Before The Motion Awards™, there was no platform built specifically to honor Motion Design — only borrowed categories and unfair comparisons. In this personal reflection, Carlos El Asmar shares how frustration, love, and a commitment to fairness led to the creation of the first awards show designed by the Motion Design community, for the Motion Design community — and announces a new global collaboration to celebrate the craft together.
“As someone who’s been at the studio since day one, I still find myself getting into the weeds from time to time. Sometimes the clearest (and most fun) way to direct is to dive right in and channel my younger self; the one pulling all-nighters to composite an animation, or churning out endless renders to hit a deadline…
That person never disappears entirely. Whether it’s a simple draw-over, a mood edit, or a quick storyboard, sometimes you just have to jump on the front line and get stuck in.”
“Both Mark and Thom being from the UK, and because a lot of the inspirational stories and narratives where UK based I feel like Tall Tales exists very much within that geography. There is a link in terms of Australia’s history as a British colony, in particular as a child growing up on the fairly distant and isolated Western Australian coast the stories I learned about various mutinies and people far away from their homes finding themselves in faraway lands.”
“For us as much as this project was an anniversary gift to ourselves, it was also celebration of craft, of making purely for the love if it. Commercial demands make it hard to set aside time for projects like these, it almost feels like a luxury to be able to experiment. It was an utter joy.”
“The logo was the starting point—the anchor of the whole identity. Typography often plays a central role in my projects, and I design custom letterforms whenever I can, even though I’m not a type designer by trade. In this case, I began with the work of legendary Italian typographer Aldo Novarese. His typefaces—Microgramma and Eurostile—are iconic: bold, futuristic, and beautifully structured.”
“Over the years, I’ve found that resampling and reprocessing are some of the most powerful techniques in Sound Design, more so than any single plugin or piece of gear. One tiny moment in an animation might need just a single sound to hit right…or it might need 30 layers blended, smashed, stretched, and reshaped into something entirely new. That’s where the magic lives, taking something simple and manipulating it until it resonates.”
“Mark Pritchard and I have worked together for 10–15 years. Hearing his demos, even early on, the album felt special—each song demanded visual treatment. We bonded over reinvention; I don’t stick to one style, just as Mark shifts musically. The synergy deepened with Thom Yorke’s anxiety-laden vocals.”
“I love the objects that i have in my home. And I pay attention to them. My latest book is Still Life with Remorse. So i know how to combine seemingly normal objects with great emotion. My daily walks are also the key to all of my work. I fall in love with objects i see. A broken chair on the street. I fall in love with trees and dogs and people that i see. And I also (usually) have a sense of empathy with people. Hopefully that comes across.”
We all reach that point eventually: the satisfaction of another project or another award is replaced by an uneasy dread. You realize the old ways no longer feel fulfilling—maybe because the technology is evolving faster than you can keep up, or your expertise is suddenly less in demand.
