These are two case studies of extensive pitches that I did with VH1. Unlike many other clients, VH1 always gives me a substantial amount of time to develop creative concepts. This is a luxury that is quite rare, so I take full advantage of it whenever possible. Below I will walk you through each step of each pitch, from initial concepts to finished designs. I chose these two because they are two of my most favorite projects from the last few years. In each case, Eyeball gave me complete freedom to sink my teeth in to them and really apply myself. Both of these were 'dream projects' of sorts - I suppose because of three crucial factors: 1) music related 2) great client and 3) decent schedule.
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VH1 HIP HOP HONORS 2004 INTRO
In the early summer of 2004, VH1 asked EyeballNYC to design the show package for their new awards show, The Hip Hop Honors, honoring pioneers in Hip Hop culture. The deliverables included a logo for the show, to be used in both print and on-air, a show open, 10 individual animations for the specific artists being honored, and a myriad of functional animations such as commercial bumpers and promo elements. Being the resident Hip Hop DJ in the office, as well as a lifelong student of the culture, I jumped at the opportunity. I was given about six weeks to make my first presentation of logo sketches and style boards for the look and feel of the show.
When it came time to make my first presentation, I felt it was crucial that VH1 understood my design process and how I came up with the storyboards and logos I was going to present. For this reason I decided to include all of my doodles and thumbnails from my sketchbook, as well as a handful of the reference images from books, flyers, and record covers that I had been referencing during this initial design stage.
I presented at VH1 to a roomful of senior creatives, show producers, and one very special guest critic, graffiti legend Futura 2000, who VH1 had brought in as a design consultant. Before proceeding with the presentation, I gave a very sincere testimonial about how close to my heart this particular project was, and how I was somewhat embarrassed to admit that I was feeling like my whole life, as both a designer and a hip hop DJ, was now culminating in this one dream project.
The pitch was well received, and it was clear that including both the sketchbook and some of the graphic imagery that had influenced me made a tremendous difference in how they viewed the work
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VH1 HIP HOP HONORS 2004 ROUND 1 reference
The first step in my process is always to gather as much reference as possible. This is tremendously helpful in getting everyone on the same page as to what direction the look and feel of the piece should take. If everyone can agree on this up front, you can refer back to it time and time again during production to support your creative decisions.
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VH1 HIP HOP HONORS 2004 ROUND 1 sketches
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VH1 HIP HOP HONORS 2004 ROUND 1 logos
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VH1 HIP HOP HONORS 2004 ROUND 1 storyboards
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VH1 HIP HOP HONORS 2004 ROUND 1 reaction
After the first presentation, VH1 got back to me a week later with their decision. Much to my surprise, the elements from the pitch that were most unanimously appreciated were not the refined style frames and logos, but the rough, raw doodles and thumbnails from my sketchbook. They felt the sketchbook conveyed something that the more refined designs could not: a deep understanding & sincere love of Hip Hop culture in all its forms. They also really liked the old school flyers.
For round 2 of the pitch, I was asked to return with two different developed concepts for the look & feel of the show: one based on the sketchbook, and the other based on the old school Hip Hop flyers that I had included as reference.
In addition, VH1 asked that I further develop a few of the logos I had presented, as well as one of the logos from my sketchbook.
The second presentation consisted of more raw sketchbook pages, logo revisions, and two set of storyboards showing how both the sketchbook and the flyer concepts could work on air. I have included the written treatments that accompanied both sets of storyboards.
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VH1 HIP HOP HONORS 2004 ROUND 2 sketches
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VH1 HIP HOP HONORS 2004 ROUND 2 logos
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VH1 HIP HOP HONORS 2004 ROUND 2 storyboards
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VH1 HIP HOP HONORS 2004 ROUND 2 reaction
Following the second pitch, a compromise was reached between all creative parties and the decision was made to go with the sketchbook concept for the majority of the show package. The old school flyer concept was to be used only during the second part of the show open, where we needed a device to display the forty names of the celebrities either performing or presenting on the show. The old school flyer logo was chosen and we were given the green light to begin animating the sketchbook.
The following sketchbook pages became the foundation for all of our animations. In addition to the on-air work, the sketches were also used by VH1 for their Hip Hop Honors website and all promotional materials associated with the event, including a limited edition coffee table book given to VIPs at the show, posters, tickets, banners, sweatshirts, Kangols, and even bar napkins.
The actual event itself really felt like a crowning achievement for me personally, as I was immensely proud to see my own work up on stage with many of my personal heroes and idols from the Hip Hop community. This was truly a dream project.
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VH1 HIP HOP HONORS 2004 ROUND 3 sketches
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VH1 HIP HOP HONORS 2004 video
view quicktime
see more elements in the work section
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VH1 ROCK HONORS 2006 INTRO
After two consecutive years of success with the Hip Hop Honors, In the winter of 2006, VH1 asked EyeballNYC to design the show package for another new awards show, The Rock Honors. This event was similar in structure, but designed to honor kick ass classic rock and roll bands. The deliverables included a logo for the show, to be used in both print and on-air, a show open, 5 individual animations for the specific artists being honored, and a myriad of functional animations such as commercial bumpers and promo elements. Being a metalhead of sorts in a former life, I again jumped at the opportunity. I was given about six weeks to make my first presentation of logo sketches and style boards for the look and feel of the show.
By this stage in my relationship with Phil, Nigel, Amanda, and the rest of the creatives at VH1, I had established a track record of presenting a great deal of reference with all of my sketches. I dug deep in to books and websites to gather visual information about the culture that might inform the design.
The pitch was well received, and, once again, it was clear that including all of the reference as well as all of the sketches made a tremendous difference in how they viewed the work.
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VH1 ROCK HONORS 2006 ROUND 1 reference
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VH1 ROCK HONORS 2006 ROUND 1 sketches
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VH1 ROCK HONORS 2006 ROUND 1 logos
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VH1 ROCK HONORS 2004 ROUND 1 reaction
The pitch was well received. VH1 responded well to the reference and the sketches. Just about everybody seemed attracted to the speaker stack logo idea, as it could potentially capture everything crucial to the identity of the show. It was big, it was epic, and it screamed over-the-top classic rock arena event. So the first order of business was to refine the logo.
The prefereed typeface was the more AC/DC-looking font that was used in the first two logos. The typeface was a custom font I designed specifically for the logo, based on an old German blackletter poster I found online.
They needed a rapid turnaround, as promo elements, both print and on-air, were already getting in to production. Stuart Simms (Eyeball's CG director) and I worked closely together to create a high res 3D version of the initial sketch, as well as a variation using only 3 stacked roadcases. Stuart experimented not only with texturing and lighting, but also with different positions and lenses for the 3D camera, to get just the right "big" feeling out of the angle. For both of these I created flat black and white graphic versions for the print department.
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VH1 ROCK HONORS 2006 ROUND 2 logo development
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VH1 ROCK HONORS 2004 ROUND 1 reaction
The idea of the 3 stacked roadcases logo was rejected, so we focused on putting the finishing touches on the stacked speaker logo. Stuart and I worked closely together with his crew, refining the textural and reflective qualities of the metal type and speakers. A slightly condensed black and white version was created for print.
The next step was to finish the logo and develop the look and feel of the show package, with the show open being the first order of business that would inform everything else.
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VH1 ROCK HONORS 2006 ROUND 3 narrative development
Final logos, on-air and print
Show open concept 2 - KISS Army meets Houses of the Holy
Show package development - The rock army
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VH1 ROCK HONORS 2004 ROUND 3 reaction
The final logo was quickly approved. The EyeballNYC staff immediately began producing promo elements using the logo as I focused on selling a story narrative.
I presented two concepts for the show open. The first was a sort "behind the scenes" look backstage, as the show was about to begin. This was roundly rejected, as it was familiar ground that VH1 had tread in the past. I chose not to include those storyboards here.
The second concept was inspired by classic rock album cover art, and the infamous KISS Army. I thought it would be fun to create a massive stampede of rock fans running through the scenery of well known album covers. This would give us an opportunity to use iconic imagery from the genre and also generate the level of excitement that the opening of the show demanded.
VH1 really liked the idea of the rock army, but they were very wary of the licensing issues surrounding using famous album covers. In addition, they wanted to focus on the bands that were actually going to be on the show, and felt that showing Led Zeppelin album covers was setting up false expectations right at the top of the show. They asked me if I could modify the concept to keep the rock army but make it specifically tailored to the bands that would be performing, which, incidentally, were undetermined at the time.
My solution was to borrow the surrealist barren landscapes so common to 70s and 80s rock album covers. We would create a custom army for each band. These armies would be stampeding through a barren wasteland, following a floating VH1 cube to their final destination, the VH1 Rock Honors. The floating cube thing was inspired by the pyramid from Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon", the giant floating guitar spaceship from Boston album covers, and the giant floating head from the 70s sci-fi flick "Zardoz" (one of my favorite films). The armies could be easily customized using the traditional jean jackets, baseball hats, and concert jerseys that were already such a big part of rock fandom. I created a quick edit to sell the idea through, using clips from Braveheart and Lord of the Rings. I edited the clips to Jane's Addiction's "Mountain Song", which was the only rock song that happened to be on my itunes at the time.
The edited piece really helped me sell the revised concept to VH1. The biggest remaining question was: how are we going to customize the army without knowing who the final bands are? Waiting for all of the bands to sign before beginning production was not an option.
We had two ideas for producing the show open.
1)Live action. Go to Iceland with a skeleton HD film crew, hire 30 metalheads, and make them run around in the wilderness for a week until we had enough takes to composite them in to a big army.
2)All CG. Use motion capture and hand keyed anmation to create the runnning army. Use still stock photography for the environment
The CG solution was the obvious choice, because we could could create skins for the characters then customize them at the very last minute. Phil at VH1 was ver y reluctant to approve this, as he had serious doubts about us being able to pull off realistic character animation in the relatively short time left for production. Stuart at EyeballNYC was confident we could do it, so he created some motion tests to convince the client. These worked like a charm, and we soon were off and running.
The thing about any CG-heavy project is: you always want 2 more weeks to tweak. Nevertheless, in the end, I think we did a great job, and I was very proud of the final result. I felt like it was completely appropriate for the show and the genre and it had a really original look and feel. Stuart Simms and the entire 3D staff at EyeballNYC did an amazing job on the 3D and Cassidy Gearhart and Carl Mok really came through on the 2D compositing and design.
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VH1 ROCK HONORS 2006 motion tests and final video
edited movie montage CG motion test1 CG motion test2 CG motion test3 final show open
see more elements in the work section