Company News: Page (1) of 1 - 03/17/06

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Comics lovers are in for a visual treat when the new animated Vertigo logo is revealed today in front of the much-anticipated feature ?V for Vendetta.? Created by Imaginary Forces (IF), the logo design was spearheaded by Creative/Art Director Ahmet Ahmet who worked closely with Founder/Creative Director Peter Frankfurt.

Vertigo, an imprint of graphic novels and comic books published by DC Comics, focuses on darker and more mature themes in its storytelling. Capturing a decadent mood, the Vertigo logo opens with the widely recognized blue-and-white DC Comics logo, which crumbles into a flock of ravens, mascot of the caliginous. The flock is then absorbed into the Vertigo logo, surrounded by an ominous blood-red smoke that fades into nothingness.

For Imaginary Forces, the Vertigo logo marks another successful collaboration with a DC Comics brand. The award-winning design and entertainment agency also created the animated logo for DC Comics in 2005, which premiered in front of ?Batman Begins.? 

?Vertigo is more grounded in the Edgar Allan Poe genre of the dark and supernatural so that is how we approached our design,? explains Ahmet. ?Stylistically, we wanted the logo to be the antithesis of what DC Comics represented, which we achieved by using the ravens and the corrupted crumbling of the DC Comics logo. We went for a hand-drawn look with traditional brush techniques to maintain a more organic feel and to reflect the heritage of the Vertigo brand, a much darker side to DC Comics. Thematically, this is what we had to represent in the logo, but the client was very open to our stylistic approach.? 

Ahmet supervised the IF team, which included Designers John Nguyen and Rob Bollick;
Animators Hai Ho, Sal Rangel and Dan Santoni; Inferno Artist Rod Basham; and Producer Greg Talmage.
 
Studio: Warner Bros.
Client: DC Comics
 
Release Date: March 17, 2006 

Designed & Produced by: Imaginary Forces (IF)
IF Creative Director: Peter Frankfurt
IF Creative/Art Director: Ahmet Ahmet
IF Producer: Greg Talmage
IF Designers: John Nguyen, Rob Bollick, Juan Monasterio
IF Animators: Hai Ho, Sal Rangel, Dan Santoni
IF Inferno Artist: Rod Basham
IF Head of Production: Ben Apley
IF Coordinator: Alyssa Evans
 
About Imaginary Forces
Founded in 1996, Imaginary Forces (IF) is a multi-disciplinary entertainment and design agency based in Hollywood and New York. The award-winning work spans the diverse industries of feature film production and marketing, architecture and experience design, corporate branding, commercial advertising, and network branding.
IF has developed feature film marketing and branding campaigns for such films and television shows as The Chronicles of Narnia, The Stepford Wives, Spider-Man, Men in Black I and II, and Angels in America; and main title sequences for Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio, The Legend of Zorro, Ray and Silver City, as well as the acclaimed openings for such films as Spider-Man and Seven. For the three Blade franchises, IF generated original film content and served as producer. IF has also created acclaimed commercial campaigns for Nike, Kodak, Herman Miller, Dove, and Smirnoff, and produced network rebranding packaged for USA, Animal Planet, and Lifetime.

Fusing architecture and narrative, IF has created branded experiences for the Wynn Resort and Fremont Street in Las Vegas, BMW, IBM, Morgan Stanley, the Wexner Center Museum, the NFL?s Baltimore Ravens, and both the New York Knicks and the New York Rangers. Following the events of September 11, 2001, Imaginary Forces, as a founding member of United Architects, was selected as one of six finalists to compete in the re-design of the World Trade Center site.  Recognizing the scope of the project was far greater than simply building new towers, United Architects set out to combine storytelling, architecture and experience design to present a solution that addressed the social, emotional, urban, national and international issues involved.

IF is composed of over 70 creative professionals: art directors, designers, writers, strategists, animators, editors, producers, and film directors.

www.imaginaryforces.com

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