Jeremy Garrett - Art Director

When designing a logo and show package, it’s always vital to find out as much as possible about the show before starting the creative process. Strategy briefs or rough/finished copies of the shows are very helpful. In this mini-series, Planet Carnivore consists of four different one-hour shows, with four different animals and locations. Each show revolves around apex predators and how they survive in their fragile environment.

Our challenge was creating a common thread between four different show logos and show opens. We solved this challenge using an interchangeable logo where the subtitle could be easily swapped out. Each of the animals has a certain attitude and demeanor that I wanted to capture; so I chose a font that was clean and bold. I modified the font by adding weight to the subtitle word and adding an additional bar to the letter “A.”

The animation in all four-show opens remained exactly the same. Each show open captured the environment in which the apex predator lives. For example, Planet Carnivore: Sharks open had an underwater tone. The Planet Carnivore: Lions open looked like the logo lived on the African plains. Another key component to the open animations was the audio. Each open had the same eerie music accompanied by the specific sound of that animal. This helped reinforce the graphics and help set a mood for the show to come.

All of the logos were designed in Adobe Illustrator. Once they were approved, I moved to Adobe After Effects to do all of the compositing, effects and animation. For Sharks, I used different filters to create the water and small bubbles for the illusion of water. In Lions, I used a compilation of footage and stills to create the African plains. We had B-roll of tall grass from the shot. I duplicated it many times in 3-D space to create the illusion of a large wide shot of a field. The clouds, foreground and background trees were still photographs used to create a sense of depth.

Effective communication through a strong concept is the key to a successful design. Creating something from nothing and writing a story without words is what great motion design is all about.