Pixar & Dreamworks: The Stories Their Brands Tell

• July 1, 2010
  26 Comments // Critique

Pixar is a billion dollar company because it knows how to tell a story.

They know how important it is and that without a strong story at the core, all the technical wizardry and aesthetic mastery of their films would be overly sweet.

Story telling is often as important in graphic design as it is in animation and film making, even if it isn’t as obvious — we use grids, type, colour and imagery to help bring stories to life.

When there is a lack of a story—of an idea—there is nothing but average design to be found. Why? Because there’s a lack of a point of interest — there’s nothing for the audience to grab onto.

So let’s learn from the mistakes and glories of others, comparing two story tellers who act on the same stage—Pixar and Dreamworks, of course—and the stories told through the branding of their films.

I’m talkin’ logos, baby.

Toy Story

Pixar

Playful and fun — a great way to start!

This logo is a winner because it’s appropriate without being condescending.

The primary colour pallet aims it perfectly at its audience and nothing says “gimmie” like red and yellow. The type size, the chunkiness of it, as well as the playful way it’s laid out, make this cute in the right way and screams, well, “Toy”.

It’s also nice to see a logo which has depth (hinting at the 3D of the animation) without going straight to embossed trickery.

A Bug’s Life

Pixar

Another nice and flat logo from Pixar. It’s lovely to see a beveled look isn’t what they go for just because their films are CGI.

The bugs eating away at the letters are cute and the little one between Disney & Pixar is a great touch.

The typeface is appropriately playful and has an exaggeration to it that suggests that we’re going to be shown little things really big (I’m looking at the i, f and e mostly), but it’ll be a gentle ride.

The slight warmth of the yellow is nice little ray of sunshine that gently touches down on the bug covered leaf.

All this adds up to a little reflection of the film — it has its footing in it.

Antz

Dreamworks

I’m sorry, what?

How do you feel about advertising?

• September 25, 2008
  6 Comments // Critique

Some of the best and brightest creatives are in advertising. It is an area where most of the content is witty, beautiful, inspiring and memorable. But there is a darker side to advertising which often leaves a foul taste in the mouths of those who experience it at a constant level. Meaning pretty much all of us. I go into how I feel about advertising, but what I’m really interested in is how do you feel about advertising?

Love

It’s all about a good idea

It’s all about a good idea. Advertisers have a second to get your attention, elicit some sort of emotion, to become memorable and hopefully persuade you to purchase something. One second. Probably less. So at the core of this second is a good idea, an elegant idea. An elegant idea that needs to be wrapped in something beautiful, be it an illustration, photograph or typography.

This is what I love about advertising.

• Good, clever, elegant ideas.
• Brilliantly designed, illustrated, photographed or typeset pieces.

Of the above two, what is there to not love?

A good example of a great idea,
simply executed with powerful, witty photography.

Given the fraction of time given to get attention, the design needs to be fantastically simple, illustrating elegant ideas. Ideas that aren’t always all-bad. Ideas like donating to charities, or making a change in your life to make yourself feel better about yourself and more confident. Perhaps it’ll alert you to a product you’ve been waiting months for and is bound to improve your way of life. Not all awful things, no? And besides, if you don’t want to purchase something, you don’t! You just say to yourself ‘what a clever ad, time to keep moving’ and ignore it.