Seeing it through the looking glass.
Hole in the Wall Productions makes thought-provoking documentary and commercial films. They describe themselves as "a consortium of renegades, misfits and malcontents, intent on bettering the world through the art of superior film and story telling." (They also laid claim to the name years before the great Paul Newman).
Hole in the Wall hired RDI to develop a new visual identity system. The system would include a "stinger" or animated version of the logo to introduce films. The final identity program would be extended across stationery and business communications used on a daily basis.
"We discovered a thread of curiosity, conspiracy and culture ran throughout their work and declared it was the essence of their brand."
While interviewing executive director Sprague Theobald about the motivation behind his recent 5-month Arctic documentary, he replied, “...we had to see it for ourselves before it was gone.” We discovered this thread of curiosity, conspiracy and culture ran throughout much of their work and declared it was essential to the brand.
Theobald also had a Narnian vision for the brand that involved a portal to a land of fascination and wonder.
Through interviews, research and hand-sketches, RDI developed a winning concept and storyboard for the new brand and animated logo sequence. We produced two and four-color versions of the logo and a polished 7-second animated version. The animated stingers resolves to the static logo and explains how it came to be. Quite wonderful.
In theaters, the animated logo quickly engages audiences with a soundbyte of foreboding windchimes (recorded on a foggy night on the grounds of a Newport church). Fog rolls in and a shooting star lights the sky above an uncharted island. The static logo fades in. A silhouette of a young man scrambles up the logo and peers out through the "O" in Hole in the Wall. The logo remains on screen a few seconds more – just long enough for audiences to soak it in.
The bold one-color version of the brand was used for HITW’s new business cards and stationery. To align with the studio's environmental concerns, stationery was printed on FSC-Certified paper produced from sustainably harvested forests.
Matching business cards were created - the folding kind with the new logo on the outside cover. The cover logo has the "O" in HOLE IN THE WALL drilled-out allowing the figure on the inside to show through. The cards also resembled a looking or sighting device. On the back of the card – a bold statement invites readers to view their website; “The difficult is easy, The impossible may take some time”, followed by "Find out more at www.HITWProductions.com."
Styles and templates for movie posters, signage and apparel were created and used to brand and identify crew, events and films. The identity was later extended across the HITW website presence -- where we deepened the concept of perception, culture and storytelling.
