DESIGNERS ON FILM

Motion design, animation, visual effects, live action production, typography, Erin Sarofsky and her team can do it all. Sarofsky designed titles for Guardians of the Galaxy, Werewolf by Night, and Echo, as well as James Gunn's The Suicide Squad, plus comedies Brooklyn Nine-Nine and Community. Erin talks about the 1991 comedy Defending Your Life, written and directed by Albert Brooks who starred al...

Director Wim Wenders has inspired the likes of Beyonce and Kevin Smith, among others, and while he's known for Wings of Desire and Paris, Texas, his lesser-known epic Until the End of the World is equally fantastic. The road trip story, interspersed with science fiction set pieces and hand-held computer devices, will make you question your own relationship with machines. How do we use technology,...

What's coming in December 2024, and early 2025. Hey, listeners, tell us about the Superman teaser trailer. https://www.designersonfilm.com/superman - Until the End of the World with Jessica Barness, design scholar and a scholarly designer https://www.jessicabarness.com/ https://jessicabarness.substack.com/ https://www.whatscholarshiplookslike.net/ - Defending Your Life with Erin Sarofsky, Executiv...

Jacques Tati's Playtime, aka PlayTime, leaves an impression, and it definitely impressed designer, educator, and writer Louise Sandhaus who has a lot to say about this movie that's kind of about nothing, with the city and scenery as the star, and people merely moving through, around, and within the environment. Be mesmerized by its set pieces, odd circumstances, physical humor, and bombastic party...

With a PhD from the University of California Irvine, behavioral designer Ian Tingen has a range of capabilities: strategic planning, market research, management change, qualitative research, unconscious bias awareness training, behavioral science, and legal analysis, among others. As one of his clients said, "...when you need to make the impossible possible, work with Ian." When it comes to movies...

What's the best baseball movie ever? For Koto creative director Caroline Fox, there's only one answer to that question: 1993's The Sandlot . It tells the story of Scotty Smalls, a fifth-grader in a new town, making new friends, and learning about baseball. Co-starring Karen Allen, Denis Leary, and James Earl Jones, the movie has lessons about collaboration and overcoming challenges. Caroline talks...

Tom Muller comes back to the show to discuss Mary Harron's American Psycho , released in 2000 and based on the 1991 book by Bret Easton Ellis. Christian Bale stars as Patrick Bateman, a New York City investment banker who's an unreliable narrator with a psychopathic alter-ego, and lives out violent fantasies that spill from his personal life onto his work life. - Tom's an award-winning designer an...

DayCloud Studios, the creative branding and web design agency, has had team members Liz Hunt and Chelsea Poppens on the show this season, and based on Liz's recommendation, Keaton Haines had to be on too. "Keaton is our all-around creative guru, he heard about what you were doing and he LOVES talking movies." Less than 24 hours after emailing Keaton, he wrote back, " Princess Mononoke … it's a lif...

What's the best movie trilogy? For Liz Hunt, there's only one answer to that question: The Lord of the Rings . The CEO and Chief Creative at DayCloud Studios weighs in on the original books, the 1977 animated film, Peter Jackson, and also Dune (with some Duplass-puppet- Togetherness memories), the Spider-Verse, Superman, and Batman. Plus we attempt to answer the question, "Does Henry Cavill's wig...

November marks 25 episodes of Designers On Film, and it's been a fun ride. Let's look ahead, learn what's coming soon. Tom Muller comes back to the show for American Psycho: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHMaiPPjHHg Liz Hunt of DayCloud Studios on Lord of the Rings: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bo1XFtQbMs Keaton Haines from DayCloud Studios, a lifelong fan of Princess Mononoke: https://www.y...

Young Frankenstein brought together so many talented actors and comedians, to create a memorable and re-watchable Gothic horror comedy. Artist and designer Mike Wirth explains how Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley's Frankenstein and its various adaptations and tributes and parodies connect to and relate to the Jewish golem story. We also touch on not only the classic movies of Mel Brooks, but also Sam R...

Jen Hood, Co-Founder and Design Lead at Hoodzpah http://hoodzpahdesign.com/ , provides plenty of reasons to watch and re-watch Edgar Wright's 2004 horror/comedy classic Shaun of the Dead . Not only is Simon Pegg cute, but he and Nick Frost are also such a dynamic duo that you might find yourself drawing comparisons to Abbott and Costello, or Laurel and Hardy. Appropriate since, like those comedy l...

Chelsea Poppens, Chief Operating Officer at DayCloud Studios , joins the show to talk about the fun, family-friendly Halloween classic, Disney's Hocus Pocus . We root for sister and brother Dani and Max, with Allison, who battle the Sandersons! But don't take the movie too seriously, enjoy it for what it is, appreciate the nostalgia, and take in all the nifty practical effects from the glory days...

Artist, illustrator, and designer Diane Faye Zerr returns to the show to talk about Prey . Admittedly, she's never been a Predator fan but when she found out about Prey 's premise, she jumped right in. Yes, this is a "Predator Movie" but Prey is all about Naru , a strong woman fighting multiple battles, dealing with wild animals, and on top of it all, Naru takes down an alien. "She doesn't have as...

Digital and graphic designer Catalina Olvera has not only seen Saw once, but she's also gone back to it time and time again, having been fascinated with it since age 8. A big fan of true crime stories, she explains why the first Saw holds up. Sure, designers will appreciate Jigsaw's crafty "measure twice and cut once" methodology, but it's the story and set pieces that leave an impression. In addi...

Giovanna Chung of Kindred Spirits Design Co. isn't necessarily a horror fan, but Get Out struck such a chord that she finds herself thinking about it time and time again, and not just because of Jordan Peele's considered use of type, color, and graphics. The movie delivers a horrifying and memorable story with seemingly authentic human interactions used for something else, something evil and horri...

Motion designer Steven Tapia shares his fondness for The Matrix , from the fantastic story to the cliffhangers and fight scenes, up to and including its commentary on identity, technology, and humanity. A successful designer who's worked with clients like James "Latin" Clark on Tony Yayo's Pass the Patron video featuring 50 Cent , Tapia is also an accomplished teacher with After Effects & Visu...

Is Joe Dirt the best movie to watch while you crush Mountain Dew and hang out with your pals in a garage? There's only one answer to that question, according to James Edmondson, who studied at TypeMedia in The Hague, Netherlands . In 2015 he launched his type company Ohno whose specimens do include Joe Dirt references, or crumbs if you will. Edmondson has grown Ohno into an awesome company and bro...

Educator , writer, historian and archivist , and collector of all things cool Briar Levit (who is a filmmaker too!!) talks about why Raising Arizona is an all-time favorite. Not only is this rompy Coen Brothers movie full of humor, poetic speech, non-sequiturs, fun music, and Looney Tunes cartoon-style mayhem, but it also has a great cast and memorable dialogue. Also hear about Fargo the movie and...

You want more? YOU GOT IT! Plenty of tangents, arts and crafts, and more swear words than usual make this bonus episode go to eleven (apologies to Nigel Tufnel ). Further One Crazy Summer discussion, plus we talk about synthesizers, MIDI, PageMaker, organizing your movies nicely on shelves, George Clooney's Up in the Air , packing and moving, murals, paint and emotion, beer can designs , sketchboo...

Savage Steve Holland's One Crazy Summer has mostly been overlooked, or forgotten, a shame since it blends genres and media into a big sweet, salty, and sometimes spicy milkshake of a movie. Guilty pleasure? Not quite, according to Mike Wirth who wonders, "Why couldn't John Cusack's Hoops McCann have been Hoops Leibowitz?" A Southern, Jewish-American originally from New York, Mike focuses on social...

Is Civil War "just a joy ride with some press" or maybe, perhaps, it's a movie full of chaos, evil, the horrors of war, and so much substance that it requires a second or third watch to make sense of it? Artist, illustrator, designer Diane Faye Zerr weighs in on the movie and Kirsten Dunst's character Lee who's a war photographer, plus we talk about the strong roles for women that writer & dir...

President Richard M. Nixon resigned August 9, 1974 , and fifty years later the events surrounding his time in office still reverberate. Chief among them, the Watergate scandal and reporting by The Washington Post's Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein who began their work in 1972, dramatized in All the President's Men . Pentagram partner Michael Bierut explains why the movie matters, and praises Willia...

Paula Scher calls The Verdict "a favorite" and rightfully so. The performances are spectacular, the mystery keeps you engaged, and the ending leaves a mark. In addition to the movie, we discuss dedication and focus, Better Call Saul , pinball, Cool Hand Luke , and Michael Clayton , although not in that order. Her new book, "Paula Scher: Works" chronicles her early days in the music industry as an...

What's the best book-to-film adaptation, and could it be Die Hard ? Sean McCaul, of Citizen By Design , asserts his deep adoration for the Bruce Willis action flick. Along the way we discuss Frank Lloyd Wright , terrorism, Moonlighting and Blind Date , plus 1994's The Crow . For good measure, we get into Batman and Robin and how the comic book detectives connect to 1995's Die Hard with a Vengeance...