I drive over the hills.
OUTSIDE THE SNOW is falling,
Christmas is coming...
OUTSIDE THE SNOW is falling,
Interactive jukebox and Christmas card of traditional Czech soft drink KOFOLA. Creative work to realize the dreamy visuals and playful illustrations.
INTERACTIVE DESIGN
I was approached by the digital/web studio BRAINZ under the creative direction of the advertising agency KASPEN. The brief for me was to design a fantasy jukebox set in a fairytale Christmas setting. Part of it was to take into account Czech realities that will appeal to the kofola lover. The main charm of the wish was to be able to "generate" various adaptations of the (otherwise very beautiful and deeply spiritual) song by Václav Neckar - Midnight. How the remixes of the song turned out...could be judged by the users who forwarded their creations among themselves as Midnight Christmas card...
KEY VISUAL | CONCEPT
At the beginning of my work was the concept and design of the visuals, then the solution of the designs and finally the complete realization of the stylized illustrations. I approached this by placing classic elements that are characteristic (not only) of North Bohemia, where I originally come from: a village with half-timbered houses and a little church, a village pond with a snowman or classic tourist signs that refer to traditional Czech tourism or the Jizera Mountains. In the distance is the horizon with the classic landmark of Liberec - the Ještěd mountain. The design of the jukebox itself was supposed to have a playful impression, which could slightly resemble a device made of antiques and discarded parts - a kind of "antique-trash art".
KEY VISUAL | FINAL
To simulate camera movement (parallax) I created more than ten layers of overlapping illustrations of the environment and the jukebox. Lights on, lights off, design elements, moving parts of the jukebox, etc... The next part were visual elements, funny mini illustrations, which Studio BrainZ then brought to life with flash animation. All this was then fitted by the skilful creators with interactivity into a functional unified whole. Below you can watch the making of, where you can see how I proceeded in the realization of the visual. Then you can see a more general video from the agency summarizing the realities of the project in terms of music production, advertising strategy and traffic effectiveness. It was a fun job where I initially had a very free hand in the design and execution. In the final stages, the agency and I parted ways a bit on the final colour scheme and placement of small elements like tourist signage etc. Otherwise it was a charming job and a nice creative affair.
