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Tronic Studio Enjoys Success As Design Firm for Wired's Nextfest Created multiple media components for interactive technology event in San Francisco and adapted motion graphics for Science Channel special NEW YORK, NY June 24 - When huge crowds turned out to see WIRED magazine's NextFest, a hip, interactive technology event held in San Francisco May 14-16, they were dazzled by 100 exhibits showcasing technologies and ideas that are transforming our world. New York-based Tronic Studio (www.tronicstudio.com), NextFest's design firm, was charged with branding the prestigious event and creating the stunning environment in which visitors experienced WIRED's visions of the future. Tronic Studio was responsible for the architectural design, branding and signage, motion graphics and website components of NextFest. "An integrated branding solution is important in marketing such an event," says Vivian Rosenthal who co-founded Tronic Studio with Jesse Seppi. "We saw NextFest as an extension of integrated branding which reaches beyond one medium to include architecture and signage. It required a multi-disciplinary, experiential approach." An approach, which Tronic Studio is uniquely qualified to provide. "We move easily between broadcast design and experiential design," Rosenthal says. "Brands and advertising agencies frequently ask us for concepts that can be executed across multiple media. For us, the exciting aspect of a project is to see the design solution work across the board." Rosenthal and Seppi, and the Tronic Studio team of Rei Inamoto, Adam Dayem, Ahm Chandawanich, Marlon Hernandez and Garry Waller, worked closely with WIRED art director Victor Friedberg on NextFest. The expo was staged in the 50,000 square-foot Festival Pavilion at Fort Mason Center, a refurbished pier, where more than 23,000 visitors got up-close-and-personal with emerging technologies that promise to dramatically reshape our future. The Future in Six Experiential Pavilions Lead sponsors hosted six experiential pavilions, three occupying 4,000 square-feet and three 2,000 square-feet, which housed the exhibits. NextFest presenting sponsor GE hosted the Imagination Pavilion, Motorola sponsored The Future of Communication Pavilion and GM sponsored The Future of Transportation Pavilion. NASA and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute hosted The Future of Exploration Pavilion, The Future of Design and The Future of Entertainment were paired in one pavilion, The Future of Health and The Future of Security teamed in another. NextFest visitors were introduced to Tronic Studio's work as they entered the dark, tunnel-like portal leading to the exhibition space. Loops of Tronic Studio's colorful, compelling motion graphics title sequences, which previewed the pavilions inside, were projected onto scrims, and on the mist from a fog screen as complex ATC directional sound accompanied one's journey. Audio for the motion graphics was created by Combustion. "NextFest looked to us to create a title sequence that worked for all the categories of pavilions," Rosenthal explains. Using motion graphics, 3D animation and film imagery, Tronic Studio devised sequences that were related in their aesthetic sensibilities but differed in their abstract visual representations of the categories. For example, an orange palette was selected for The Future of Communications, which featured moving wires suggestive of connectivity. The Future of Design employed a red palette to showcase an organic physical shape, which spoke to space and architecture, while The Future of Health, with a green palette, displayed imagery representing microscopic movement within the body. Graphics Adapted for Discovery Channel Special Later, Tronic Studio adapted the motion graphics for a one-hour special about NextFest produced by Discovery's Science Channel, the expo's official broadcast sponsor. Science Channel spent three days on site documenting the experience and The Today Show produced a live telecast from the show. The Science Channel special incorporated the motion graphics as the show open, close and bumpers. When NextFest visitors emerged from the portal into the exhibition space they were awed by the sight of the six experiential pavilions, or pods, all designed by Tronic Studio. Loosely based on hemispherical shapes, the pods' semi-transparent fabric skins were bathed in pastel hues of gently pulsing light. "Color and light played an important part in branding each category," says Rosenthal. "In our proposal for NextFest we considered light as symbolic of the future and the possibilities of tomorrow." Tronic Studio also designed the expo's color-branded signage, which took the form of hanging banners; pavilion titles were displayed on plasma screens adjacent to each pod. Tronic Studio's expertise in integrated branding and design and its mastery of multiple media spelled success at NextFest, which drew much larger crowds than the organizers anticipated. WIRED has already invited the design firm to reprise its role at NextFest 2005. "Plans for the new expo are in the works, and we've been asked to do it again," Rosenthal says proudly. The strength of Tronic Studio lies in its ability to leverage the various backgrounds of its four partners as architects, designers, art directors and directors to establish a collective fusing of ideas, images, movement and experience. By actively shaping all projects though a rigorous conceptual process, we transcend preconceived notions of how to arrive at a particular creative solution within any of the media in which we work. Ultimately, by privileging our ideas and promoting ourselves as thought leaders we offer ourselves the flexibility to work in broadcast, from, print, the Internet and the built environment. Clients include: MTV, Fuse, Nike Diesel, Newsweek, Wired, RES, Hint magazine, and more for information contact Vivian Rosenthal 212.255 1777 |