Hasta La Ideas

Electro-house music producer Deadmau5 and singer songwriter Imogen Heap invited fans to animate the video to their collaborative single Telemiscommunications.

The duo launched an open competition late last year, asking for submissions to animate a set storyline – a business man at an airport trying to have a meaningful mobile phone conversation with a loved one. The brief included a sketch for the length of the video showing the position of the character on screen including a 3D plane, as well as the colour palette for each section and some direction on mood.

The idea for the competition came about due to time constraints – a number of animators with the freedom to ceate their own film within the film would provide a quicker route to an aminated video, explains project director Colin Gordon. “This also worked for Imogen as she’s very keen on getting fans involved in creating her music, and uses crowd-sourcing ideas a lot.”

The final video was created by 19 animators, who were paid $50 per second of their work, and includes a number of animation styles, from stop-motion to detailed illustration.

Opening section created by Irish visual artist and film-maker Eoghan Kidney

By California-based animator and painter Eric Spivey

Work by illustrator and animator Kat Michaelidis

Still from London-based illustrator and animator Ewen Farr’s section

Section from Montreal-based cartoonist Paloma Dawkins

According to Gordon the set colour palette helped a lot with pulling the differing animation styles together – “it allowed for the otherwise jarring styles to blend with each other quite nicely”.

Selecting the final contributors was tricky, he adds. “We had to think about how the piece would work as a whole and not necessarily who we thought was the best animator, so it was about getting a good mix of styles and techniques as much as anything.”

For more information about the animators between each section, visit the competition website here.

Credits
Video creative direction: Imogen Heap and Colin Gordon
Project coordinator — Colin Gordon
Editor: Alexander Goodman
Animators: Eoghan Kidney, Jake Zhang, Alex Aguilar-Rudametkin, Eric Spivey, Marc Fleps, Kat Michaelides, Sitji Chou, Mayra Hernández Ríos, Ewen Farr, Eric Funk, Rory Waudby-Tolley, Dru Henderson, Oana Nechifor, Paloma Dawkins, Djoh Djoh (Joe DeMarie), Alexandre Siqueira, Stella Salumaa, Chris Butcher, Ty Coyle

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The March issue of CR magazine celebrates 150 years of the London Underground. In it we introduce a new book by Mark Ovenden, which is the first study of all aspects of the tube’s design evolution; we ask Harry Beck authority, Ken Garland, what he makes of a new tube map concept by Mark Noad; we investigate the enduring appeal of Edward Johnston’s eponymous typeface; Michael Evamy reports on the design story of world-famous roundel; we look at the London Transport Museum’s new exhibition of 150 key posters from its archive; we explore the rich history of platform art, and also the Underground’s communications and advertising, past and present. Plus, we talk to London Transport Museum’s head of trading about TfL’s approach to brand licensing and merchandising. In Crit, Rick Poynor reviews Branding Terror, a book about terrorist logos, while Paul Belford looks at how a 1980 ad managed to do away with everything bar a product demo. Finally, Daniel Benneworth-Grey reflects on the merits on working home alone. Buy your copy here.

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