Sister companies Bonfire and Phoenix Editorial announced that they have collaborated with global innovation and design firm IDEO on the welcome video for the Living Climate Change website, an initiative developed by IDEO. In the short, directed by IDEO design director and associate partner Roshi Givechi, company CEO Tim Brown asks what role design can play in the challenges we face with climate change.
IDEO found it attractive to have the combined resources of Bonfire and Phoenix Editorial, where conceptualization, live-action production, visual effects, animation, editorial, finishing and sound design could be completed all under one roof.
IDEO's Living Climate Change website aims to host a conversation around the most defining challenge of our time. As climate change touches every aspect of our lives, how will it change us? How will we adapt? The Living Climate Change site invites design thinkers to participate in imagining what life will be like in 20 or 30 years as we move along the path toward reduced carbon emissions. Which behaviors will change and which will be preserved? LivingClimateChange.com is a place to contribute fresh thinking and share provocative ideas about the future.
"Because the welcome film asks designers to contribute their films, art and other media to the site, we proposed to render the film in an eclectic style, mixing 3D, animation, live-action, hand drawing and rotoscoping, without favoring one style or another," said Bonfire Creative Director Matt Silverman. "We wanted contributors to join in the conversation with their own style. The experience working with IDEO was amazing -- Roshi was a pleasure to work with. She's whip-smart, has a keen design and conceptual eye and really pushed us creatively."
The production schedule from shooting to finishing spanned only nine days, during which time Silverman led a team of six designers from Bonfire and one editor, Jim Farber from Phoenix Editorial. Working closely with director Roshi Givechi, Silverman oversaw a live-action shoot at IDEO's San Francisco office. Back at Bonfire, this material was hand-rotoscoped using Adobe After Effects and in a time-consuming process, traced frame by frame in an illustrative style. Autodesk Maya was used to create additional 3D elements such as the globe, farming building, construction site and cornfields. Hand-drawn typography was also rendered in Adobe After Effects.