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Keyframes: Turning Points in Motion Graphic Design
A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of the Motion Media Design Department in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Fine Arts Savannah College of Art and Design
By
Alysa Marie Story
Atlanta, Georgia August 2010
Table of Contents
Table of Contents ...... i Abstract...... ii Introduction...... 1 Why...... 2 Review of Literature...... 3 Results...... 16 Discussion ...... 18 Conclusion ...... iii Appendix I ...... v Biographies of People Interviewed...... v Appendix II...... xvi A timeline overview of motion graphics ...... xvi Bibliography ...... xix Works Cited ...... xix Filmography...... xxiii
Abstract
In this paper and documentary I seek to illustrate how motion graphic design has evolved in the United States from the period of early television graphics to current forms of motion media design. Changes in the field of television graphics and motion graphic design were mostly sparked by innovation in computer graphics, animation and film.
During the early 80’s and 90’s, when television graphics utilized sophisticated computer technology that was expensive and exclusive, the introduction of desktop publishing and desktop video made an almost immediate change to the profession.
There is a distinct lack of written material on the history of motion graphic design, especially relating to television graphics from the 1970’s to current forms of motion media design, and what material there is tends to be rather superficial. After gathering bits of research from existing books on film, animation, graphic design and computer graphics history, a roughly drawn timeline was formed. By building on previous research and using first hand interviews, this paper and documentary attempt to give an overview of the evolution of motion graphic design and the key turning points that helped to shape it. The film is a compilation of opinions and observations from a small sampling of professionals who were involved in the motion design industry from the 1970’s to present times. These key frames in time are lessons that can be valuable to the future of motion graphic design.
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Introduction
This paper and documentary will seek to discuss some of the significant turning points in the evolution of motion graphic design in the United States from television graphics in the 1970’s to current forms of motion media design. It is an attempt to summarize pivotal changes in motion design in recent decades. The film is a compilation of opinions and observations from a small sampling of professionals who were involved in the motion design industry during that time period.
In my humble opinion this is just the tip of the iceberg. There are so many historical facts and references about the origins and milestones of motion graphic design that the subject could fill a textbook. Though there is a distinct lack of written material on the subject, many motion design professionals agree that a series of pivotal turning points have shaped the industry into what it is today. Changes in the field of television graphics and motion graphic design were mostly sparked by innovation in computer graphics, animation and film. During the early 80’s and 90’s, when television graphics utilized sophisticated computer technology that was expensive and exclusive, the introduction of desktop publishing and desktop video made an almost immediate change to the profession. These key frames in time are lessons that can be valuable to the future of motion graphic design.
This overview of the history of motion graphic design from the television graphics perspective will include references to key points from related disciplines such as motion graphics for film title sequences and commercial advertising. Most important are the firsthand accounts of some professional motion graphic designers provided by personal interviews.
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Through this paper, I will document the creation of my documentary: why it was created, how it was created and whom I interviewed.
Why
A generalized description of motion graphic design is: a design discipline that incorporates elements of graphic design, animation, film and video. It is a time-based visual media that can be applied to film title sequences, experimental animation, commercial graphics, music videos, interactive and presentation media, DVD and broadcast television graphics. It incorporates network branding and shows packaging graphics, bumps, interstitials, mortises and lower-third elements. It is a hybrid of graphic design that encompasses elements from many other art forms such as: illustration, painting, photography, film and cinema, typography, commercial art (now known as advertising and graphic design) and computer animation.
Motion graphic design, in some form, has been around since the turn of the century but many believe that it received much more recognition as a form of graphic design in the 1950’s1. It has been very influential in television branding, commercials and movie titles sequences. With the emergence of the Internet and other media, motion graphic design continues to evolve. However, for future students, educators and design enthusiasts, it is important to pay homage to the past and to learn about significant changes in the industry in order to be better prepared for what is to come.
There are not many historical reference books or films about motion graphic design, but some of the people that were involved with the industry in the late 70’s and 80’s are
1 Elif Ayiter, "The History of Visual Communication - The Computer." Citrinitas, under “Motion Graphics,” http://www.citrinitas.com/history_of_viscom/computer.html (accessed May 17, 2010).
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still quite active in shaping its future. I wanted to capture their candid observations and experiences. What motivated them to choose this line of work? Who or what inspired them? What was their first job? How have they seen motion graphic design evolve? A documentary of interviews could be useful as an educational tool for current and future students of the craft and serve as a time capsule of American culture.
Thus began a quest for documenting the stories of some motion graphic designers and attempting to retell the period of change that occurred from 1970s-2000s. This is only from the perspective of motion graphic design in the U.S., focusing on American motion design in television and after the introduction of computer graphics.
Review of Literature
There is a distinct lack of written material on the history of motion graphic design, especially relating to television graphics from the 1970’s to current forms of motion media design, and what material there is tends to be rather superficial. For instance, Jon Krasner’s Motion Graphic Design, Applied History and Aesthetics, provides a brief overview of the field, but fails to offer a synopsis of the significant historical contributions of broadcast design and television graphics, nor does it provide for graphic design history and it’s influences in motion design.2 There is a strong need to document and anthologize the historical aspects of motion graphic design in the United States.
The Krasner book briefly touches on the subject of motion graphics in television as simply being another medium. Although he credits the work of Harry Marks and
Douglass Trumball for bringing cinematic qualities to television graphics, he does very little to chart the history of that medium other than to describe some of the on-screen
2 Jon Krasner, Motion Graphic Design, Applied History and Aesthetics, 2nd Edition (New York: Focal Press, 2008).
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elements utilized in network branding3. For the last few decades, television, film, commercial advertising, experimental animation and music videos have shared a common connection to motion design. Along with television, these mediums have shared similar historical turning points and design methodologies. As Marshall McLuhan has said “the medium is the message”.4 Those turning points are included in a period from the
1970’s through the 1990’s when many of these mediums were impacted by the prevalence of computer graphics technology, the desktop revolution and the accessibility of personal computers.
Overall, I believe that Motion Graphic Design, Applied History and Aesthetics is structured to give only a brief history of motion graphics and its early practices and pioneers in order to further justify the chapters on “putting motion graphics into practice”.5 It is not meant to discuss the changes in the industry that could impact current and future business practices, nor is it meant to elaborate on the achievements and valuable lessons of the television era at a time when the principles of design and technology came face-to-face. Even the famous Kyle Cooper was quoted in Krasner’s book as saying,
Ten years ago, I tried to write my thesis in graduate school on main titles and they told me that it wasn’t a weighty enough topic, and it wasn’t really taught. Now I would be hard-pressed to find a curriculum in any school that didn’t factor in motion graphics into a graphic design education.6
In my film, my interviewees talked about early influences and designing things like election sets, sales collateral and supporting the on-air promotion departments. But
3 Ibid, 21. 4 Marshall McLuhan, Understanding Media; the Extensions of Man (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1964), 25. 5 Krasner, vi. 6 Ibid, 21.
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moving past technique and application, as visual communicators, these motion designers have transcended the boundaries of the screen that once defined them and have embraced their roles as communicators and storytellers. Their training in typography, illustration, graphic design, advertising and film has prepared them for the future of motion media design and has left a firm mark on the craft. Several of the interviewees discussed the influence of Lou Dorfsman, Saul Bass and Bob Greenberg. For instance, Doug Grimmett discusses working at CBS under the leadership of Lou Dorfsman7, who developed a graphic design methodology for branding everything that had to do with CBS. His design style touched everything from TV ads to tune-in time on the air. Following in his footsteps were many young graphic designers who adopted his method of establishing clear television network brands. Steve Vardy, of CBS, and Ralph Famiglietta, an NBC creative director who did graphics during the 1991 Gulf War, also utilized Dorfsman’s network branding style. The book, Second Front: Censorship and Propaganda in the
1991 Gulf War, describes the process of conceptualizing a story while maintaining the network brand:
Television producers use graphics to create certain moods as well as to provide information. But there is not much time in which to do this – three or four seconds at most – and this forces designers to eliminate complex issues and boil the news story down to its essence. There simply isn't room for lengthy explanations.8
Steve Vardy illustrates some of the basic elements of on-air television graphics created for the “Showdown in the Gulf”, CBS's signature graphic heralding the start of the war, a prize winning Quantel animation, featuring a map and a animated radar sweep
7 Doug Grimmett, personal interview, June 18, 2009. 8 John R. MacArthur and Ben H. Bagdikian, Second Front: Censorship and Propaganda in the 1991 Gulf War (Berkeley: University of California, 2004), 82.
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[inside a stylized CBS eye]”9. Television used to be the training ground for designers to cut their “conceptualization” teeth. This is an important factor in motion graphic design, which distinguishes the motion designer from being just a technical illustrator or computer operator.
From the information that I gathered from in my film, broadcast designers of the past saw themselves as graphic reporters, translating a story into visuals. They went on to develop clear branding and design methods, visualizing the overall strategy even after television was no longer their medium of delivery.
Although, Krasner’s book summarizes with a historical perspective on the importance of the Cubists and Constructivist painters as well as modern painters like Piet
Mondrian on design, grid and layout, he says that these painters explored, “ways to extend their content beyond the confines of the frame, which lead to the absence of boundaries.”10
In my film, Jeff Boortz and Jeff Doud discussed how they see motion media design pushing beyond the limits of the screens that have defined it. With advances in technology and integrated branding, the possibilities of creative content go way past the television and computer screens.
Though it is difficult to find a book that remains timeless throughout the fast- paced world of changing technology, Professional Video Graphic Design by Ben Blank and Mario Garcia provides specific historical reference of the impact of television in motion design:
9 Ibid, 83. 10 Krasner, 229, 231, 234.
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This book is aimed at persons involved in or being trained in the visual aspects of television production and related fields. More specifically, it is a text for video graphic designers.11
Video graphic design was another name for broadcast graphic design and television graphics. Blank, considered an “Innovator of Graphics for TV News”, was a Creative
Director for both CBS and ABC from the 1950’s through the 1990’s. As Walter Cronkite once said about the designer, “He was, indeed, a pioneer of television graphics at a time when his artistry and genius were all we had to demonstrate a complicated story.”12
Though the book covers some of the basic elements of television graphics, it is informative, providing a glimpse into the process of designing for the specific screen of television. Blank was a craftsman when it came to the over the shoulder news graphic, which he called the “think-quick visual”.13 This book seems to verify some of the experiences that the subjects in my film expressed when they reminisced back to a time of hand-made graphics, using press down type and rubylith, then using 35mm slides and character generators. One chapter explains the importance of “symbolic thinking” as a tool of the trade. Blank and Garcia elaborate on the conceptual thinking process,
Let the words give way to the visuals. Read the script carefully, paying particular attention to words that imply movement (up, down, sideways, parallel); action (conflict, clash, ultimatum, struggle); color (red tide, yellow journalism, black/white); and texture (fuzzy, velvety, rough, soft).14
Together, Blank and Garcia hoped to solidify “functional and effective principles of designing for the screen, [which] are common to all video systems, including film.”15
11 Ben Blank and Mario R. Garcia, Professional Video Graphic Design (New York: Prentice Hall, 1986). 12 Steven Heller, "Ben Blank, Innovator of Graphics for TV News, Dies at 87." The New York Times, February 18, 2009, http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/18/arts/television/18blank.html (accessed March 4, 2009). 13 Ibid. 14 Blank and Garcia, 9. 15 Ibid, 3.
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Twenty years ago this book was considered “the standard text for anyone interested in broadcast graphics”.16 I find it prophetic, however, that the authors acknowledge the turning point that was just beginning to happen at the time the book was written,
One should explore all systems before deciding to purchase…. It is probable that the growth of the field will level off and the strongest [systems] will emerge to dominate the market.17
They go into detail about how systems like Quantel, ADDA, Vidifont, Genegraphics and
Ampex ADO have “relieved the graphics departments of much of the drudgery of creating graphics”, but offer these words of caution:
Artists should be aware not to sacrifice originality, simplicity, and directness for efficiency…. Computer-generated graphics have also become part of an “electronic publishing” revolution that is dramatically changing the way in which traditional newspaper content becomes accessible.18
Though they could not see just what kind of an impact the desktop revolution would have, clearly this book was written ahead of it’s time.
During my research I found two books by Douglas Merritt that present a detailed analysis of motion design as it relates to television. Television Graphics: from Pencil to
Pixel and Graphic Design in Television were published in 1987 and 1993, respectively19.
Both books cover significant contributions to television graphics and broadcast design, primarily focusing on TV networks in the U.K. While they briefly touch on the historical contributions of graphic design and film, these books discuss the development of video technology, computer graphics, programming content and the use of graphics to enhance and promote it. In Graphic Design in Television, Merritt talks more about production
16 Ibid, 5. 17 Ibid, 139. 18 Ibid. 19 Douglas Merritt, Graphic Design in Television (Oxford: Focal Press, 1993). Douglas Merritt, Television Graphics: From Pencil to Pixel (New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1987).
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techniques for computer-controlled rostrum cameras, digital video effects, character generators, digital paint systems, 3D computer animation, still stores, graphic editing devices, and motion control. Merritt poses the age-old question “How should graphic designers in the late twentieth century deal with television technology?” He explores the influences of Norman McLaren and Eduardo Paolozzi as being artists who fully embraced technical innovation. Merritt reveals some of McLaren notes on his experiments and quotes the animation filmmaker in saying:
If there is technical invention, a person with an artist’s nature is likely to do that thing and use it. We are getting young artists using computers to make a new kind of animation and a new type of film. That is only right and proper. That’s the way it should be. I know that if I had been growing up now I would have gone right in and tried to get hold of a computer and tried to do things with it.20
Merritt compiled a list of the television graphics tools before and after the introduction of the computer, noting the film animation work of post-production firms like English and
Pocket and stop-frame animation done by Aardman Animations. He admits that the stream of changes in technology readily affected the business of television graphics,
The study of the equipment that graphic designers in television have used for image making, animation and sequence editing can be divided into two periods… “BC”, before computers – [and] “AD”, aided-design.
He goes on to quote a 1989 Time Life article on Computer Basics:
Between 1975 and 1981, computer technology changed so profoundly that few years mark a watershed not just in the history of computers but in modern culture as a whole.21
Though my film concentrates on the significant turning points in American motion graphic design in television, Merritt’s books offer an interesting comparisons with British motion design history. Several of my interviewees spoke of the typesetting industry
20 Merritt, Graphic Design in Television, 38. 21 Ibid, 46.
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vanishing overnight due to a paradigm shift in technology. Merritt notes that the
Masseely press, which was used to proof type for use on caption cards and rollers, became obsolete by the late 1980’s. With typesetters going out of business on both continents, the craft of typesetting became the responsibility of the individual designer.
Again, Merritt’s writings confirm what many point out in my film about the shift in technology during the desktop video revolution. He harkens back to the aforementioned famous quote by Marshall McLuhan “The medium is the message”22 but goes on to quote him as saying, “Gutenberg made everybody a reader. Xerox made everybody a publisher.”23 He summarizes by saying,
Would he have suggested that the affordable camera makes everyone a television designer/film director and the desk-top computer generation of type makes everyone a typographer?24
Great question. In a personal phone interview, I talked with, Bill Dawson, a creative director whose career blossomed during the 1980’s and 1990’s. He talked about how classically trained graphic designers, like himself, were able to pick up the craft of digital typography because of their training but he believes some of the complexities of that particular discipline may have been lost along the way.25 Over time, I believe that motion designers have transcended the grips of technology, its benefits, its limitations, and its accessibility that has perhaps watered down the process of developing skill and craft.
In the words of the people that I interviewed, motion designers are visual communicators and storytellers. Creating motion graphic design for television before
22 Merritt, Graphic Design in Television, 74. 23 Ibid, 74. 24 Ibid, 74. 25 Bill Dawson, personal interview, July 30, 2010. Dawson is the founder and creative director for XK9 in Los Angeles. He also founded Two Headed Monster, was a creative director at Pittard Sullivan in the 1990’s and designed his own typeface called, megahertz.
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computer graphics seemed like the hard way to do things but it fueled their ability to create clear concepts and solutions for any screen. They stressed the importance of their training in television which was the basis for their careers in motion graphic design, from enhancing a brand through commercials, developing show packaging and film titles, to designing for any screen that may come in the future. Motion design has become an undefined medium, which is “not that much about television anymore”26.
In conclusion, it is evident that none of these books can truly serve as a complete canon of motion design history. There are many other books on the topic but they offer even less than the books that I have profiled. In 2001, Steven Heller and Georgette
Balance published Graphic Design History27, an anthology of essays from leaders in the graphic design community, which serves as a limited but multi-faceted record of the pioneers and events that helped shape graphic design in the twentieth century. In this same way, significant turning points in motion design history need to be recorded and documented by leading writers and designers. With the new century and recent groundbreaking innovations in technology, there is a need for further discussion about the changes in the industry that could impact current and future business practices, and to elaborate on the achievements and valuable lessons of the television era, providing insight from mistakes and accomplishments of the past. This effort could be useful for training and instruction, and more importantly, to legitimize and honor a rich past of creative innovation and visual communication.
26 Ellen Kahn, personal interview, June 19, 2009. 27 Georgette Ballance and Steven Heller, Graphic Design History (New York: Allworth Press, 2001).
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How
We cannot discuss the history of motion graphic design without mentioning the influence of television on American society. The evolution of media’s influence has been studied and pondered for decades as Erik Barnouw explains in Tube of Plenty:
Long before television, long before the broadcasting era, some of their possibilities were glimpsed. To understand our century, we must fully comprehend the evolution of television and its newest extraordinary offshoots.28
For members of the Baby Boom Generation, television graphics, shows, commercials and jingles were as familiar as nursery rhymes. Just as Carl Sandburg once said:
The Impact of television on our culture is just indescribable. There’s a certain sense in which it is nearly as important as the invention of printing.29
Before computer graphics came into play, television networks employed graphic designers to develop and maintain their visual image through branding and to supplement their on-air newscasts. Along with television’s influence, graphic design history, though relatively short compared to the fine arts, is very closely intertwined with motion graphic design. Studying Steven Heller’s Book Graphic Design History30 and Philip B. Meggs’s
A History of Graphic Design31, I was able to gain a contextual overview of the pioneers of modern graphic design and typography and started to draft a timeline of chronological events that shaped the evolution of motion graphic design.
Tracing back through the multicultural heritage of motion graphic design, it is necessary to look at the history of film and animation. If motion graphic design were a time-based visual media it would have to be deeply rooted in filmmaking and animation
28 Erik Barnouw, Tube of Plenty: The Evolution of American Television (New York: Gramercy, 1991), 12. 29 Norm Goldstein, History of Television (New York: Portland House, 1991), 10. 30 Ballance and Heller. 31 Philip B. Meggs and Alston W. Purvis, A History of Graphic Design, 4th ed. (New York: Wiley, 1998).
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doctrine, culture and technique. Just prior to the twentieth century, devices like the zoetrope and the praxinoscope sparked tremendous curiosity in images that could move, but it was the invention of the camera that created film and animation, thus revolutionizing storytelling, thus setting the stage for motion graphic design.32 These same influences also led to computer animation and its own evolution. Experimental artists like Lyn Lye, John Whitney (who was the first to use the term “motion graphics”) and Nam June Paik, started playing with video images and motion from the 1930’s –
1980’s.
During my course work at SCAD, I studied documentaries such as: The
Corporation33, Milton Glaser: To Inform and Delight34, Gary Hustwit’s films, Helvetica and Objectified35, PBS’s Art & Copy36 and Lynda.com’s Creative Inspirations: Harry
Marks37. While some of these types of films hope to leave the viewer with a call to action, others are expository: retelling a story for the purposes of historical record. I found this to be true in The Story of Computer Graphics38, which was produced by SIGGRAPH in
1999. The film discusses a series of chronological events, which led to the proliferation of computer graphics that in turn led to major developments in motion graphic design.
32 Jon Krasner, Motion Graphic Design, Applied History and Aesthetics, 2nd Edition (New York: Focal Press, 2008). 33 Mark Achbar and Jennifer Abbott, Directors, The Corporation, 2003. 34 Wendy Keys, Director, Milton Glaser: To Inform and Delight, 2008. 35 Gary Hustwit, Director, Helvetica, 2007 and Objectified, 2009. 36 Doug Pray, Director, Art & Copy, 2009. 37 “Creative Inspirations: Harry Marks: Broadcast Design,”Lynda.com, http://www.lynda.com/home/DisplayCourse.aspx?lpk2=47027. (accessed May 19, 2009). 38 Frank Foster, Director, The Story of Computer Graphics, 1999.
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In the Creative Inspirations interview series that highlights the contributions of
Harry Marks,
considered by many to be the godfather of broadcast design, more than any other individual, he changed television by doing things with graphics that had never been attempted before. Not only did he pioneer the use of emerging imaging technologies, but also he did so with style and reason. His pioneering work in the field of CGI brought him into collaboration with many other industry pioneers, including Douglas Trumbull, Robert Abel, Carl Rosendahl (whose company evolved into DreamWorks Animation), and Dale Herigstad. In the early ’80s, Marks had the idea of bringing together people who work in the disparate fields of technology, entertainment, and design, so he partnered with Richard Saul Wurman and the TED Conference was born.39
After watching a series of candid interviews in 20 Outstanding Los Angeles
Designers40 by California State University Professor Archie Boston, I made it my mission to interview, what I believe, are some of the trailblazers in motion graphic design history.
In 2009, the PROMAX41 Press Office allowed me to volunteer during their annual conference in June, in exchange for the having the space to interview some prominent individuals involved in the motion graphic design industry (see Appendix I). It was truly a privilege to document individuals so accomplished and noted for their work.
As I talked casually with the interviewees, my cinematographer, Carl Marxer, filmed them on HD video. Everyone was very cooperative and in agreement that there isn’t a cohesive historical record on the subject of motion design. I also talked to and filmed quite a few more people who were involved in the motion design industry over the past couple of decades. They were asked a series of questions to get the conversation
39 Lynda Weinman, “Wild about Harry.” Lynda.com Blog. Entry posted May 22, 2009, http://blog.lynda.com/2009/05/22/wild-about-harry/ (accessed May 22, 2009). 40 Archie Boston, Jr., Director, 20 Outstanding Los Angeles Designers. 1987. 41 PROMAX is a non-profit, full-service, membership driven association for promotion and marketing professionals working in broadcast media. Established in 1956, under the name BPME, it joined forces with The Broadcast Design Association (BDA) in 1997, and holds annual conferences and awards competitions.
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started and we recorded everything and anything they wanted to say. The annual
PROMAX conference was the best place to conduct the interviews because it is a meeting place for people involved in television promotion, entertainment and motion graphic design. Conference attendance was relatively small compared to earlier years, but as Lori Pate said, “It makes for a much more intimate atmosphere to catch up with people you’ve associated with for years”.42
Why
The documentary focuses on major changes during the evolution of motion graphic design, specifically broadcast design, from the 1970’s through the present, so it was important to get personal viewpoints from credible professionals who worked in the industry during this period. My hope was that they would share what motivated them to get into this field, what has changed and how they’ve managed to withstand and embrace change.
My interviewees included43:
Brett Ashy, President and Principle, The Ashy Agency Doug Grimmett, Founder/Creative director, Primal Screen Jeff Doud, Executive Creative Director, R!OT Atlanta Linda Ong, Brand Builder, Truth Elaine Cantwell, Creative Director, Spark Lori Pate, Connector, Lori Pate+, Inc. Kendrick Reid, SVP and Executive Creative Director, Brand Strategy, BET Networks
42 Lori Pate, personal interview, June 18, 2009. 43 See Appendix I for more information on the credentials of each interviewee.
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NYC STUDIO TOUR Ellen Kahn, Creative Director, Co-Owner, Twinart Patrick McDonough, Creative Director, PMcD Design Ltd. Victor Newman, former Creative Director, Freestyle Collective
SAVANNAH/ATLANTA Jeff Boortz, Professor of Broadcast Design and Media Design at SCAD Tom Baker, Professor of Animation at Art Institute of Atlanta Miguel Muelle, Creative Director, Drawbridge, Atlanta
Results
After recording nearly 16 hours of footage, traveling to two cities and speaking with people all over the country, I felt I had gathered enough material to put together a reasonable account of the motion design industry during a pivotal time period. Searching for b-roll to go with my interviewed subjects was a bit more of a challenge. Footage from old formats and memories of linear editing, slides and press-type were melancholy but difficult to acquire.
In sewing together an account of pivotal changes in the field of motion graphic design, I found that it mirrored the lifecycle of most industries: A birth or merger, a learning/growth period, full of innovation and experimentation, reaching a plateau, and then a paradigm shift in which most industries must adapt and change or face a decline in growth.44
44 "The Life Cycle of a Business." Biz Plan Hacks, http://www.bizplanhacks.com/50226711/the_life_cycle_of_a_business.php (accessed January/February 2010).
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In the words of the people I interviewed, my documentary charts the beginnings of motion graphic design in the United States just before the proliferation of computer technology (from the learning/growth period) through the paradigm shift of desktop publishing, to an economic decline, and consequently a redefinition of terms.
In his book, Graphic Design in Television, Douglass Merritt, gives credit to trailblazers in the field for the changes that shaped it:
Graphic Design for television is youthful enough to have seen major changes in the traditional craft side of the business; everyone can feel they are ‘pioneers’. However, some people and events stand out as significant and influential …Saul Bass, because he was a catalyst for television design due to his inspired work for the film industry in the mid-1950s. Bernard Lodge is admired by his peers in Britain, and by designers abroad, as one of the most consistently creative graphic designers for television in the past twenty-five years. He has never let his acquisitive and penetrating interest in how things can be done take over before he has solved the design problems. Martin Lambie-Nairn led the breakaway from internal graphic designers within the television companies in the UK and became one of the first to set up an independent graphic design unit working for ITV and BBC.45
Other trailblazers like William Golden, Lou Dorfsman, Ben Blank, Georg Olden,
Scott Miller and Harry Marks, Richard Lee Dickinson, Lee Hunt, Maria LoConte, as well as companies like Bob Abel and Associates and the formidable Pitttard Sullivan were heating up the broadcast waves and film screens. New opportunities for expression, media and technology brought about new approaches to storytelling. A little word called branding was being used quite a bit. Broadcast graphics were starting to break away from just television. To quote David Greene on the importance of branding as the overall motivation for motion graphics,
To cut through the clutter and convey the message, whether it be to entertain or to promote, in the most effective way possible. There are a myriad of choices and technologies. …Embrace the art of motion in all of its current incarnations:
45 Merritt, Graphic Design in Television, 9-11.
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animation, film, CG special effects, and interactivity. To put images into motion and ideas into action is a celebration of the human spirit at it’s most elemental and beautiful.46
It’s at this time of innovation when I believe that broadcast design was starting its transition to its current form, motion graphic design. Many of the trailblazers in the industry were classically trained in graphic design, with a keen sense of typography, layout and color. Some were painters, traditional artists and sculptors looking to venture into the commercial arts. Most had never touched a computer in art school. In the 1980’s and 1990’s the buzz of excitement from the endless possibilities was palpable! Billy
Pittard once called this buzz, “The extreme sports decathlon of design”.47
Discussion
“What is design? It's where you stand with a foot in two worlds – the world of technology and the world of people and human purposes – and you try to bring the two together.” – Mitchell Kapor48
Among the many things that we discussed during the interviews, technology seemed to touch a nostalgic chord with everyone! Way before Adobe After Effects,
Flash, Maya and Cinema 4-D, doing motion graphics seemed to be the equivalent of chiseling type out of stone.
Miguel Muelle, Creative Director, Drawbridge, talks about the more traditional approach to television graphics in the late 70’s and early 80’s:
At this time, the way that you built news graphics was with Letraset, rub down lettering, photostats and transparencies…and if you needed to “grab” something you took your Polaroid camera and you went and found “something” and then you took a
46 Steve Curran, Motion Graphics Graphic Design for Broadcast and Film. (Gloucester, MA: Rockport Publishers, 2000), 3. 47 David Greene, How Did They Do That? Motion Graphics (Gloucester, MA: Rockport Publishers, 2003), 9. 48 Mitchell Kapor, "Mitchell Kapor Quotes." BrainyQuote, http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/m/mitchell_kapor.html (accessed September 9, 2009).
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picture of it and cut it out with an X-Acto knife. So, you’d put all this on paper and on acetate and then you’d give it to the floor guy, put it in front of the camera…. That’s the way you did it. So, this was broadcast design, but it wasn’t motion graphics, there was no motion involved.
I think it’s a privilege, really, that I was able to start in the business just when it was starting to change over from the manual, physical, putting things in front of the camera, to building them electronically, to then eventually building them using the Quantel Paintbox and eventually by now, to basically being able to do them from home on your laptop. I imagine next year I’ll have After Effects for my iPhone!
It’s been kinda crazy how it’s all changed. But that’s how I ended up getting into this thing and I really think it was a perfect time to learn about a brand new industry. Broadcast design was really just starting out.49
Computer technology can be your greatest aid or your biggest pitfall. What I’ve learned from some of the great designers in the industry is that technology without a really good idea is just a pile of pixels, not a picture. Motion graphic design has become more than just aesthetic beauty: people painted in gold, glassy logos, rich textures and visually dynamic typography. It is visual storytelling, branding and problem solving.
With a variety of choices available, technology came to enhance storytelling in unique ways.
When computer graphics were still in their infancy, television stations were combining more traditional arts with the emerging technology. Patrick McDonough,
Creative Director, Founder-Owner of PMCD Design, a New York-based motion graphics design firm, adds to Miguel Muelle’s story of early TV design,
Camera cards were … created pieces of art, whether it was collage or photography, that was then mounted on boards, placed on cork stands in a studio with a camera pointed to it and then electronically in the control room married an over-the-shoulder graphic to on-air talent. It was a very exciting time and we made the best of it; I guess all that non-technology was very technological at the time! It was coming in small steps… I think there’s always been this strange
49Miguel Muelle, personal interview, October 31, 2009.
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balance between the technology and the artistic endeavors…the technicians and the artists.
I think it’s always been how it’s done and is it appropriate and how does it fit and work to enhance the idea or the feeling or the overall creative direction to support a brand or a story or an idea or a feeling, and to always have that level of quality…
In all the best work that I’ve ever seen over the years, you can see that there’s an eye, there’s an artist, a soul attached to the work… and that’s what takes the technology to the next step for me.50
In the 1980’s and 1990’s the Quantel Paintbox became the industry standard for creating two-dimensional broadcast quality graphics. Nothing could match the quality of the airbrush. So many strides had been made in computer graphics that these machines claimed to have incredible WSYWIG51 and life-like drawing abilities. Quantel was to broadcast design what Xerox was to copiers. Other computer graphics machines couldn’t hold a candle to Quantel’s reputation. They also developed still stores and animation devices, which were integral in the progression of broadcast design. Similar devices such as the Ava and Aurora paintboxes were also used at the time by TV stations
The Paintbox was the original professional tool for graphic designers - designed by designers. It is not a computer graphics system and requires no knowledge of, or interest in, computers. The Paintbox was first launched in 1981 and created the market for video graphics - thanks to its continued development it continues to be the industry standard around the world. The original Paintbox is now known as the Classic Paintbox and has been widely replaced by the V-series system, which was introduced in 1989.52
This is not to say that there weren’t many other broadcast quality computers on the market during that time period. The Quantel Paintbox was a premium item,
50 Patrick McDonough, personal interview, June 19, 2009. 51 What You See Is What You Get. 52 "Classic Paintbox." Effect Systems, http://www.effect.co.uk/pages/products_classic_paintbox.htm (accessed May 10, 2009).
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manufactured in England and quite pricey to service. This gave some American companies the opportunity to develop cost-effective alternative paint systems.
As an offshoot from broadcast graphics, postproduction design firms began to pop up outside of the television realm. They dealt mostly with film title sequences, corporate presentations, design and visual effects for commercials and network packaging. Not having to make the intense deadlines of the evening news, they had more time to think about conceptual solutions and experiment with film and technology. One of the benchmarks in early motion design was the ability to create three-dimensional images that move. The Bosch FGS 4000 was a popular device used mostly by post-production firms. It was just one of the many 3D devices on the market at that time. Tom Baker, a
Professor of Animation at Art Institute of Atlanta, explains the excitement over this new computer technology,
Back then, there were very few of us, it wasn’t necessarily a private club, but it was an exclusive club, and the cost of entry was high. It was very demanding and very hard work, the hours were long, but everybody was really excited about what went on. Very early on there really was a Wild West, of how you do things. Everyone was inventing their own techniques and that’s pretty exciting. Now, it’s a lot less about inventing your own techniques, and much more about the work 53 itself, how it communicates and the graphic design itself.
Of course, big strides in other areas of computer graphics had already occurred all over the world. It was, and still is, an industry that is far-reaching and complex. Though utilized in a number of different industries, its impact on broadcast and motion design is distinct and groundbreaking. In Valliere Auzennes’ book, The Visualization Quest: A
History of Computer Animation, he discusses computer animation’s influence in mass media:
53 Tom Baker, personal interview, November 7, 2009.
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Computer animation’s introductory period encompasses the sequence of events representing this medium’s [sic] debut into the mass media. It covers computer animation’s launch into advertising, as well as its entry into the commercial film entertainment industry. Secondly, and equally significant, this era also marked the commencement of a great pursuit of realism.54
During many of these interviews, the conversation drifted from hands-on applied art and photography, to computer graphics and then motion. It was a time of learning and experimentation, rapid growth and showcasing skills and abilities. Everyone agreed that there started to be a pivotal shift in the industry during the Desktop Revolution.
In 1982, the Commodore 64, an 8-bit home computer, was introduced and Adobe, a new computer software company, was founded. Shortly after that, Wavefront
Technologies debuted the first commercially available 3D software package55. Apple released the first Macintosh computer, featuring bitmap graphics, in 198456. Video
Toaster by New Tek gave consumers the ability to edit video on equipment that was far less expensive and much more accessible. In 1993, After Effects version 1.0, created by
COSA (Company of Science and Art) was released, then sold to Aldus, then Adobe in
1994.57
Here’s what some of my interviewees had to say on the subject of shifting technology:
Doug Grimmett of Primal Screen spoke of a pivotal time in motion design:
What we call the desktop publishing revolution is where typesetters went out of business and where we saw the whole process of creating print design
54 Valliere Richard Auzenne, The Visualization Quest: A History of Computer Animation (Lewisburg, PA: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1994), 98. 55 Wayne E. Carlson, "A Historical Timeline of Computer Graphics." Ohio State University Department of Industrial, Interior, and Visual Communication Design, http://design.osu.edu/carlson/history/timeline.html (accessed May 10, 2009). 56 Ibid. 57 "Aldus Corporation." AbsoluteAstronomy, http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Aldus (accessed May 10, 2009).
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turned on it's head, where all this power sort of went into the hands of the designers that used to be done by lots of specialists. Well, I just knew it a matter of time when that would happen with video …the barriers collapsed…now using After Effects on Macs is, that's the way everything's done, pretty much.58
Jeff Boortz seemed to confirm Grimmett’s observations about a paradigm shift by saying:
I am glad that I lived at the time I did in this industry because I was straddling a paradigm shift. …all this technology is really a flash in the pan, you know: don't get too wedded to it because, I tell them the story about typesetters and how when I started at Pittard Sullivan in the mid eighties, '88, I think...I spec typed everyday, sent it out to a typesetter and used press-down type to mock up things in the meantime and then I would get the type back a couple hours later from the typesetter. While I was at Pittard, before I think, 1991, the Macintosh hit the scene, and I kid you not, in the space of two or three months an entire industry vanished. Typesetters evaporated from the face of the earth. Gone. Poof! It can happen again, you know?59
Jeff Doud summarized all of their points about a shift in technology:
History sort of compresses for you because this is really my 33rd year in this business, I've never really done anything other than what I'm doing now. The technology has changed dramatically of course, but the problem solving is still the same hack, we're still trying to figure out what the problem is and come to a solution on that and then do it in the most impressive manner, so I don't know, nothing's changed in that sense. Everything feels like yesterday.60
I gathered from many of the interviews that there was a golden age of motion graphic design after the paradigm shift, with smaller boutique design firms opening up the spectrum of creativity. BangBang Studio’s Rick Morris, who studied illustration and then made the transition to motion design in 1994, said, “The whole thing is getting more and more hybrid; it’s all about having a combination of skills.”61
58 Doug Grimmett, personal interview, June 18, 2009. 59 Jeff Boortz, personal interview, October 29, 2009. 60 Jeff Doud, personal interview, June 18, 2009. 61 Holly Willis, "The City in Motion." LA Weekly, February 4, 2005, http://www.laweekly.com/2005-02- 24/news/the-city-in-motion/1/. (accessed March 4, 2010).
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Despite the immense tragedy of 9/11 and its economic impact on many industries, motion graphic design started to pop up in new branches of media. In 2005 YouTube was created, and in 2006 both Motionographer and Joost launched, followed by Hulu in 2007.
All of these things, including DVR multiplexing and appointment viewing, essentially put the programming of entertainment smack into the hands of the masses.
I wrapped up each of my interview sessions by posing a question about the future of motion graphic design. We’ve seen how changes in computer technology and the economy have had an effect on the industry, what about the Internet and burgeoning media? Can future motion graphic designers learn a lesson from how quickly typesetters became obsolete? I didn’t want to draw any conclusions for the viewer but I believed that what they had to say was important, if not prophetic.
“What we have to look forward to in the future we can't even imagine right now”, said Ellen Kahn of Twin Art.62
Lori Pate drew upon her expertise with network branding when she commented on the future:
I think that what a network now needs to think about is, especially in launching or re-launching or rebranding, how do you embed their network brand in everything that's there is, so that it remains owned by them as it goes to, as it migrates to all these other screens. And I think that there's many different tactics in doing that. It goes back to my support for simplicity of visual, branding as a label so that it's quick and immediate. But it's also in the tone and the manner.63
According to Jeff Doud, motion graphic designers need to completely change their thought process:
We [need to] think of it as a total media experience. And it's tied to lot of different things. It's tied to the people that we know. It's tied to what we think about ourselves. It's tied to the entertainment experience that we would like to
62 Ellen Kahn, personal interview, June 19, 2009. 63 Lori Pate, personal Interview, June 18, 2009.
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have and it's a, it's a fully fleshed out media experience. We've got a ways to go with figuring out the business models and figuring out the visual and auditory experience, but we're going to get there. It's an easy stretch for us now. In 1998 it didn't seem like the idea of a computer and television were two completely different entities. We don't think about it that way any longer.64 Jeff Boortz summarized how motion graphic design has evolved and where it’s headed in this way:
I think that this is probably one of the most exciting times to be involved in any kind of motion media. Media in general, but motion media in particular because it's this strange fusing, I call it the Wild, Wild West because there's linear elements going out to interactive platforms. There's interactive elements coming into linear platforms and everything is kind of stirring around. Advertising is mixing with marketing, mixing with on-air promotion, mixing with content creation…. So that kind of strange fusion of [these] different goals, mixing advertising, promotion, network branding and content creation into one object is something that is very exciting to me. I think that is the future and it doesn't just have to be on television, it could be on the web or on local devices or whatever. I think the future is coming very quickly where video screens will cover entire walls and the video, the content that we create for us, for those different venues will be freed from having to exist within a rectangle. It can be free floating because the entire wall is video capable. So to me, that, that's a sort of a paradigm shift that when that happens. All the rules, the whole thing, it's going to break free and become a very exciting time again.65
In the brief time span since the interviews were conducted the future of motion graphic design is already being realized and will continue to evolve, taking on new media and new directions.
Each one of these interviews were rich in information and wisdom, from individuals who were generous with their time and resources and without them, I could not have made this film. There are many others that offered their insight, materials and help along that way and I wish to thank them all.
64 Jeff Doud, personal interview, June 18, 2009. 65 Jeff Boortz, personal interview, October 29, 2009.
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Conclusion
The purpose of this document was to discuss some of the key turning points in motion graphic design as it has evolved in the United States from the television era to current forms of motion media design. These ideas were expressed in the form of a documentary film, in which several people who are actively involved in the motion design field were interviewed. This document explained why it was created, how it was created and who was interviewed.
Industry professionals explained how their training in graphic design prepared them to get involved in television graphics, which later became known as broadcast design, which then, in turn, lead to motion graphic design. Their experiences led them through a more experimental route, using copy stands, press-type and photography to a time when computer graphics technology was introduced and then made more accessible.
In their own perspective, they recounted the impact of several paradigm shifts in technology, which changed the way motion graphic designers did business. Even more important than the changes in computer technology came a realization of their roles as visual storytellers.
These personal stories and observations line up the framework for a brief history of one aspect of motion graphic design and could form the basis for an anthology of the field, calling for more in-depth research and writings on the subject.
Where film and television used to be the conduit for delivering content, now the
Internet, cells phones, and media without borders seems to define motion graphic design.
It has weathered changes in the economy and technological innovations, while evolving into other forms, unique forms, that at one point didn’t even seem possible. No matter
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what the future holds, there will always be a place for visual storytelling and key frames in the moving image.
The End
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Appendix I Biographies of People Interviewed
Brett Ashy, President and Principle, The Ashy Agency
Brett Ashy is a native of Lafayette, LA and attended the University of Louisiana, majoring in Public Relations. In 1985, Brett joined the prestigious Circle in the Square
Professional Theatre Program in New York City. After a ten year acting career, Brett delved into business as assistant to the head of Sales and Marketing at RGA/LA. Three months later the company restructured, the Director of Sales and Marketing resigned and
Brett was appointed Director of Sales and Marketing. That same week, the movie Se7en opened, which featured the watershed main title sequence created by Kyle Cooper, basically kick-started Brett’s 14 year career in sales and marketing design firms.
In 2005, Ashy launched The Ashy Agency, which currently markets the motion graphic design, live action, interactive, print and visual effects talents of Creator, DZN,
Ember, Engine Room, Engine Design, Helix, The LSD Group, Nailgun*, Roger,
SG//Arts, Suspect, and Syndrome to the broadcast and new media industries.
Ashy is also the current Chairman of the Board of Governors for the Broadcast
Design Association (BDA).66
66 "Brett Ashy," Promaxbda, http://www.promaxbda.org/ (accessed June 8, 2010).
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Doug Grimmett, Founder/Creative Director, Primal Screen
Douglass Grimmett is Founder and Creative Director of Primal Screen, a broadcast design firm in Atlanta, Georgia, and leads a full-time staff of 26. Started in
1995, Primal Screen creates broadcast design, animation, and sound. Grimmett is the creative force behind Primal Screen projects including: redesign of Cartoon Network, the launch of Boomerang, Sprout, Nick on CBS and Teenick, as well as the relaunch of Nick
Jr., Spike TV, and PBS Kids. He graduated from Florida State University with a BFA in graphic design. In 1980 he moved to New York City and worked at CBS for a year before working at M&Co with Tibor Kalman. He later worked for Workman Publishing designing books, calendars and stationery products. He created covers for book publishers including Random House, St. Martin’s Press, Knopf, Vintage, Penguin, Harper
& Row, Simon & Schuster, Atlantic Monthly Books, Macmillan and Houghton Mifflin.
Grimmett also created album covers for Island, RCA and Hannibal Records. Before founding Primal Screen, Grimmett got his start in film and animation in 1987 when he worked as an art director for Peter Wallach Productions designing stop-motion animated commercials and music videos. He later became Creative Director and Principal of the integrated marketing agency FGI in Chapel Hill, North Carolina from 1989 to 1994, where he led a department of 20 creatives. Garnering over 200 national and international awards in advertising, design and broadcast, his work has appeared in Communication
Arts, Print, Graphis, How, The New York Art Directors Club, Creativity, BDA Awards, and The AIGA 365 Annual.67
67 "Douglas Grimmett," Promaxbda, http://www.promaxbda.org (accessed June 8, 2010).
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Jeff Doud, Executive Creative Director, R!OT Atlanta
Doud started his career in 1977 working for the pioneering Harry Marks at
Sullivan & Marks in LA. First projects included ABC’s Still the One fall campaign,
Roots mini-series titling and bumpers, and the emerging cable net ON TV. Doud later worked on We’re Still the One and We’re the One campaigns before starting up Doud
Film Inc. Doud created graphics packages for ABC, NBC, CBS, Playboy Channel, and
Bravo during this time as well as mini-series titling projects for Masada, East of Eden,
Crossings, Amerika and others. In 1985 he began focusing his skills on computer animation and landmark show opens for the ABC Thursday Night Movie and A National
Geographic Special. Jeff Doud has been working in Atlanta since 1992 and continues designing and directing in all motion media. He has been Executive Creative Director at
R!OT Atlanta for 9 years.68
Linda Ong, Brand Builder, Truth
Truth Consulting was founded in 2000 as an independent consultancy specializing in brand transformation through strategy, insights and creative execution for media and entertainment brands. Since that time, the company has expanded to include online, publishing, consumer products and non-profits. Their Insights division was launched earlier this year. Founder and President, Linda Ong, has been at the center of a number of brand transformations for the likes of, Animal Planet, Bravo, Logo, Nickelodeon and
Oxygen. Ong has served on the boards of AIGA/NY and PromaxBDA, and writes the
Simple Truths blog (www.truthco.blogspot.com). Truth Consulting has been the recipient of numerous awards from such industry organizations including American Women in
68 Jeff Doud, personal interview, June 18, 2009.
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Radio & Television, The NY Festivals, International Monitor Awards, Promax/BDA and
CTAM.69
Elaine Cantwell, Founder and Creative Director, Spark
Elaine Cantwell has produced numerous award-winning identity packages for television brands, launching networks in the U.S., Latin America and Asia. Cantwell founded the creative group Spark in 2002. As Creative Director, she collaborated with such brands as JETIX, the WB, W Network in Canada, A&E, TNT, Starz!, Showtime, and Televisa in Mexico. Her commercial work includes spots for Steven Spielberg's
Minority Report, SC Johnson, and the Target retail store campaign. Prior to Spark,
Cantwell spent seven years as Head of Creative Services and Creative Director for 3 Ring
Circus, a Hollywood-based design company, where she conceptualized and implemented creative strategies through branding, marketing and promotional campaigns. Her work has earned honors from the Broadcast Designers Association (BDA), PROMAX, New
York Film Festival, Kinsale Advertising Festival, ICAD and others, including "Best of
Show" from BDA for the Showtime re-launch package and a Sports Emmy nomination for her ABC Sports package.70
69 "Linda Ong," Promaxbda and Truthco, http://www.promaxbda.org/ and http://www.truthco.net/ (accessed June 8, 2010). 70 "Elaine Cantwell," Spark Creative, Inc., http://www.sparkcreativeinc.com/ (accessed June 8, 2010).
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Lori Pate, Connector, Lori Pate+, Inc.
Her company, The LORI PATE+, provides expertise in brand strategy, promotion, live action direction and production, on-air design, print/package design, web design, interactive design, game design and online communities.
Since 2001, Pate has represented the industry's top branding and creative talent, connecting them to leading screen-based media clients.
Previously, Pate was an Executive Producer for the worldwide television branding group, 3 Ring Circus. Prior to that, she built and managed the in-house, on-air and off-air design department at Starz!/Encore Networks. Earlier, Pate worked as television design consultant for affiliate stations, networks, corporate clients, and cable companies.
Pate has received numerous awards. She has served as the President of the BDA
(Broadcast Design Association) in 1997 and is currently a member of the CTAM (Cable
Television Advertising and Marketing) Ad Council and Steering Committee. She is a frequent public speaker for many professional organizations and academic institutions, and has also served as a faculty board member for the International Mac World
Conference.71
71 "Lori Pate," LORI PATE+, http://www.loripateplus.com/ (accessed June 8, 2010).
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Kendrick Reid, SVP and Executive Creative Director, Brand Strategy, BET
Networks
As the former Vice President, On-Air Design of Comedy Central, Kendrick Reid was responsible for supervising all on-air graphic design elements including Comedy
Central network branding as well as creative development for the company's original show opens, packaging and on-air promotion. Previously, Kendrick founded Reidesign in
1999 to showcase his broadcast design and directing skills for such networks as Lifetime,
Oxygen, We (Women's Entertainment) and AMC (American Movie Classics). His design work has won international BDA and PROMAX Gold awards, as well as Telly and New
York Festival awards. He designed an interim graphic look for the promos on AMC when the network wanted to appeal to a younger audience.
Kendrick worked as Design Director for the launch of SoapNet, the 24-hour Soap
Opera channel for Disney/ABC Cable. He served as intermediary between the network and design facility to create ID's, network graphics and often worked as designer for promo launch campaign spots. Kendrick created the SoapNet graphic style guide and was responsible for making sure the promo producers, editors and master control technicians adhered to all graphic guidelines. Kendrick began his career in broadcast design while working at Lifetime Television in the 90’s. Prior to Lifetime, Kendrick worked at CNN
Headline News in Atlanta as a videotape editor and cameraman. Before that he was a copywriter at Clarke Goward Fitts, a Boston-based advertising agency. Kendrick graduated from Boston University with a BS degree in Broadcasting and Film in 1987 and attended New York University's Intensive Film program where he received a
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certificate in filmmaking in 1987.72
Ellen Kahn, Creative Director, Co-Owner, TWINART
Co-founder of the bi-coastal TWINART, Inc. with twin sister Lynda Kahn. She is an Emmy award winning creative director specializing in launching, building and refreshing media brands. TWINART is a unique hybrid media-art company, branding and identity, creative consulting, motion, experiential design, concept through completion, strategy, positioning, multi-platform specializing in fashion, music, lifestyle content and entertainment. TWINART is responsible for many familiar television show opening title designs and graphics packages including Fashion Rocks, Arrested Development, Dharma
& Greg, Two Guys and a Girl, Sister Sister to name a few.
As DGA directors, the Kahn sisters have directed commercials, branded entertainment, and network promos. On these projects they have directed a wide range of celebrities, including: Susan Sarandon, Vanessa Williams, Bill Maher, Rosie O'Donnell, etc. Their long form directing endeavors have included Picture What Women Do for
Lifetime Television and Voices for Elektra Records. The TWINART trendsetters brand and package many music and variety shows including Fashion Rocks for Conde-Nast,
American Top 40 with Ryan Seacrest for FOX, Radio Music Awards and Tsunami Aid for NBC.
The winning twins were the recipients of the National Endowment of the Arts fellowship grant in new media for its cutting-edge art videos including, Instant This-
72 Magnet Media. "Kendrick Reid," Parsons The New School for Design, http://a.parsons.edu/~zhining/magnet_media/zoomin/interviews/pop/kendrick.html (accessed June 8, 2010).
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Instant That. Their work has been exhibited internationally in museums and galleries including the Whitney Museum of American Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art,
Tokyo Video Biennale, and the Pompidou Center in Paris.73
Patrick McDonough, Creative Director, PMcD Design ltd.
Boston native, McDonough is the Creative Director and Founder of PMcD
Design, an award winning New York based broadcast design firm with a reel that includes work created for Starz Crash, branding for FOX Reality Channel, TLC and a host of clients including ABC, NBC, ESPN, NGC, Starz, Encore, PBS and WNET.
McDonough designed and produced the promotional package for Crash, the first original series created by Starz, the Travel Channel and National Geographic.74
Victor Newman, Creative Director, Bionic,
Prior to his recent role at Bionic, Newman founded Freestyle Collective. He is an award winning Creative Director / Designer recognized for his work in the entertainment and advertising industry. Specializing in exploratory and experimental design, Victor delivers creative advertising, promotion and branding solutions to a broad range of commercial, broadcast and corporate clients.75
73 "Ellen Kahn," LinkedIn and TwinArt, http://www.linkedin.com/in/ellenkahn and http://www.twinart.com (accessed June 8, 2010). 74 Elaine Montoya, "PMcD Design Creative Director Patrick McDonough to Speak at Motion09." Motion TV, http://motion.tv/2009/08/06/pmcd-design-creative-director-patrick-mcdonough-to-speak-at- motion09/ (accessed June 8, 2010). 75 Victor Newman, “About Me.” The Newman Chronicles, http://cargocollective.com/victornewman#109913/about-me (accessed June 8, 2010).
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Jeff Boortz, Professor of Motion Media Design at Savannah College of Art and
Design
Jeff Boortz is an award-winning creative director and designer with more than 20 years of experience creating compelling on-air brand expressions for networks across the globe. He started in the business as a designer at WCVB and a creative director at Pittard
Sullivan Fitzgerald.
He has founded two well-respected and successful international branding services companies, 3 Ring Circus in Los Angeles, and Concrete Pictures in Philadelphia. Boortz is an industry leader, known for pioneering new formats for communicating brand messages in visual media including film, TV, broadband, and mobile. He is a strategic problem solver who consistently drives his clients to achieve their branding and promotional goals. Boortz now teaches cinematography and editing, and helps prepare students to enter the motion media design job market at SCAD in Savannah Georgia.76
Tom Baker, Professor of Animation at Art Institute of Atlanta
Baker has directed production management for artists, producers, and technical people up to staff sizes of over 60 in commercial, corporate, and television animation projects from 30 second spots to episodic television. With many years hands-on with animation and compositing he has a realistic view of production that is unique in management. Over the years he has accumulated a variety of BDA awards, Show South,
76 "Promax|BDA Board of Directors/Governors - Jeff Boortz," Promaxbda, http://www.promaxbda.org/secondNav/aboutUs/boardofdirectors/bodboortz.aspx (accessed June 8, 2010).
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Monitors, and many Telly awards. He is most proud of the Monitor award for MCI, five
Gold awards for BDA, and two showings at Siggraph’s Electronic Theatre.77
Miguel Muelle, Creative Director, Drawbridge, Atlanta
Miguel Muelle’s career has paralleled the modern Broadcast Design industry.
After studying Illustration and Graphic Design at Mass Art, he began his career in broadcast design in 1983 at WNEV-TV, then Boston's CBS affiliate channel SE7EN.
One year later he helped to establish Digital Images, an award-winning international broadcast design studio, later known as The DI Group, which was instrumental in branding and launching several cable television networks such as Showtime, The
Discovery Channel and The Learning Channel.
In the 90’s, Muelle served as Design Director for DESIGNefx, the design and animation division of Crawford Communications, Inc., where he directed and designed national and international television and interactive projects.
In 2001 he joined iXL, where he applied his experience in graphic and broadcast design to Web and interactive creative consulting. As Creative Director at iXL Atlanta
(later Scient) he led the creative efforts on varied projects including broadband applications, consumer health and beauty, corporate finance, managed travel, and B2B.
In recent years, Muelle has returned to freelance design and consulting from his studio, Drawbridge. Since then he has worked with TBS, CNN, CNN Español, CNN
International, Turner Studios, Be Square Productions (Alton Brown - Good Eats, Feasting
77 "Tom Baker," LinkedIn, http://www.linkedin.com/pub/tom-baker/0/b78/b41 (accessed June 8, 2010).
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on Asphalt, Feasting on Waves), DIY, Crawford Communications, and Razorfish.
Through his passion for his work he has honored with several BDA awards.78
78 Miguel Muelle, “Bio.” Drawbridge, http://www.drawbridgetv.com/bio.htm (accessed June 8, 2010).
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Appendix II A timeline overview of motion graphics
1950’s – CBS SVP Lou Dorfsman ushers in the Golden Age of Broadcast Television (1946 to 1987). Georg Olden heads CBS’s Division of On-Air. Olden, an African- American, pioneered the field of broadcast graphic (1945-60). William Golden designs the CBS “eye” logo (1951). John Whitney starts his company Motion Graphics (1952). FCC authorizes color TV broadcast (1953). Saul Bass designs title sequences Man with the Golden Arm (1955) and Vertigo (1958). PROMAX/BDA, a non-profit, full-service, member-driven organization was founded under the name BPME (1956). The Internet is invented (1957). Max Miedinger designs the typeface Helvetica (1957).
1960’s – MIT, UTAH, Lockheed Georgia, MAGI, Bell Labs, Xerox, Evans & Sutherland start computer graphics activity. Lyn Lye joins the Kinetic Art Movement in the 1960s. Paul Rand designs the ABC logo (1962). Charles Csuri creates Hummingbird (1967). ACM/SIGGRAPH: Special Interest Group on Computer Graphics is founded (1969).
1970’s – Pablo Ferro designs movie titles in the 60’s-90’s. Ferro was one of the first artists to recognize the significance of typography in crafting effective title sequences such as Dr. Strangelove (1964) and Hal Ashby’s Being There (1979). Robert Abel and Associates founded (1971). Desktop Revolution begins (1971). Emmy awarded to Lee Harrison for SCANIMATE (1972). Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak start Apple Computer (1976). Genigraphics (1977). R/Greenberg founded by brothers Richard and Robert Greenberg (1977). 1st CGI film title - Superman (R. Greenberg) (1978).
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1980’s – Dale Herigstad, Harry Marks and Pacific Data Images, founded by Carl Rosendahl (1980), create NBC’s “Monday Night at the Movies” and ABC’s “Sunday Night Movie”. Quantel introduces Paintbox (1981), First paintbox cost $250,000. Quantel Harry (1984) is first non-linear editor costs for the computer and service: more than $500,000. MTV is launched (1981). Commodore 64, an 8-bit home computer, is introduced. (1982) Adobe is founded (1982). Robert Able & Associates produces the 1st computer generated 30-second commercial (1983). Wavefront Technologies is the first commercially available 3D software package (1983) cost $185,000. Apple releases first Macintosh computer, featuring bitmap graphics (1984). With the invention of Apples’ first laser printer (1985), traditional typesetting industry dies. The LaserWriter cost $6,995. Bosch FGS 4000, a 3D animation system intended to be a character generator, created by the makers of fine sparkplugs. Dire Straits’, Money for Nothing Music video premiered on MTV, created on a Bosch (1985). Bosch had only one competitor: the high quality, justly named, Cray Super Computer. Purchase price: $400,000.79 Cable Television is on the rise as networks seek to set themselves apart from the top three broadcast networks, branding themselves as unique offerings increases the demand for ‘package graphics’. Video games and music videos are also seeking ‘motion graphics’. VH1 graphics package designed by Scott Miller and Associates (1988). Internet is up and running and becomes more widely accepted.
1990’s – Traditional as well as post modern graphic designers like Milton Glaser, Neville Brody, David Carson, April Greiman, Tibor Kalman influence the field of motion graphics. A legacy of innovation; Pittard Sullivan was once synonymous with broadcast design (1986-2001). Montreal-based Discreet Logic Inc. releases the Flint and Flame, high-end open platform digital imaging software at NAB and SIGGRAPH (1992). Flames started at $400,000.
79 John Luff, "Graphics and FX." Broadcast Engineering, June 1, 2007, http://broadcastengineering.com/hdtv/broadcasting_graphics_fx/ (accessed May 10, 2009).
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PARADIGM SHIFT
1990’s continued - Desktop revolution begins, both in print and video. Amiga leads the way with 16-bit video, then the award winning Video Toaster by NewTek (1990). Original price tag, $2399.80 After Effects version 1.0, created by COSA (Company of Science and Art) Version 1.0 was released in January 1993, sold to Aldus then Adobe, 1994. 81 Original purchase price: $1,295. Opening title sequence of Se7en is designed by Kyle Cooper (1995). FLASH 1.0 (1996). Autodesk Maya 3d Software. Original price: $25,000. Apple QuickTime (1991). Apple Final Cut Pro (1999) is released, offering digital video for a multimedia framework. Hillman Curtis is founded by David Hillman Curtis, an American new media designer, author, and filmmaker (1998).
2000’s - PSYOP, a motion design firm, focusing on the experimental is founded (2000). Brand New School (2000). Shilo (2001). Freestyle Collective (2001). yU+Co, Trollbäck + Company (1999). Motion Theory (1999). Stardust (2002). MK12 is founded in 2004. YouTube (2005). Motionographer (2006). Joost (2006). Hulu (2007). F5 conference is founded (2009).
80 Stephen Jacobs, "Flying Toasters." Wired, May 1994, http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/2.05/flying.toasters_pr.html (accessed July 15, 2010). 81 "The After Effects Timeline," CoSA Lives!, http://www.cosa.com/after_fx/ (accessed July 16, 2010).
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Interviews
Baker, Tom. Personal interview. November 7, 2009.
Boortz, Jeff. Personal interview. October 29, 2009.
Dawson, Bill. Personal interview. July 30, 2010.
Doud, Jeff. Personal interview. June 18, 2009.
Grimmett, Doug. Personal interview. June 18, 2009.
Kahn, Ellen. Personal interview. June 19, 2009.
McDonough, Patrick. Personal interview. June 19, 2009.
Muelle, Miguel. Personal interview. October 31, 2009.
Pate, Lori. Personal interview. June 18, 2009.
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Filmography
Art & Copy. Dir. Doug Pray. The One Club, 2009, PBS Distribution, 2010.
The Corporation. Dir. Mark Achbar and Jennifer Abbott. By Joel Bakan. Big Picture Media Corporation, 2003.
Creative Inspirations: Harry Marks: Broadcast Design Perf. Harry Marks. 2009. Lynda.com, http://www.lynda.com/home/DisplayCourse.aspx?lpk2=47027. (accessed May 19, 2009).
Helvetica. Dir. Gary Hustwit. Swiss Dots/Veer, 2007.
Kyle Cooper interview pt. 2/2. Dir. Femke Wolting, Remco Vlaanderen. Submarine Channel, May 2009. http://www.watchthetitles.com/articles/00184- Kyle_Cooper_interview_pt_2_2. (accessed February 17, 2010).
Milton Glaser: To Inform and Delight. Dir. Wendy Keys. Prod. Edgar B. Howard. Perf. Milton Glaser. Art House Films, 2008.
Objectified. Dir. Gary Hustwit. Swiss Dots, 2009.
Saul Bass: 20 Outstanding Los Angeles Designers. Dir. and Prod. Archie Boston, Jr. Perf. Saul Bass. California State University Long Beach, 1987.
The Story of Computer Graphics. Dir. Frank Foster. By Walt Bransford, Frank Foster, Judson Rosebush, Steve Komen, and Steve Silas. Prod. Carl Machover, John Hart, Steve Silas, and Joan Collins. SIGGRAPH, 1999.
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