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Obsession
noun
A singular thing that takes hold of your mind
Our obsessions are worth exploring. Diving into. Breaking apart, dissecting and delicately placing back together. Our obsessions make us unique, curious, and ground us. As artists, we become obsessed with how something looks, the finite elements that make it up, how something was made, how it made us feel. In many ways our obsessions guide our work and ways of storytelling.
Our film series Obsessed is the result of nearly half a year's worth of work and strategic thinking by Creative Director, Itay Tevel. Itay proposed Obsessed as an opportunity to explore Hornet’s breadth of motion techniques that are both classic and current, showcasing our talents in innovative motion design. He conceived of this series of videos to add a new perspective to the Hornet brand, as a campaign that allowed us to speak to what we care about and what excites us within the world of motion design.
Our journey through color applies the same palette we've used in each film, but now, color is the main character driving the narrative. We begin the story with solid colors, clean lines, and minimal grain. As we progress, we begin to see gradients, colors mixing and shifting, and grain appearing. The journey ends with a prism, a rotating refraction of color through which we glimpse the Obsessed logo --an organic shape that first lacks color and then is filled with it.
Our second film in the series explores Balance. The goal was to play with forces and weight to show emotions – excitement, anticipation, wonder. Though this film features abstract compositions, we wanted to give unique personality and physical expression to each of the visual elements. We gravitated to 3D here to explore and express the physicality of the objects and the world they inhabit.
"When setting the mood and intention for 'Balance', I chose the words 'playful' and 'premium.' I wanted to meld the upbeat, fun colors and shapes with elevated designs, touches of metal, and overall realism." - Itay Tevel
"For this film, I was more specific in terms of music. For example, there's a moment where we see all these elements trying to balance. And then one just pops out. But there's no visual indication that something is going to happen, so we used sound design to create anticipation." - Itay Tevel
"Systems" is proper motion graphics, but with an organic twist. This film allows us to showcase type, footage, shapes, color, and grids with a very noisy, blurry, more tactile organic world.
It was important to Itay that we approach Obsessed as a place to play, experiment, and take risks – a sandbox of sorts, where artists are free to push the limits of their creativity, without constraints."This project puts the artist in the center and that's exciting for everybody. When I come to a project, I want the director to tell me, 'You get to push the style as much as you can and bring yourself into it.' That's the most exciting way to create." – Itay Tevel.The first step in all motion design work is developing a system of color, type, data, and imagery.In this film, we dismantled the system and showcased all of the individual graphic elements within a very noisy, blurry, more tactile organic world.
Creative Director Itay Tevel
Production Co Hornet
Managing Partner Hana Shimizu
Head of Production Karen Lawler
Head of Creative Development Kristin Labriola
Executive Producer Cathy Kwan
Production Supervisor Dez Stavracos
Sr Producer Justine Webster
Associate Producer Heather Hardin
Assistant Editor Minseok Kim, Cole Bannick
We wanted the film to feel very organic and add depth to classic, graphic 2D. "It's so exciting when you see work, and despite all of your experience, you're still not sure how they did it. Our artists are very talented and it's exciting for me to to get to work on things like this."