Pro athletes and Hollywood plastic surgeons may hang with celebrities – but with technology’s impact on every facet of modern-day living, it’s the unassuming techie that’s emerging as the new ‘rock star’ of the professional world – and Galaxy 61 was recently called to help celebrate them. 9 Surf Studios tapped the talents of the design-driven Brooklyn-based animation/VFX boutique to help EE Times mark its 40th anniversary with the creation of ‘Rise of the Geeks,’ a package consisting of a 3D rendering of a new commemorative logo - and a techno-inspired animated app, which the MIN Awards recognized with an ‘Honorable Mention’ in the ‘Best of the Web 2013' category, and was selected as a 2013 MAGGIE Finalist for ‘Best Development of a Mobil App for a Tablet/Trade & Consumer.'
Initially tasked with creating the artwork for the media outlet’s print logo and the app for the “Rise of the Geeks’ tribute issue, Tom White, designer/illustrator and owner of 9 Surf Studios, proposed evolving the 3D logo into a dynamic motion graphics intro for the app. The client signed off on the cost-effective element and White and Galaxy 61 owner, designer Doug Johnson, began devising an approach to take the ‘Rise of the Geeks’ campaign to the next level.
Galaxy 61 built upon the magazines logo, integrating a stylized ‘40’ element and the tag line, ‘Rise of the Geeks,’ into it to pay homage to the visionaries who’ve defined the electronic era. Johnson and his team took the job from concepting, storyboarding, modeling, animation, lighting and visual effects (projector, lightning, LEDs, hologram,) to editorial, compositing and sound design - providing a seamless one-stop approach to the job.
The entire structure of the lockup is set in motion by the ‘ON’ button and two mechanical arms that extend from the sides of the logo. Everything else unfolds from that, and had to be designed and rigged to come together in a realistic and believable way.
During the second part, ‘Return of the Geeks’ is initiated as the 'EE40’ logo and then transforms into a projector, revealing a chronological series of technological developments - from analog oscilloscopes, meters, wires, chips, gears, solenoids, audio components – to van der graaf generators creating static electricity and LEDs. It then closes as the word “Geeks” appears as a dramatic hologram.
“It's a fun animation with an implicit cheekiness to the “Rise of the Geeks” concept that we wanted to mirror with a light touch for the animation,” adds Johnson. “ And, the addition of the app to the project gave Galaxy 61 the opportunity to create an audio component and follow through with our vision by devising a symphony of mechanical noises to correspond to every motion in the animation.”
The design of the anniversary logo and animation of the app were just two of the elements incorporated into the ‘Rise of the Geeks’ campaign, which also integrated print ads, online media content, events, and marketing collateral.
