HYDROGEN JPN X CAL
MITSUBISHI/JAPAN CONSULATE (2021)
I was involved as an art director, designer and sole motion artist. I helped develop the visual language to represent the complex concepts of renewable energy and hydrogen, created motifs and themes along with a color palette that was used throughout the video. I was responsible for bringing narrative pieces to life by using illustration and creative design, making sure we respected the client’s script and make information accessible to the audience, the California public.
I started by putting together a color palette, of which we knew we’d want green and blue in. I chose the second darker blue for accents in typography mainly. We eventually settled on this.
I used a gradient mixing the green and blue throughout the video, and sometimes used a texture with a Darken blending mode which lets a bit more of the blue come through in the dirt (Multiply made it more monochromatic).
I came up with the idea of rectangular shapes moving over different elements of the video to reveal other information. This way, we represented Hydrogen being able to transform systems rather than replace.
One issue we had was figuring out how to represent hydrogen as a form of renewable resource. I designed the hexagon-shaped icon with the H and animated it.
Selected frames.
To showcase hydrogen will power the Olympic Village in Tokyo, I designed a render of the village and came up with the idea of turning off a light to reveal a glow-in-the-dark piping system for hydrogen which is accurate to the real plan.
We wanted to feature the Olympic flame but couldn’t manage to license the pictures, however it turned to be a happy accident as that gave me a chance to make something cooler by putting together collage flames and animating the fire.
To represent the visual journey from Japan to California, I designed a stamp for every project and developed the “envelope” concept to transition to Los Angeles.
I also made illustrations for the visual cards introducing each project.
Tests and unused assets:
