discovery+ – key art animated for DOOH screens

discovery+ keeps launching new shows, and every title comes with its own key art. It also has to work on big screens around the city, where you only have a few seconds of attention. My job has been to bring the key art from the shows to life for DOOH – quickly, at a consistent quality and true to the original, static design.

How I approached it

I work from the layered key art files: characters, background and title are separated and each given its own movement, so the image gains depth and life without becoming a new design. In some of the spots I have added footage from my own archive, such as water, clouds and fire.

Made for screens in public spaces

At a station or a bus stop, a spot has a few seconds. The movement has to catch the eye straight away, and the title has to be readable before people have walked past – without sound. You can’t count on anyone watching from start to finish, so the payoff can’t be saved for the end. Instead, the spot has to communicate just as well whether you catch one second at the beginning, in the middle or at the end.