Topic Brand Launch by the In-House team at Topic.com
My Role: Lead AnimatorTopic is an online entertainment and storytelling studio from First Look Media (the people behind the Academy Award® winning film Searchlight, The Nib political cartoons, and The Intercept online newspaper).
Their focus is on “stories that matter,” both fiction and non-fiction, through video, essays, photography, illustration pieces, and podcasts. Issues of Topic are organized around monthly themes.
The motion language for Topic is simple, no-nonsense, and uncluttered -- letting the importance of the content shine through. The lo-fi feel also comes off as authentic and trustworthy.
The animation of the Topic logo is a metaphor for Topic’s mission: “filling in the details” of the letters and then breaking apart (“diving deeper”) to reveal what’s within. It’s an elegant way to demonstrate the tagline through motion: “there’s more to the story.”
MixTape is the name of Topic’s short film collection series (usually 4-5 films of 5-15 min each). Films fit into the monthly Topic theme.
Each collection kicks off with the Topic Mixtape logo (each letter contains a still from the individual shorts - hinting at what’s about to be revealed). A director/title card plays between films.
The same graphic look is used in the MixTape promo packaging - helping viewers recognize and navigate to the MixTape section of the Topic website.
Each collection kicks off with the Topic Mixtape logo (each letter contains a still from the individual shorts - hinting at what’s about to be revealed). A director/title card plays between films.
The same graphic look is used in the MixTape promo packaging - helping viewers recognize and navigate to the MixTape section of the Topic website.
We made a series of icon cards teasing the pre-launch.
The animations for the State of the Union podcast have the same straightforward, simply-adorned, lo-fi vibe as the rest of the branding, but they are different enough for the viewer to immediately differentiate between podcast offerings and video offerings.
Credits:
Maggie Tsao, Art Director/Designer/CD
Amber Kusmenko, Lead Animator
Jordan Hellman, Creative Project Manager
Dina Chang, Executive Producer
Phil Delbourgo, Executive Creative Director