, dynamic and somehow still sober enough for the content at hand.
Maps
Producers dreaded how maps broke the visual tone of each episode. So of course, we made a Map design system too. This one got us cheers.
The development work was extremely well received by the Vice team. Alas though, as 2020 started to spiral with the start of the pandemic, Showtime took a different direction for the final season ❣️
Credits:
Client: Vice Media Production Company: PPL SEA Creative Director: Alex Mapar Executive Producer: Ventura Castro
Development: Alex Mapar, Ventura Castro Storyboards: Alex Mapar Design: Alex Mapar, Ventura Castro Animation: Alex Mapar, Ben Hill
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