Gogo’s back! This time fully animated for the Holiday travel season. “The Flight Before Christmas” comes on the heels of our previous work for Gogo’s successful broadcast campaign. Referencing a cartoon style, we designed, illustrated, and animated Santa’s journey. By making subtile use of 3D, we added depth to the richly illustrated world of Gogo’s holiday tale.
We love telling genuine stories and we love The Doughnut Vault, so we made a short film documenting the sights and sounds of our neighbor’s new shop – just up the street from us on Franklin.
It’s internet! In the sky! On the heels of a complete brand redesign, Gogo, the world’s leading provider of inflight connectivity, approached Mode Project to be a creative partner for post-production on their first national broadcast and web campaign. Mode provided Gogo’s in-house creative team with one-stop service, handling all facets of post-production including creative editorial, motion design, color correction and audio mix supervision. Shot in Los Angles with the Arri Alexa, the spots were edited, color-corrected and finished at Mode’s studio in Chicago. Gogo’s new branding uses simplified designs, clean lines, and has an optimistic spirit which is reflected in Mode’s end tag animations.
Partnering with our friends at LKK Partners, Mode Project worked on the animation for the UN Foundation’s Girl Up video. We created versions for multiple platforms including broadcast, web, mobile, and out-of-home viewing. The Girl Up campaign was created to educate adolescent girls in the United States about what life is like for their peers in developing countries.
Since the launch of the campaign, over 200,000 girls across the U.S. have signed up. The program was featured on the VH1 “Do Something” Awards and most recently on the PBS Newshour. Girl Up was awarded a Gold Pollie for best non-broadcast video in 2010.
The Palm Pre’s multitasking ability was one of the unique aspects we wanted to highlight in this piece. We lit and animated the smartphone in 3D, making it look streamlined and polished while showcasing the advanced features and clean design of its user interface.
Our mission for this brand video was to feature the sleek, stylish lines and rich colors of Maytag’s top of the line washer and dryer. Our design team used bold 3D type and subtle reflections in the products’ glass surfaces in order to highlight the products’ selling points.
Y&R asked us to develop visual concepts for Sears’ ”The Big Switch” initiative, which was aimed at helping families remove and recycle millions of inefficient appliances from the energy grid. We produced simple animations and clean illustrations which fit the eco-friendly theme of the campaign.
As the world’s largest online shoe seller, Zappos.com is all about choice. We took the Zappos online experience and translated it to video using 3D animation. The animation gives the viewer a sense of how quickly a shopper can sample the nearly endless choices and options available with Zappos.
Our team was enlisted to help tell the story, using animation and live-action, of an eight-year-old boy who had been abandoned by his parents and with the help of a CASA volunteer, adopted into a loving family. The spot makes use of an imaginary world of paper cut-outs which place the boy and the volunteer firmly in the center of a whirlwind of court proceedings, lawyers and multiple foster homes.
Mode Project was presented with this opportunity via design studio Thirst/Chicago on behalf of EPIC (Engaging Philanthropy Inspiring Creatives), an organization which helps top-tier creative talent join forces with nonprofit clients. “Mode Project totally made Kelly Butler’s script come to life in this incredible video hybrid that is obviously digital but remarkably analog in spirit. I love this Mode brand of innocence!” said Thirst’s founder and design director, Rick Valicenti.
Credits:
Agency: EPIC
Agency Liaison: Thirst/Chicago, Rick Valicenti
Writer: Kelly Butler
Production Company: Mode Project
CG Modeling and Animation: Mode Project
Director of Photography: Derick Smith
Stylist: Pamela Dawn
Music: The Mayfair Workshop
Sound Design: Vagabond Audio
Summertime is a great time to “Search for the Coldest”. The Coldest MC-that is. When Coors Light launched a national competition for finding the “Coldest MC in America”, Chicago agency commonground enlisted Mode Project as it’s content partner for the multi-platform effort targeted at the next generation of MC’s. We created a :15 national television spot seen on the NBA playoffs, web content, iPad videos and live event projections. The interactive iPad videos played in custom-built “ice cold” kiosks which were deployed at four live events around the country.
Some 750,000 people pass through New York City’s Grand Central Terminal daily. So when Ogilvy asked us to create animations which would be seen on a giant screen there as a component of UPS’s “We Love Logistics” global ad campaign, we were happy to help out. We took Oglivy’s creative elements, icons and typography and built a short animated story designed to show how logistics can bring competitive power to UPS customers.
By creating clean vector art of environmental vignettes, we constructed this video inspired from the client’s initial print campaign designed by our friends at Pivot Design. Mode Project built a 2D world and transports the viewer through various scenarios representing sanitary, modern spaces.
twoxfour asked Mode Project to bring Grainger’s brand messaging to life in an engaging web video. Mode took the iconic Grainger box and used it as a three-dimensional stage, coordinating text animation and graphical elements. The result was a great mix of 2D animation mapping and momentum that carried throughout the piece.
With the release of Nintendo’s Super Mario Galaxy 2 around the corner, Leo Burnett / Arc Worldwide came to Mode Project with a delightful assignment: develop bookends for upcoming sneak previews of previously unreleased game play footage to be showcased at youtube.com/wii. This rich media content, made to look like transmissions from Mario himself, were released in small segments to build anticipation and excitement about the game. Building upon visual elements provided by Leo Burnett / Arc Worldwide, Mode created a customized analog static, awesome broken color bars and a spectral soundscape that complemented the visuals perfectly. The staticky fuzz and visualizer we animated bring a sense of real transmission interference to the footage: as the visualizer slides into frame and struggles to transmit back to Earth, the animated galaxy map reflects which message is being transmitted.
twoxfour approached Mode Project to create a text-based animation that would inform viewers about the Bridgestone/Firestone partnership with Meals on Wheels. The resulting short film increased employee awareness about senior hunger and encouraged their participation in the program. Music by Mayfair Recordings. Mode Project composed the design elements, in addition to providing animation and editorial, which resulted in an emotional response from the client. Awww.
A short collection of our animation and design work:
Enjoy!
With only a couple of Jib-Jab movies and the website for inspiration, Mode Project had The Escape Pod covered by taking the reins on conceptualization of design elements that upped the cheer factor. Even with a quick turn-around, we delivered this package just in time for the holidays.
To promote the *ecko brand watch, Niche, for in-store and web use, our designers take you on a journey of the inner workings of what make the Nitch tick. Production, direction, design, animation and music by Mode project.
After casting Chicago’s own Steven St. John, aka, Stytches, he became the muse for this piece as our 3D designers created an industrial environment complete with over-sized sewing machines, schematic animations, and stylized street-ware. “Stytches” became successful branded integration for in-store and web use for *ecko.
We took Pod’s logo and created a 3D animation that conveys their process of collaborative production. The visualization of elements growing and building upon each other symbolizes the bringing of creative conception to reality.
DDB Worldwide asked us to create an integrated collateral campaign for their sponsored presentation of David Plouffe’s ‘The Art of the Possible” at the 2009 Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival.
The main component of the integrated campaign was a short film that introduced David Plouffe. To create this film, we reviewed over 400 hours of election-related footage. Bringing compelling moments together with subtle yet stirring graphic treatments, we wove together the story of Plouffe’s innovative and galvanizing campaign and the historic election of Barack Obama.
Additional elements of the integrated campaign included print elements and a web banner.
Yes, it was as cold as it looks while shooting this promo for the documentary, “Ballhawks.” We took advantage of the blizzard conditions, strapped on our snow pants, and headed out to Wrigley. We finally thawed out back at Mode Project during the edit. You can stay up to date with the film at ballhawksmovie.com .
We didn’t break the bank while designing this numerical flurry of an animated intro for JPMorgan Chase’s wealth management software package, VIEWS.
“Puppetry is what Mode Project does best.” That’s not a real quote, but we really did have a great time creating the frenetic world of a Japanese Game Show as seen from the perspective of a miniature Kellogg’s Corn Pop. When our friends at Leo Burnett came to us with the assignment to create web content, they gave us free reign to handcraft each element of the set, choreograph the stunts, design the on-screen graphics and shoot away to our heart’s content. It’s unknown whether or not they expected us to come up with such gems as “It’s Splashtime!.” Pure genius, I tell you.
Razorfish needed web content for the AT&T “Digital Lifestyle Center.” Mode Project handled the live action production, editorial, and motion design for this series of AT&T product demos. Fast-forward a few months and the site gets nominated for a SXSW Interactive Festival Web Award in the Motion Graphics category. Boo yah!
Mode Project crated show titles that introduce categories, nominees, and presenters for the 2008 Chicago Creative Club Awards, a show honoring the vest advertising work form the Windy city in the past year. TwoxFour asked us to help with motion design for the event. We had a short turn around time and our content would be changing up until the last minute. Visual inspiration came from that year’s theme, ‘You are the Show’ weaving community and individual importance. Using Processing, an open-source programming platform, the system became a living thing that we could control. We used a custom-designed interface to perform the piece live, in real-time. We chose to work with Mark Greenberg at Mayfair Workshop to compose the original music for this piece.
This project is an internal experiment in data visualization, video capture, interactivity and pure nostalgia. We see it as a chance to get people thinking about design and interactivity in a different way. We’re still in research and development, but we needed an opportunity to test some ideas using Processing. What better way to do that than with slot-cars? We worked on some code, put some track together, and invited some agency friends to burn some rubber on the Mode Project test circuit. The speed and lap count data of the cars were reflected visually as output. Check out more R&D here.
For these documentary titles we captured the spirit of the Louder Than A Bomb competition as well as the individual poets featured in the film by Siskel/Jacobs. The animations introduce layers of type and images that relate to the constant state of writing, revision, and performance. For more information about the award-winning film and upcoming screenings, visit louderthanabombfilm.com We wish Siskel/Jacobs and “Louder Than A Bomb” continued luck on the festival circuit.
In December of 2006, David Axelrod, chief political strategist for Barack Obama, asked us to create the logo for Obama’s presidential campaign. Wanting to transcend the conventions of traditional campaign branding, Mode Project directed project manager Sol Sender in the development and design of this iconic symbol of new beginnings and change. Soon to be recognized across the country, it was unveiled February 10th, 2007 as Obama announced his candidacy for the presidency.
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press
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Here are a few links to press the mark has received:
“Brand Obama, a leader in the image war,” New York Times, 04.04.08
“Why the Obama Brand is Working,” Newsweek, 02.27.08
“The Hardest Working Presidential Candidate Logo,” SpeakUp, 01.03.08
“The Obama Brand : A Retrospective,” Oberholtzer Creative Group, 11.07.08
Sparked by the grass roots nature of the Obama campaign, Mode Project conceptualized and designed this spot featuring user-generated content with 2&3D animation.
Mode Project found the most compelling moments amongst tons of footage to develop ‘featured documentaries’ for Sunsilk’s “Life Can’t Wait” interactive campaign. In only 2 weeks, twenty-four interview-driven shorts were cut. The website was flooded with votes and the winner, DJ Tatiana, won a feature documentary. Editorial and title animation by Mode Project.
Mode Project can throw one hell of a party! If you weren’t there, we’re sorry you missed it. We completely branded and designed the Chicago Table Tennis Classic. It had everything you’d want: free food, free liquor, free swag and hours of sweaty table tennis action. Combine all that with closed-circuit video feeds, motion design and live video mixing and you might consider TIVO-ing “Two and Half Men” the next time we host an event.
Working with Razorfish, Mode Project produced, directed, and edited all video content for the Planter’s “Manstincts” website (which was promoted during Planter’s super bowl ad). No need for a prop shop since Mode Project employees lent items from home to create the typical suburban garage setting for the shoot. A set of clamps and a pair of bolt cutters still remain missing.
3D animation inspired by the clothing artwork and brand components evolved into the pieces “Street” and “Sport,” which exemplify the brand DNA. The result was brand integrated content for in-store and web use for *ecko. Production, direction, design, animation and music by Mode Project.