Blind Creative Director Vanessa Marzaroli nabbed a Creative Arts Emmy for Lilac Wine, a motion graphics music video created as part of Dr. Martens' 50th Anniversary site "50 Years of Music", conceived by the agency Exposure Communications. Winning in the Individual Achievement in Animation for Production Design, Marzaroli created the mesmerizing black-and-white piece to accompany a Cinematic Orchestra rendition of James Shelton's well-known song, which Jeff Buckley later covered. Vanessa's win marks Blind's second Creative Arts Emmy in two consecutive years.
Lilac Wine, which also picked up a Gold London International Award, is a black-and-white marriage of music and graphics that flows from the concept of a heartbroken lover writing a letter. A single, delicate Spencerian script line forming the lyrics echoes the song's simple opening chords. As the piece progresses, the words blossom into intricate lines that separate and conjoin to paint pictures illustrating the story.
Lines spiral into and out of frame, seamlessly creating new environments through shifting spatial relationships: The lines of script evolve into the outline of a delicate bird; a fallen teardrop transforms into an ocean teaming with life, as a looping line-drawn fish launches over the surface of the sea. Throughout the narrative, we catch glimpses of the writer's lost lover as lines intersect to form her silhouette in 2D and 3D, just out of reach. As the song resolves, these many threads of the writer's unconscious mind and memory separate and dissipate, trailing the single line that began the song.