Time 100:
Most Influential People of 2021
In the summer of 2021, Co_Ed Studios partnered with Roadside Entertainment and ABC to create a series of videos, which were later used in the hour-long special, TIME 100: The World's Most Influential People.
This project received wide media coverage. For more information please visit here.
Art director/Designer: Sam Stephens.
Animators: Julio Michelon, Momo Qingruo Zhao, Xiuqi Wang
Pillar Animation
All the nominees were separated into six categories: Icons, Pioneers, Titans, Artists, Leaders, and Innovators. Each category repeats the same animation, and introduces the nominees one by one.
Role: Designer, Animator
+ Challenge
The content of this show heavily involved news and politics, so the goal was to make overall feeling of this piece serious and sincere.
TIME already has a strong and recognizable brand identity, and I needed to make sure to follow the brand guidline closely when designing, which meant there was little room for deviation and experimentation.
In addition, because the goal of this series was to introduce multiple lists of nominees, they needed to be presented in an interesting way so it didn't feel repetitive.
+ Solution
I started the design process by studying the existing brand identity of TIME. One of the most iconic components of their branding is the red square that frames the cover of their magazines, so I extracted the square element and used it along with some other basic shapes and types. I played with the composition to make the design more interesting and consisitent with the existing brand identity.
In the animation the squares serve as a moving component that bridges between two frames, bringing more motion to the overall animation.
I made nine design variations (see below) so each frame doesn't need to be repeated more than twice.
Show Open
Role: Designer, Animator
Rejoin Animation
Role: Animator
