Project:

PNC Bank

'Word Play'

Type:

Animation

What happens when banking is centered around people rather than numbers? The client wanted to channel a community-based approach with its campaign, and to do so, we experimented with playful, minimalistic animation to bring characters to life against a backdrop of illustrated typography. We worked together with Deutsch NY to create poignant vignettes of characters gathered in a park, at a farmer’s market, building, working, and playing, eventually revealing the letters of ‘TOGETHER’ as the set for their living, breathing, micro environment. 

Credits

Production Company: Gentleman Scholar

Creative Directors: William Campbell & Will Johnson

Executive Producer: Lindsay Bodanza

Head of Production: Rachel Kaminek

Art Director: Jordan Lyle

Producer: Nikki Maniolas

3D Animators: Ben Grangereau, Andrew Kim, Robert Kim

Character Animators: Sharon Huang, James Lane, Sam Ortiz

Designers: Geoffrey Godet, Shawn Lee, Burcu Sankur Agency: Deutsch NY

EVP, Director of Integrated Production: Joe Calabrese

Producer: Dylan Mizner

Assistant Producer: Halley Mangano

Senior Art Director: Art Boonklan

Copywriter: Randall Head

EVP, Group Creative Director: Joanne Scannello

EVP, Executive Creative Director: Jeffrey Vinick

Account Executive: Alyssa Bush

Account Supervisor: Mark Donohue

VP, Account Director: Amber Seale

EVP, Group Account Director: Barbara Chandler

VP, Planning Director: Naomi Goldin

“The campaign’s elegant simplicity begs the viewer to re-visit and observe the subtleties of the secondary characters and surrounding environmental details.”

Character Study

'Teamwork'


Despite the 2D style of the campaign, the team took it one step further by animating entirely in 3D. Doing so allowed the team the flexibility needed to infuse the spot with warmth and personality, emoting the characters with an extraordinary level of detail in their range of motion. The challenge was to choreograph the eye while still maintaining a minimal approach to the animation. As we built an obstacle course from the letters of the word ‘TEAMWORK’, our goal was to convey a sense of harmony and shared accomplishment as our characters struggle together crossing the letters’ terrain, ultimately completing the obstacle course as a team, and triumphing together.

Collaborators by Design