Graphic shapes and atmospheric lighting really help create the drama and the wonder of the animal kingdom. Our home scenes also reflect that magical quality by imbuing the warmth and joy we feel with our loved ones. The design may look flat, but we really pushed the depth with z space, blurs and atmospheric lighting.
Created at: Hornet
Director: Natalie Labarre
Client: Mutual of Omaha
Managing Director: Hana Shimizu
Head of Production: Karen Lawler
Head of Creative Development: Kristin Labriola
Executive Producer: Anne Skopas
Production Supervisor: Dez Stavracos
Associate Producer: Nico Benenati
Editors: Hyeseung Kim, Sam Stulin
Production Coordinator: Nikki Knight
Pre Production
<Pitch>
Director: Natalie Labarre
Art Director: Angie Son
Design: Anna Bron, Matt Carlson, Benjamin Flouw, Renaud Lavency, Stevie Lewis, Angie Son, Seonjin Yoon
Storyboard Artist: Sami Healy, Hyo Bin Kang
Character Designer: Anna Bron, Benjamin Flouw
2D Prep: Sami Healy
Environment Designers: Benjamin Flouw, Stevie Lewis
<2D>
2D Lead: Sami Healy
Art Director: Angie Son
Animators: Olivia Blanc, Sami Healy, Sandrine Han Jin Kuang, Camille Vincent, Dahui Wang
Cleanup Animators: Aleksandra Krechman, Sandy Lachkar, Sara Litzenberger, Mariah Marshall, Casey McDonald, Dax Wong
Comp Lead: Erik Righetti
Compositors: Pedro Piccinini, Shuhan Teoh, Seongjin Yoon
Additional Compositor: Sam Stulin
Mnemonic Animator: Allen Laseter
<Illustration>
Art Director: Angie Son
Character Design: Anna Bron, Angie Son
Additional Character Design: Stevie Lewis, Sara Litzenberger, Antonio Morales
Background Design: Benjamin Flouw, Stevie Lewis
Additional Background: Design Sara Litzenberger
<Audio>
Sound Designer: Jennifer Pague
Mix Artist: Hope Brush
VO: Brad Avenyou
Keno, from VA Lottery, draws a winner every 4 minutes. By using match cuts, we quickly cycled through the fun playful script.
Created at Hue&Cry
Art Director: Angie Son
Design: Angie Son, Diego Abad
3D: Ryan Musselman, Travis Schmidt
Animation: Travis Schmidt, David Reyes
A Hue & Cry film.
Life begins to unravel for Floyd — an overworked, unfulfilled salesman— when his wife leaves him to join an lepidoptera cult. Moths start appearing all around him and no matter what he tries, he can’t halt the visions. In a panic, he flees, running wildly for days. Exhausted, there seems to be no escape for Floyd…but in the end there may be no end at all.
See our feature on motiongrapher for an in-depth interview about our process.
I’ve only included the frames I helped design.
Full credits can be found here:
https://intotheflamefilm.com/
Using stylized character design, transitioning color stories and integrated typography, we wanted to paint a vivid picture for viewers on actionable steps to prevent the Zika epidemic. I made sure to use USAID’s branded blue and yellow to stay true to the brand’s aesthetic, and added secondary colors to create beautiful styleframes rich with color, texture and charm.
Created for Hue&Cry.
Art Direction: Angie Son
Design: Angie Son
Storyboards: Angie Son, Timo Prousalis, David Reyes
Animation: Timo Prousalis, David Reyes
The Martin Agency worked with Purina to design propaganda posters for Purina to advertise the benefits of using RX-3 immune technology on calves to prevent them from getting sick. Expanding on the posters, Hue & Cry was hired to create an animated piece based on a simple script and a fairly low budget. Taking inspiration from vintage travel and Russian propaganda posters, I designed a series of styleframes that would use mixed perspectives to transition one scene from the other, while remaining faithful to the vintage feel of posters.
Designed at Hue & Cry.
Creative Direction: Magnus Hierta
Art Direction: Angie Son
Design: Angie Son, Diego Abad (frame 1)
USAA wanted to create a series of animated testimonial videos from real clients to talk about how their income annuity helped them with retirement. Since the focus was on the characters themselves, we wanted the characters to really stand out and have each environment act as a window into the character’s world. By transporting the viewer into the hero’s environment, we’re introduced to the character’s personality, their hobbies and interests to find out how USAA helped them achieve their individual retirement goals. We took extra care to make sure that the characters had relatable charm and was full of optimism so anyone can imagine themselves in their shoes. By using clean lines and shapes, we wanted to elevate USAA’s previous animated illustrations while keeping it branded to USAA’s look and feel by using their muted color palette with pops of color. (Original pitch design frames for USAA.)
Designed at Hue & Cry.
Creative Direction: Sean McClintock
Art Direction: Angie Son
Design: Diego Abad (f 1-2), Timo Prousalis (f 3-4), Angie Son (f 5-9)
Using real interviews from Century 21 real estate agents, we gave life to their quirky and heartfelt stories with beautiful illustrations and seamless transitions. While we wanted to make each story as branded as we could with the Century 21’s color palette, we expanded on it and gave each their own distinct pop of color.
Directors Yves Geleyn & Natalie Labarre
Client Century 21
Producer Annalee Walton
Editor Hyeseung Kim
Production Coordinators Lotty Vigue, Nora Zubizarreta
Agency The Martin Agency
PIPES
Pre Production
Art Direction Natalie Labarre
Storyboard Artist Otilija Morozaitė
Character Designer Jose Luis Agreda
Character Design Assist Kelechukwu Nwakudu, Hyo Bin Kang
Style Frames Angie Son, Kim Salt, Leila Coutillon
2D Prep Hyo Bin Kang
2D Production
Lead Animator Hyo Bin Kang
2D Animators Camille Vincent, Hyo Bin Kang, Matt Herring, Rachel Reid
Cleanup Animators Mariah Marshall
Compositor Vanessa Appleby
STAGING
Pre Production
Art Direction Natalie Labarre
Storyboard Artist Natalie Labarre, Reece Parker
Character Designer Jose Luis Agreda
Character Design Assist Kelechukwu Nwakudu, Ty Enos
Style Frames Angie Son, Kim Salt, Leila Coutillon
2D Prep Ty Enos
2D Production
Lead Animator Ty Enos
2D Animators Dax Wong, Hazel Zheng, Maxime Jouniot, Ty Enos
Cleanup Animators Ciara Bresnahan, Matt Herring, Sarah Litzenberger
Compositor Erik Righetti
VETERAN
Pre Production
Art Direction Natalie Labarre
Storyboard Artist Julia Trouvé
Character Designer Jose Luis Agreda
Character Design Assist Kelechukwu Nwakudu, Ty Enos
Style Frames Angie Son, Jun Cen, Kim Salt, Natalie Labarre
2D Prep Ty Enos
2D Production
Lead Animator Ty Enos
2D Animators Camille Vincent, Dax Wong, Kelechukwu Nwakudu, Natalie Labarre, Sandrine Han Jin Kuang, Ty Enos
Cleanup Animators Ciara Bresnahan, Sara Litzenberger
Compositor Vanessa Appleby
CHIMPS
Pre Production
Art Direction Natalie Labarre
Storyboard Artist Julia Trouvé
Character Designer Jose Luis Agreda
Character Design Assist Kelechukwu Nwakudu, Sara Litzenberger
Style Frames Angie Son, Emily Paik, Joe Dennis, Natalie Labarre, Yves Geleyn
Style Frames Assist Michelle Cheng
2D Prep Hyo Bin Kang
2D Production
Lead Animator Hyo Bin Kang
2D Animators Bianca Beneduci Assad, Hazel Zheng, Hyo Bin Kang, Matt Herring, Ty Enos
Cleanup Animators Ciara Bresnahan, Josh Brennan, Kathleen Gleeson
Compositor Guilherme Ferreirinha
HOLIDAY
Pre Production
Art Direction Natalie Labarre
Storyboard Artist Julia Trouvé
Character Designer Jose Luis Agreda
Character Design Assist Kelechukwu Nwakudu
Style Frames Angie Son, Kim Salt, Leila Coutillon
2D Prep Hyo Bin Kang
2D Production
Lead Animator Hyo Bin Kang
2D Animators Hazel Zheng, Hyo Bin Kang, Matt Herring, Olivia Blanc, Ty Enos
Cleanup Animators Ciara Bresnahan, Ty Enos
Compositor Edgar Ferrer
AT&T hired Digital Kitchen to design a series of posters from various artists as a teaser to be revealed a week before the episode aired.
Beginning April 21, 2018, select AT&T flagship stores in Chicago, Boston, and San Francisco hosted (pun intended) Westworld experiences where fans of the HBO show can get a glimpse into the park. The experiences showcased authentic costumes and props, a life-sized robot host-in-the-making, and more. High-tech elements, including an immersive virtual reality experience, an interactive park map, and the iconic self-playing piano featuring music from the show, gave super-fans the in-world surprises they crave. Find out more on the AT&T website.
Designed at Digital Kitchen.
Life is full of unexpected moments and to protect you and your family’s financial future, Haven life helps make that process simple and affordable. Using Haven Life’s bright bold colors, we designed characters in a flat paper cutout style with streamlined simple shapes and placed them in a 3d environment to portray humanity with a rewarding tactile feeling. We wanted the imagery to be relatable and be full of optimism so that anyone looking at this imagery could see themselves in the character’s shoes.
To help clients envision the style across multiple platforms, we also applied our designs to their social, website, and giant banners.
Designed at Hue & Cry.
Creative Direction: Sean McClintock
Art Direction: Angie Son
Design: Angie Son, Timo Prousalis (frame 3)
Lotto cards are full of prizes and we wanted to show the world just how they got there. Using match cuts, we used camera movements to act as a bridge between the scenes so that each scene could live on its own and feel lively when pieced together.
Translating a 2D design into 3D came with various challenges, but Ryan did a great job problem solving and creating beautifully rendered frames.
Designed at Hue & Cry.
Creative Direction: Sean McClintock
Art Direction: Angie Son
Storyboards: Diego Abad, Angie Son
Design: Angie Son
3D Modeling + Rigging: Ryan Musselman, Travis Schmidt
Animation: Ryan Musselman, Travis Schmidt
Originally designed as intro sequences to a series of video essays that were to be showcased at a gala, we created beautifully designed frames that illustrated life in the ocean, fresh water and the gulf. We wanted to demonstrate all the amazing work that Jean-Michel Cousteau and the Ambassadors of the Environment do to conserve the diversity of our ecosystem in various locations.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the gala was canceled and we had to reconstruct, rescript and rethink our original idea to work as a short promo video for their website.
Designed for Hue&Cry.
Art Direction: Angie Son
Design: Angie Son
Animation: David Reyes
Inspired by the work of Malika Favre, we created styleframes with graphic shapes and silhouettes to tell a narrative with clever transitions about saving with Citibank. The biggest challenge of this project was figuring out how to work with positive and negative space using such a limited color palette while implying form with flat shapes and shadows.
I’ve only included the design frames that I helped design. I’m super impressed with how the animators were able to achieve such beautiful transitions! Check out the video and watch the magic unfold.
Designed at Psyop
Creative Direction: Joe Ball
Design: Angie Son
Designed as a pitch, we designed a character lineup and a few styleframes to tell the story of the Fostemsavir molecule, it’s use in HIV treatment, the researchers and treaters involved in making it happen, and the first hopeful patient. The agency wanted this to be a 90 sec video without dialogue, and with a complex story and multiple narratives, we went through many variations on storyboards and character design to help tell this story.
Since there is no VO, we felt that the best way to convey a sick patient was by having him b&w, and have his color come back at the end of the story when he finds his match. The client wanted the fostemsavir molecule, Fosty, to be a living character, and we were to base the design on the molecule’s shape, which was similar to that of a boomerang. Stephen, the patient, and Fosty were designed with similar shapes to make the connection that the patient and the molecule were a match.
Designed at Hue & Cry.
Creative Direction: Magnus Hierta
Art Direction: Angie Son
Storyboards: Diego Abad, Timo Prousalis, Angie Son, Richelle Son
Design: Diego Abad, Angie Son
To celebrate Buckley’s cover of Bob Dylan’s “Just Like a Woman” this year, Sony Music wanted to do something special and they asked Blind and Interlude to collaborate on an interactive music video.
We had only a week to finish designing 292 frames, or 4 sets of 73 frames to tell 4 unique stories from the lives of the girl, the guy, the happy times as a couple and the sad. To see the frames in detail, play the interactive music video yourself here and take a gander!
Designed at Blind.
Executive Producer: Tobin Kirk, Yoni Bloch
Creative Direction: Greg Gunn
Art Direction: Paul Kim
Design: Angie Son, Paul Kim
Character Design: Chuck BB
2D Animators: Matthew Everton, Ross Plaskow, Peter J. Lee, Rachelle Moon
Developer: Interlude
ASICS Ltd. shoes first began as Onitsuka Co. and was founded in Japan by Kihachiro Onitsuka. I used the Japanese watercolor style to drive its interesting origin story: Onitsuka stumbled upon inspiration while eating his octopus salad. Noticing how the octopus sucker had such strong grip, he realized that if he could mimic the shape of the sucker on his rubber shoe, he could create a basketball shoe that would achieve the kind of grip that was needed.
Designed at Brand New School.
One Medical's core belief is “exceptional primary care designed for real life”. We brought the concept of "different by design" by pairing the ethos of One Medical's low-stress, hassle-free healthcare by simplifying the complex with uplifting illustrations and an elegantly simple animation technique that moved effortlessly across the screen.
Designed at Hue&Cry.
Creative Direction: Sean McClintock
Art Direction: Angie Son
Design: Angie Son
Animation: Travis Schmidt, Deigo Abad, David Reyes, Reza Iman, Angie Son, Richelle Son
With HPE Primera, you never lose access to internet. We wanted to convey this idea by having an infinite growing building with people accessing data through ATMs, laptops and mobile screens in a never-ending loop.
Designed at Hue & Cry.
Art Direction: Angie Son
Storyboards: Angie Son, Timo Prousalis
Design: Angie Son, Timo Prousalis
Animation: Timo Prousalis
Hue & Cry is pretty serious about Ping Pong. We’ve been three time champion of the annual Shockoe Showdown! I was tasked to design a t-shirt for our company team. In keeping with our brand colors and our company’s expertise, I incorporated design elements that alluded to animation and movement alongside the very obvious ping pong paddles and balls to play up all of our strengths. We even coordinated our t-shirt with matching socks, headband and wristbands. And yes, we did win again this year and we looked great too.
Yes! I love Oreo projects! With vibrant colors and playful imagery, I designed frames to emphasize metaphors of two things that cannot exist without the other. Just as a unicorn without a horn is just another horse, an oreo isn’t an oreo without real cocoa.
Designed at Laundry.
Stats on medicine are always boring, unless we can make it visually compelling! I used a infographic approach to inform potential patients on the benefits of using Humalong Kwikpen.
Designed at We Are Royale.
It’s really crazy how the simple act of breathing can have such profound effects on our body! It has the ability to calm our nerves, reduce stress, and improve focus and clarity. Here are a few frames exploring potential designs for characters and typography.
Designed for Stop Breathe Think.
You win some and you lose some. A pitch for Starbucks that didn’t win. Styleframes were based off Starbuck's Holiday cup design. Following the ribbon hand throughout one seamless camera movement, I illustrated vignettes of Holiday cheer: a dad and son putting up Christmas ornaments, sending Christmas cards to your loved ones, wherever they may be, and shopping for presents with your little ones.
Designed at We Are Royale.
The Toyota Music 2017 Campaign is Toyota’s opportunity to push their creative boundaries. Under this banner, they are constantly experimenting with different looks. We brought together our creative thinking and collaborative spirit to illustrate a vibrant and playful environment surrounded by the theme of music. I was tasked to design the characters for this spot, based on Gordon Waltho’s winning pitch styleframe (frame 2), which were applied for each of the design directions by different artists.
Designed at We Are Royale
Character Design: Angie Son
Styleframes: Angie Son (f1, f3), Rury Lee (f4), Gordon Waltho (f2), Brandon Lee Smith (f5), Patrick Clarke (hands)
With Dropbox, you can take your files with you anywhere. So no matter where you are or what happens to your phone, you can keep your files safe, share files and work together.
This project was all designed in illustrator with custom brushes to create this “sketchbook” look. I’ve only included the frames that I helped design. Watch the video and drool over the seamless transitions that brought this project to life!
Designed at Buck.
Creative Direction: Jenny Ko
Design: Angie Son, Zach Graham, Audrey Lee, Jenny Ko, Nick Iluzada, Kenesha Sneed
Dove wanted to launch a campaign for positive body image. As women, we’re bombarded by ads and magazines with heavily edited photos... and we buy into unrealistic expectations of what we should look like. We’re faced with a lot of criticisms and judgement about our physical appearance… not just from others, but especially ourselves! Let’s be kinder to ourselves and kinder to others. As women, we need to lift each other up and celebrate our differences.
Designed at Psyop.
We were tasked with creating 5 explainer videos targeted towards doctors to explain the benefits of prescribing Trulicity to patients. Since this product was geared towards a diversity of patients who suffer from high blood sugar, I designed characters that reflect different body types and used a neutral skin color that was more inclusive and relatable.
Each of the 5 videos followed the life of one of the characters to portray the different themes: 1. How to help patients get the control they need. 2. How to identify the right patient. 3. How to introduce your patient. 4. How to achieve efficacy. 5. How to achieve efficacy with fewer compromises.
Since the timeline was pretty quick, we wanted a style that was easy to animate in 2D and allowed slight variations from frame to frame but allowed us to reuse elements to save time.
Designed for We Are Royale.
Optum helps modernize the healthcare system and empower individuals to take control of their own health. No matter who you are, or what you do, healthcare should be easily accessible. Taking inspiration from their colorful and geometric Optum logo, I explored some potential character designs for this pitch and a few design frames. I envisioned these graphic shapes to transform, mask and reveal the next set of designs to create magical seamless transitions.
Designed at Gentleman Scholar.
Designed at We Are Royale.
Let’s face it, we’ve all had those times when we needed to borrow some milk or wanted to find out when the construction two doors down was ever going to end. Nextdoor is the solution! It’s an app for neighbors to communicate with each other.
Because the app centers around various types of neighbors and their needs, diversity was crucial to the character design. And since Next Door has such a strong brand identity already, I had to make sure that the new characters still felt on brand with their previous illustrations. I loved that Nextdoor stressed the importance of diversity. I think we ended up with some fun characters oozing with personality and diverse in ethnicities!
Designed at Nextdoor.
A pitch for Amazon Prime’s live NFL stream.
To keep the images on brand with Amazon Prime, I took inspiration from the painterly swoosh designed under the logo. Using that same language, I also paired simple black and white photography with bold typography to create a commercial, hip, and masculine look geared towards NFL live stream viewers. Whether you find the commercial on TV, or find images on the banner of Amazon Prime, you can’t miss its striking bold look.
Designed for Loyalkaspar
BNY Mellon is an investment management company. With the script provided, I used the BNY Mellon’s yellow and grey logo, which looks like an arrow, to drive the design. Because the script was very information heavy, I took an infographic approach to create elegant visuals that alluded to the company’s logo and branding.
Designed for Gentleman Scholar.
Tradestation is an online brokerage and trading tech company. They interviewed and recorded real live clients talking about their experiences in using the platform to invest. Using their brand colors, I designed frames with an infographic approach to convey the client’s words, while illustrating the company’s high tech systems with visuals that alluded to UI/UX design, charts, and electronic computer systems.
Designed at Gentleman Scholar.
Based on the look of Fishfinger agency’s characters, I designed a series of illustrations to tell the tale of Chef and his best friend, Dave the duck. It all begins when Dave stumbles on a temple where the great spirit of Fishfinger prophesied two heroes saving the them from the Fisherman's doom. After going on a great adventure running from boulders and fighting off Krakens, they fulfill their prophecy. Eternally grateful, the fishfingers' share their riches and creativity, and together they founded the creative agency, Fishfinger.
Designed at Fishfinger
Creative Direction: Petros Afshar
Art Direction: Angie Son
Design: Angie Son
