Trollback + Dreams
This latest in-house project from Trollbäck+Co challenged designers Tetsuro, Peter, Anna, Paul, Emre, Christina and Tolga to create short films that capture the semi-conscious thoughts they have as they drift from wakefulness to the realm of sleep. They ponder diapers, train rides, Trapcode’s Form plugin and clowns interrupting a perfectly delightful outing at the beach—among many other things.
It’s not often that a studio pulls back the curtain and lets each of its designers say something in their own voice. It’s fun to see the wide variety of approaches to this challenge and then go looking for echoes in the rest of T+Co’s work. I’d love to see other shops do something similar.
Wednesday, June 4th 2008 at 1:25 pm |
Very cool stuff indeed. I think the first one is my favorite. I also like the one with the bridge and font that say something like “when I think about stuff…I can’t go to sleep”. Very interesting idea. I like that all of the approaches are different.
Wednesday, June 4th 2008 at 1:43 pm |
I like the stop-action one on the beach. That’s pretty much how my mind works as I’m drifting off to Dreamland.
Wednesday, June 4th 2008 at 1:54 pm |
The one by Anna is cute.
Don’t like the one with Trapcode plugin usage = lazy
All in all a really nice company project
Wednesday, June 4th 2008 at 3:28 pm |
It’s not surprising that a designer would ponder Trapcode’s Form plugin before falling asleep, considering it’s used so damn much already.
Very nice overall concept though, seeing indiv designers of a studio given this task – and you’re right, then looking for the echoes on the commercial side. Very interesting.
Wednesday, June 4th 2008 at 4:00 pm |
Wow. They are free to do pretty much anything (non-client work) and this is what they came back with? These are extremely disappointing.
Wednesday, June 4th 2008 at 5:25 pm |
It felt like Micro ideas with micro implementation. I like it. Things can get lost when you try and make a complex/rococo/over-worked mograph piece simply for the sake of impressing and one upmanship. I’m curious what designers will say and do with a simple idea and a few hours of time.
Wednesday, June 4th 2008 at 5:38 pm |
I don’t think they took a few hours of time except the Trapcode one, actually that one took just 7 mins i’m playing with the plugin myself right now.
Wednesday, June 4th 2008 at 6:27 pm |
I told you to stop playing with yourself B!
Wednesday, June 4th 2008 at 7:33 pm |
Please stop making fun of my Mom she died in a car accident a few years ago. Thanks
Wednesday, June 4th 2008 at 8:40 pm |
Peter’s thoughts before he goes to sleep nailed my thoughts… This is really cool… I like the concept and the variety of mograph design used to visual present those concepts.
Wednesday, June 4th 2008 at 10:36 pm |
I have seen better things done by students. I am surprised this work even made it on this website. Weak narratives, paper thin concepts and nothing new technically.
Wednesday, June 4th 2008 at 11:36 pm |
Judging by the current slew of hating and posturing on these comments boards, I think it’s fair to say the lunatics are taking over the asylum.
Voice of reason = Trollback should be applauded for going out on a limb and encouraging pro-bono work from it’s employees. An interesting concept, has been executed with varying levels of originality and flair. My favourites are the stop-mo beach spot and the falling asleep type on hand spot. But that’s just my opinion though. Well done Trollback, from Simon (A non-hater)…
Thursday, June 5th 2008 at 6:39 am |
Simon you’re definitely exaggerating. If you’re referring to Royales piece the criticism is justified and has nothing to do with hating. If you have been victim of criticism yourself once well that’s life i guess just please don’t blame it on haters and hate all the time just because they don’t agree with you or your strong desire for harmony no matter the content.
In this case here i agree it’s not so fair to bash Trollback since it’s non-commercial pieces done by individuals with different talents. And i don’t think they’re bad at all as mentioned in my comment on top of this section.
Thursday, June 5th 2008 at 12:08 am |
It’s great to see that studios are harnessing the raw creativity of their employees when times are slow… we all have dry spells, it’s part of the business. During those times you have to keep your employees motivated somehow, otherwise you risk that they might leave.
Here’s to Trollbacks’ comebacks. They deserve to be back in the a-list again one day; we in Istanbul look forward to seeing something new from them!
Thursday, June 5th 2008 at 12:09 am |
I agree with Simon.. love Anna’s falling asleep spot..
Thursday, June 5th 2008 at 12:24 am |
Anna’s is great – a nice human connection. everything else is kind of lazy. Not great from a studio that i once admired. I heard they lost some of the star players.
Thursday, June 5th 2008 at 3:47 am |
Probably has nothing to do but i don`t like the web page. too many tags and you get lost. I wanted to see the motion work but…..
Thursday, June 5th 2008 at 10:54 am |
It’s great that Trollback invested in an in-house project. The quality level was a mixed bag. Some were really fun, as discussed above. Some of the others were of student reel calibre. It might have something to do with who had more time to work on it.
Ultimately, extracurriculars like this and PSST! are what the mograph community gets jacked up on. I feel jacked up….and it has nothing to do with my ongoing steroid abuse issue that I’m not supposed to discuss on internet forums.
Friday, June 6th 2008 at 2:01 pm |
I like these short pieces, they are great and humble… it’s good to run sometimes without trying to beat a new olympic record.
Sunday, June 8th 2008 at 4:16 am |
it sucks
Monday, June 9th 2008 at 6:13 am |
a little harsh sss-
this is an inventive project
simple and honest
i like seeing studios doing things outside of the client realm
and trollback is one of the best.