Royale: Jet Blue

Since their epically rad animation for Flaunt and Diesel, there’s hasn’t been much news from LA-based Royale, the studio formed by ex-Exopolis CD Brien Holman, animation superhero Jayson Whitmore and EP Jennifer Lucero about a year ago. But they’ve been busy, and the first of their fruits is this Jet Blue campaign for agency JWT.

There’s more to these spots than you might catch at first glance. In addition to the fluid interplay between live action and graphics, the spots are bubbling with little details: typographic nods to Metallica, a Cupid arrow piercing the heart of a lover and wisps of smoke from Mr. Hot Stuff’s thumbs, to name a few. But more important than these details is the consistent look and feel of the design and animation that echoes the preexisting print work and unites the campaign.

Royale promises there’s more work coming our way soon. Stay tuned for details.


Credits
Client: Jet Blue
Project: “Happy Jetting” (:60)
Airdate: May 2008

Agency: J. Walter Thompson, New York
Executive Creative Directors: Con Williamson, Jeff Bitsack
Art Director: Grant Mason
Copy Writer: Josh Bogdan
Producer: Drew Lippman
Business Director: Kristina Lenz
Account Manager: Alex Morrison

Production Co.: RSA Films, Los Angeles
Director: Johan Renck
DP: Claudio Miranda

Design/Animation: Royale, Los Angeles
Creative Directors: Brien Holman, Jayson Whitmore
Executive Producer: Jen Lucero
Producer: Anne Hong
Designers: Brien Holman, Kyle Smith
Animation: John Robson, Patrick Scruggs, Greg Reynard, Nick Baquero, Kevin Tonkin,
Rotoscope Artists: Viviana Kim, Maura Alvarez, Lance Ranzer, Jenn Epstein, Vinh Nguyen, Scott Baxter, Mattanah Yip

Editorial: Mackenzie Cutler, New York
Editor: Mike Colao

Finishing/Post: Company 3, New York
Film Colorist: Tim Masick,

Music: “Mr. Blue Sky” Electric Light Orchestra

Audio Post: Sound Lounge, New York
Sound Mix: Tom Jucarone,

About the author

Justin Cone

/ justincone.com
Together with Carlos El Asmar, Justin co-founded Motionographer, F5 and The Motion Awards. He currently lives in Austin, Texas with is wife, son and fluffball of a dog. Before taking on Motionographer full-time, Justin worked in various capacities at Psyop, NBC-Universal, Apple, Adobe and SCAD.

31 Comments

Marc B.

Man i loved their Flaunt piece but this here is crap sorry for the honesty. It’s like 10 years ago. Ribbons? Extruded stars and fonts? Wtf? This is quickies material at best.

I have no idea how this made it up here.

B's Mom

How long you been in the biz B?

justin

The basic design for this campaign was already decided by JWT; Royale had to take the existing design elements and bring them to life without deviating too far from the originals. It’s a fairly common situation for big multi-platform campaigns like these, but it’s trickier to pull off than it sounds.

Joakim

Are you serious?! This piece is outstanding. Love the rythm, the photo and the clean graphic.

Jacob Ireland

Full Sail Grads.

Marc B.

No pun intended but it wouldn’t be the first time that Motionographer posts crap in the main section while putting the good stuff in the quickies and vice versa. Todays example is Royales ribbon and extrusion BS fully featured while shoving the much more interesting Nick Germany idents into the quickies.

I still love Justin Cone

Marc B.
Student

Marc C.

Marc, how about a link to your work?

Marc B.

My work has won numerous awards:
https://www.ezzthetic.com/

speaking for everyone on the internet

yikes.

friendly advice

Keep working Marc B. I wish you the best and hope that one day you’ll have the work to back up your hypercritical opinions.

THE TIM

Dude I kind of agree that the Cinema 4D extrusions are light on the creative side, but if you are going to come strong on the boards don’t ever admit you created a webpage that horrible. No Cred youngin.

Kurt

Christ on vacation, that is the gnarliest website of all time

sam

Yeah True!!!
One of the most horrible website to sell design !
Begore criticise spend some time on redesigning your website !!!
Or you know what http://www.templatemonster.com will do the job for you !

Drew

I think this was a campaign that was already developed by JWT and Royale’s role was creating a motion piece based on JWT’s print campaign. I’ve seen the billboards at bus stops long before the commercial ever arrived. I thought both the animation and sensibility were beautiful.

Keith

Seriously, what’s up with all the hating? It’s a great spot, Royale did an amazing job adding a subtle layer of style to the existing design of the ad campaign.
Marc B. hold on tight to those “awards”, wish you best of luck.

rothermel

i actually kinda like this. mostly because i’m glad jetblue makes flying fun, and the graphics match their attitude. i really dug the live action, and choice of casting (esp. freak out weird dancing guy).

Marc, so what if theres cliches in there. theres cliches in my reel too. who cares? we cant all be the most avant garde fucked up weirdo no one gets my shit types of designers all the time. You give and take based on your audience.

Flaunt and Diesel (esp Flaunt) people can understand the style of what they did there. Jetblue needs to appeal to a larger and broader crowd, while still trying to have an edge and they succeeded.

boca

Hahaha! :-D

Brian Gossett

Marc, bow down to the amazingness that is Royale!

Simon Robson

I don’t actually think that’s Marc’s site he posted. He’s just having a laugh. Besides, Royale should be really pleased, as it’s now kind of become a badge of honour to have Marc slag off your work here on Motionographer. It’s even better when a few of his cronies get in on the act too.I know the drubbing Marc B & friends gave my Save The Children campaign kept me in good spirits for days…

Marc B.

Didn’t ya’all hear me say i loved their Flaunt piece but hate this?
If you can’t admit its crap especially now that i know the design came from the client then something is wrong with you.

What’s great about it? Ugly design tracked into live-action. Wow.

Even i know ribbons, extruded stars and fonts are a crime against humanity nowadays. And the animation isn’t even that fancy to make up for it.

Rich

Agreed….

Not to mention the fact I have no idea what the hell is even going on in the spot. Is there a story? What’s really being sold? Any why does all the footage look like stock?

dex

this idea is a cheap and badly executed rip off of SO MANY things done SO MUCH better SO MANY times before. come on people. let’s get back to things original.

Marc C.

Are ad agencies now required by law to use “Mr. Blue Sky” in every television commercial?

elephetus

yea really… I liked it better in the VW spot a while ago.

monovich

the only thing this spot did wrong was get posted on the main page, it could have lived in peace in the quickies.

Those Nick idents are pretty cool, by the way.

casey

rad, keep on keeping on guys. Have you heard anything new about ****more’s mom?

robson

i heard she’s hitting the sauce hardcore

casey

oh man, thats a bummer my heart and jesus go out.

robson

jk she’s fine

igor

Thanks for the post, Justin! Royale are always welcome.

Comments are closed.