EUROVISION SONG CONTEST
// EUROVISION
SONG CONTEST.
M&S ARENA, LIVERPOOL // 2023
Eurovision came to the UK and we were thrilled to be involved!
We were approached by the BBC about the Eurovision Song Contest in November 2022 before commencing design work in January 2023. It was an honour to be a part of this huge show seen by such a vast global audience, especially with the UK hosting on behalf of Ukraine. It was great to play such a big role in designing up so many elements of this show.
We designed and created the screen visuals for the Opening and Interval acts as well as all the Broadcast and Screen Graphics across the finals. This included the Scoreboard Graphics, Postcard Transitions and Branded Screen Holding Looks.
For the Opening & Interval acts we created the performance visuals for the Grand Final ‘Flag Parade’, Kalush Orchestra’s Opening Performance, ‘The Liverpool Songbook’, ‘Kalush Orchestra’s Opening Performance’ and the Semi-Final performances ‘Be Who You Wanna Be’ , ‘Music of Ukraine’ & ‘United By Music’.
It was important for each to have its own identity, and we worked closely with Lee Smithhurst, Dan Shipton, Tom Denning and German Nenov to bring these to life!
It was really fun to bring such a vast range of styles and techniques to this element of the show, combining rendered and real-time graphics along with camera-overlays.
BROADCAST.
MUSIC.
SCREEN BRANDING.
CREATIVE VISION & ART DIRECTION
For the broadcast graphics, we wanted to combine a polished aesthetic with energy and 'edge', combining 2D and 3D graphics with a fusion of flowing and choppy animation styles to take this year's Eurovision to another level.
We first developed the main logo animation with the idea to transform the logo from a 2D beating ECG heart monitor into polished 3D branding with choppy typographic text overlays. This style was then used as our benchmark to roll out to other areas of the broadcast graphics, screen branding and scoring elements, totalling hundreds of deliverables and variations for each nation.
When it came to the screen visuals it was clear it had to be centred around the 'heart logo' which represented the 160 million hearts of the viewers of the contest beating as one. We built a 3D heart installation, pushing the colours into neon for the evening TV shows.
The backdrop not only provided the ‘heart’ into the stage, which is based on the shape of a ‘hug’, but reacted to the action of the show , dropping into blues and pulses for tension moments and exploding into gold particles for the ‘Winners look’.
‘WE WANTED TO DISTINGUISH A UNIQUE LOOK AND FEEL TO THE CONTEST FROM PREVIOUS YEARS’
TECHNICAL IMPLEMENTATION
As one of the most-ambitious live shows in the world the sheer volume of deliverables that were required were more than we had ever delivered before. We worked closely with the broadcast team from NEP to ensure all the broadcast assets would run seamlessly in their real-time systems so they could react to what was happening live.
““EUROVISION WAS RICHER, MORE DIVERSE AND MORE INTERESTING THAN ANY OTHER EDITION IN RECENT MEMORY.”
- TIME OUT”
Really amazing to play such a big part in this historic show, and this year has served a much bigger purpose by helping to unite nations whilst there’s so much conflict going on, and it's really been special to be a part of this!
//TEAM
CLIENT: BBC STUDIOS
CREATIVE DIRECTOR & FOUNDER: TOM BAIRSTOW
CREATIVE DIRECTOR: CHRIS GAUGHRAN
CREATIVE LEAD: HENRIQUE GHERSI
PRODUCER: ALICE RYLAND
PRODUCER: LAURA CLARK
LEAD DESIGNER: LYDIA CAPLAN
LEAD TECHNICAL ARTIST: FLORIAN LECOQ
MOTION DESIGNER: EMILE FREDERICK
MOTION DESIGNER: DAN RICHARDS
MOTION DESIGNER: AARON HONDA
MOTION DESIGNER: ALESSIO MONACO
MOTION DESIGNER: ASH KAYSER
MOTION DESIGNER: LIAM GILHEANY
MOTION DESIGNER: DAN WISE
MOTION DESIGNER: DALE CROFT
MOTION DESIGNER: DUNCAN TUNE
CREATIVE ASSISTANT: DANA COULING
STUDIO MANAGER: ALICE BEST
