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Science never really appealed to me at school. Why and, yet more astonishingly, how did the teachers manage to make it so dull? Bill Bryson, in his book 'A Short History of Nearly Everything' suggests it's because the teachers never delved into whys, hows and whens.
"It was as if [the textbook writer] wanted to keep the good stuff secret by making all of it soberly unfathomable."So when I began talking to Brook Lapping's director, Jim Franks, about graphics for their educational film, 'Life Support Systems',
it didn't take long to establish that my scientific knowledge is sparse, to say the least. A little investigation uncovered a number of general science titles professing to 'explain science in ordinary language' - an increasingly popular genre - and I can personally recommend John Carey's 'The Faber Book of Science'. Some of the chapters about atoms and protons were over and above my poor little brain; one book hasn't turned me into a science champion but I did feel very clever reading it on the tube.
The film examines the conditions which make Earth so fitting for life compared with the effects Space has on the human body. ESA's project, called Melissa, aims to replicate Earth's self-sustaining features in Space to enable us to venture further away for longer periods of exploration.
The graphics helped explain the whys, hows and whens of processes such as the hydrological cycle, blood-flow and how Earth is the perfect distance from the Sun. The film was broadcast on Teachers TV for secondary schools across Europe.
BT Vision is what's known as an IPTV service; digital TV accessed over a (BT Total) broadband connection. Dunning Eley Jones were selected to create a visual identity to be used across all BT Vision communications and in December 2006 the service launched with a striking design, combining portrait images with colour streams that you'll undoubtedly have seen somewhere on your travels.
I'm not totally clear on how extensive this launch was but activity certainly ramped up in Spring this year when DEJ contacted Mooschool to help produce the BT Vision OSP (on-screen programming). We worked closely with DEJ's Ed Walker, who designed the graphics and, producer, Mario Fillo to animate idents for 10 BT channels contained within the package. The codec, which BT applies to deliver video to home users' set-top boxes, was a major factor in the simple design. Principally, we couldn't use any gradation of colour as this wouldn't survive the compression.
What, on first sight, looked like a remarkably straightforward job became something of a rubik's cube puzzle at times; specifically, with the generic versions we had to horizontally scroll through several different hues inside of a 5 second ident without it "looking like a deck-chair" as Ed, so eloquently, put it.
Dunning Eley Jones has designed the re-branding of Discovery Communications' Animal Planet channel, commissioning Mooschool to help produce the international on-screen HD programming package.
Animal Planet is one of Discovery Communications' best-known channels but viewing figures have stagnated over the last few years so its cute and cuddly image has been shed and more programming specifically aimed at adults has been added.
Dunning Eley Jones were briefed to create a look that expressed the channel's values: instinctive, immersive, playful, emotional and entertaining. Mooschool created bold typographic animations in Cinema 4D that emulated animal behaviour but also provided various promo elements as After Effects projects enabling the client to make modifications to the programme information.
The new identity went on air on February 3 in the US and the international rollout is planned for the summer.
Gillette World Sport, billed as the "world's most popular show", is broadcast in 220 countries and has now been on air for 20 years. Series producer, Sunset+Vine, commissioned Markell ID to rebrand the show. Over the last 4 years, we've consistently worked with the sports-branding specialists, Markell ID, on high-profile projects for clients such as The FA, FIFA and Al-Jazeera and this time MD Richard Markell hired us to help design and animate the Gillette World Sport in-programme graphics.
The rebranded graphics marked a 're-rationalisation' of Gillette's sponsorship strategy; Gillette basically wanted to get more value from the show. They decided not to renew their football World Cup and David Beckham marketing deals and instead replaced them with the 'Champions' brand concept which involved signing Roger Federer, Tiger Woods and Thierry Henry as brand ambassadors to promote their premium shaving systems.
Like many big consumer brands, Gillette can be quite conservative but this year they were genuinely looking for a new visual direction, something more dramatic, dark and moody with a view to making the Champions an integral part of the programme.
Despite whiling away a large quota of the trip seated in either a plane or a taxi, last week's visit to Mumbai (Bombay) was an awesome experience. Petrol had been invited to pitch for a big channel-branding job over there so I accompanied David to help with the presentation which was very successful. Quotes were constructed and contracts were being drawn up the next day while their marketing agency briefed us with some Indian culture to explain the channel's targeted demographic. (Apparently, in the context of the economic revolution the country has witnessed over the last decade or so, "Indian man cannot keep pace with Indian woman.") In the wake of such industry, there wasn't a lot of time to experience Mumbai in the recommended manner of "getting your hands and feet dirty" and inhaling the unique smell of Bombay, to quote from Gregory David Roberts in 'Shantaram', "the smell of gods, demons, empires, and civilisations in resurrection and decay". The client provided an extended list of books and Bollywood movies to watch, Mumbai being home to India's Hindi film and television industry.(Our favourite is the beautiful 'Dola Re Dola' from the movie 'Devdas'.)
The glamour of Bollywood feels like a bit of a sick joke when you first see Mumbai's encroaching slums but for the millions who have flocked from the countryside, pouring into the beaten up shanty dwellings and providing much needed skilled labour to the metropolis, this is the City of Dreams. The peculiarity of this nexus is the total absence of guilt or apologetic embarrassment that I think we're so accustomed to in the West when confronted with such extreme poverty. Mumbai has suffered serious urbanisation problems, bomb attacks and catastrophic floods but its resilience, its ability to settle back into routine and survive is quite astounding.
Science never really appealed to me at school. Why and, yet more astonishingly, how did the teachers manage to make it so dull? Bill Bryson, in his book 'A Short History of Nearly Everything' suggests it's because the teachers never delved into whys, hows and whens.
