Scroll through Instagram and you’ll be overwhelmed with perfection — beautiful people with flawless skin, toned bodies in perfectly curated scenes, life as a never-ending romcom. When we’re flooded with these images, it increasingly seems there’s no place for real life and its plain, ugly truths.

But as this piece hints, squeezed into the corset of modern beauty standards, a body with flaws and scars is trying to burst out.
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FOREAL® is your friendly neighbourhood Design Studio for any kind of crispy, high-end 3D-illustration, animation and art direction. Based in Germany, booked worldwide. www.weareforeal.com
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Concept, Art Direction and Production: FOREAL®
Co Art-Direction: Alex Trochut
Sound: Fonty Music aka Peter Albertz (@fontymusic)

We’ve spent the last year of our lives on screens. No longer solely a matter of selfies and snapchats, these last months we’ve worked, socialised, grieved, and even fallen in love online.

But has this made our digital lives more real, or our offline lives more fake?

With its characters contorting in a mad game of Twister, this piece suggests we may not be ready to give up the digital dreamscapes we’ve created for ourselves. We say we want to reward authenticity — but is that what our thumbs really double tap? 

BIO

Dvein is a directors collective that pushes the limits of live action and CGI storytelling, helmed by Teo Guillem and Carlos Pardo established since 2007. With a background in fine art and design, the collective merges the physical with the digital world to craft sleek visual effects infused with their own distinctive, organic aesthetic. With an experimental, design-driven culture at its core, Dvein combine live action with animation to pursue a unique visual language in all their work across cinema, broadcast, music video, art and installation.

Dvein have crafted commercial work for clients including Diesel, Jean-Paul Gaultier, Shiseido, Canal+, MTV, National Geographic or Nokia. Dvein’s directorial work has been featured in multiple festival and exhibitions around the world such as Saatchi & Saatchi’s New Director Showcase (France), OFFF Festival (Spain & France), F5 (United States), ArtFutura (Argentina) or Graphika (Philippines) among others.

Magma, one of their short films is part of the permanent collection of MoMa in New York. He has been awarded with the City of Barcelona Award on Film (2012) and the Fine Arts Medal of San Carlos University in Valencia (2013) alongside other awards.

“Media viruses spread through the datasphere the same way biological ones spread through the body or community. But instead of travelling along an organic circulatory system, a media virus travels through the networks of the mediascape…Once attached, the virus injects its more hidden agendas into the datastream in the form of ideological code — not genes but a conceptual equivalent we now call ‘memes’” – Douglas Rushkoff (NY: Media Virus! Hidden Agendas in Popular Culture,1994). 

This piece plays with the idea that ‘truthiness’ is catching. The longer we’re exposed to something that feels true (regardless of whether or not it is) the more likely we are to succumb to it. Like toxic mold, ‘truthiness’ creeps into the carpets, it takes root in the walls, and rots our sense of reality from the inside out. 

If truthiness is an epidemic — what’s being left behind?

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BIO:
MakMac is a creative studio based in Barcelona specialized in motion design. MakMac works in different mediums including advertising, series, art installations and opening titles. Some of their clients include Movistar, Netflix, BBC, MTV, Lapsus Festival, The XI New York and many others.

This piece took its inspiration from the 2019 release of the Muller report. Once published, it became exceedingly clear the real truth was in the text that had been hidden. 

Who can be trusted with truth? Can deception ever be ‘for our own good’? Our culture lionises full transparency, but could it be sometimes that lies are better? 

The Muller report was 448 pages long. In digital form, 114 kilobytes. In the course of our daily lives, how much information can we actually process? The truth may be what we think we want, but it’s not at all clear we can actually make sense of it.

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BIO:
Pablo Lozano is an animator and designer hailing from the sunny lands of Madrid. After graduating from Hyper Island in Stockholm he moved to London, where he spent three years working full time at Golden Wolf before jumping into the freelance workforce and relocating to Toronto, where he’s been working and collaborating with amazing clients, studios and artists all around the globe.
Specialized in 2D animation, but having played roles that run the gamut of production, Pablo’s work has evolved into a mix of fluid animation with a strong focus in illustration and graphic design.

‘He’s full of hot air’, ‘the bubble will pop’ — we have many euphemisms for a straightforward concept. 

This piece questions why many of the things which occupy the most space in our society, are so lacking in substance? Could it be sheer volume tricks us into believing something is important, or meaningful, even when it has no real weight?

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BIO:
Frank Joseph Guzzone (@fjg_3d) is a 3D artist and Design Director based out of Brooklyn, New York. Frank’s visual experiments inform the playful and surrealistic worlds he creates. By combining his photorealistic environments with unexpected simulations, Frank strives to create visually stimulating experiences through his work. He has worked with brands including Adidas, Apple, Kate Spade, La Prairie, Moncler, Perrier, Rimowa, VitaminWater and more.  Frank and his work have been featured in publications including WIRED,  032c, Plastik Magazine, and Etapes.

Have you ever fidgeted absentmindedly with a paperclip? Twisted it into some new shape or symbol? You’ll notice the metal is malleable, but bend it back and forth too much and it grows hot to the touch. Push it even further, and it breaks. 

This piece plays with the notion that ideology must be flexible enough to allow for progress. Too rigid, and something snaps. But if you stretch the truth too much, it falls apart — collapsing in on itself into a tangled, overly permissive, dysfunctional mess.

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BIO:

Dvein is a directors collective that pushes the limits of live action and CGI storytelling, helmed by Teo Guillem and Carlos Pardo established since 2007. With a background in fine art and design, the collective merges the physical with the digital world to craft sleek visual effects infused with their own distinctive, organic aesthetic. With an experimental, design-driven culture at its core, Dvein combine live action with animation to pursue a unique visual language in all their work across cinema, broadcast, music video, art and installation.

Dvein have crafted commercial work for clients including Diesel, Jean-Paul Gaultier, Shiseido, Canal+, MTV, National Geographic or Nokia. Dvein’s directorial work has been featured in multiple festival and exhibitions around the world such as Saatchi & Saatchi’s New Director Showcase (France), OFFF Festival (Spain & France), F5 (United States), ArtFutura (Argentina) or Graphika (Philippines) among others.

Magma, one of their short films is part of the permanent collection of MoMa in New York. He has been awarded with the City of Barcelona Award on Film (2012) and the Fine Arts Medal of San Carlos University in Valencia (2013) alongside other awards.

When we think about conquest, we tend to think about maps — how the lines and names change, reflecting a new occupant, or a new owner. But maps are unreal things; they flatten complex topographies and oversimply diverse traditions. Wars, however, have until recently been fought over tangible, material goods and spaces, land and labour. Contemporary battles are difficult to conceptualise — today’s soldiers are lines of programme, wielding truth as a weapon. 

It would seem we’re getting off easy. Rather than atomic starbursts, war today comes swaddled in millennial pinks, its volleys the sound of ‘likes’ rather than mortar rounds. 

This piece suggests, however, this leaves us with a bigger problem. Stick your head up above the trenches and you’ll find the map is changing all around you. When the borders of right and wrong, true and false, are changing all the time, it’s hard to know which side you’re on.

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BIO:
Peter John Kearney is a creative from New York working in the fields of design and motion. Pete’s personal work combines inspiration drawn from natural forms with creative technical executions.

When it comes to literary figures, few have done so much to glamourise (or satirise) abundant drug use as Hunter S. Thompson. In his writing, the drug induced state is grotesque in its cartoonishness. The line between reality and intoxication is debilitating because of how it blurs.

But taken from another angle, drugs function as a glue holding society together. For those of us marching to the beat of our own brain chemistry, or swimming in existential dread, they can provide a soothing, socially acceptable balm. 

Indeed, Edgar Allen Poe said something exactly to that effect in a letter written just before his death: 

“I have absolutely no pleasure in the stimulants in which I sometimes so madly indulge. It has not been in the pursuit of pleasure that I have periled life and reputation and reason. It has been the desperate attempt to escape from torturing memories, from a sense of insupportable loneliness and a dread of some strange impending doom.”

So, which is the truth, and which is the lie — the drugs that encapsulate our emotions so that we can live in the world, or the drugs that break us out of it?

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BIO:
Alex Trochut was born in 1981 in Barcelona, Spain. After completing his studies at Elisava Escola Superior de Disseny, Alex established his own design studio in Barcelona before relocating to New York City. Through his design, illustration and typographic practice he has developed an intuitive way of working that has resulted in his expressive visual style.

For Alex, typography functions on two hierarchical levels. First, there is the image of the word we see; reading comes secondary. As a designer, Alex focuses on the potential of language as a visual medium, pushing language to its limits so that seeing and reading become the same action and text and image become one unified expression.

Mixing styles and genres and drawing equally from pop culture, street culture, fashion and music, Alex has created design, illustration and typography for a diverse range of clients: Nike, Adidas, The Rolling Stones, Katy Perry, BBC, Coca-Cola, Pepsi, The Guardian, The New York Times, Time Magazine and many others. Alex’s work has been internationally recognized, appearing in in exhibitions and publications worldwide. He has given talks and been honored by the Art Directors Club––including being named a 2008 Young Gun––the Type Directors Club, Creative Review, Cannes, Clio and D&AD among others. His monograph, More Is More, explores his working methodologies and influences and was published in 2011.

There’s a reason bars and dance halls keep the lights down. Everything looks a bit more luxurious in the dim. Look a little too hard, a second too long, and you’ll notice signs of wear and tear. A threadbare velvet chaise, a few extra lines in the corners of patrons’ eyes. 

This piece plays with the idea that lies, half truths, and omissions, often paint a much prettier picture than the truth does. Blinding honesty is rarely the most flattering light.

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BIO:

David McLeod is an Australian multidisciplinary artist and motion designer currently based out of New York City. McLeod is celebrated for his hypnotic explorations of color, form and motion. McLeod has been commissioned by a number of prestigious brands including the BBC2 rebranding launch, Nike, Apple, Toyota, ATnT, Apple and Adobe. His artworks have been projected onto the The Centre Pompidou as a part of Air Max day in 2017. He’s also received multiple Type Directors Club and Art Directors Club awards.

Curiosity drives creation for McLeod who centers his artistic practice around digital experimentation through various materials, simulations and generative methods. McLeod is known for creating captivating 3D environments, typographic treatments and short format films characterized by vibrant palettes, transformative forms and organic, whimsical motion. McLeod’s style can be described as digital abstraction, and is heavily influenced by nature.

Step right up to see the world’s most dazzling display! Watch it fly through the air, bend over backwards, swallow swords, and more! It will make you smarter, more fun, better in bed. It will make you happy — for a limited time, you’ll get all this for the low low price of 99,99, or two installments paid out in delusion and disappointment.

This piece illustrates the seductiveness of lies dressed up in aspirations. These cheap promises draw us in; tacky tricks convince us to get our wallets out. Lies may be in style, but we pay twice in the long run.

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BIO:
Once done with his studies at University of the Arts London, Jordi Pages pursued his formation as multidisciplinary audiovisual designer. Using 3D as a core technique to express himself, Jordi collaborates with the best studios, designers and brands globally, constantly crafting and evolving his approach and understanding of design.

Squint your eyes a bit and look at the image. Do you see a rabbit or a duck? A vase, or two faces in profile? Blue dress, or white? Of course, experience tells us both can be true, so what determines which we see? 

This piece speaks to a problem Nietzsche described in 1873. In an essay on lying, the German philosopher wrote, “If someone hides an object behind a bush, then seeks and finds it there, that seeking and finding is not very laudable: but that is the way it is with the seeking and finding of ‘truth’”.

It does often seem we can find truth whenever we go looking for it.

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BIO:

Freddy Arenas is and independent director.

His work focuses on the semantics of the visual language: he strides to create poetic relationships that convey ideas in a compelling and innovative way.

Throughout his career he has created projects for clients such as The New York Times, California Sunday Magazine, Google and HBO Documentaries.

Freddy is constantly experimenting with new techniques and concepts. He shares his findings and showcases his creative process via Tumblr and most recently, Instagram.

Have you ever broken a thermometer? The quicksilver inside spills out and forms little beads. Touch one, and it breaks into a million smaller droplets, which then race around, knocking into one another like bumper cars. 

You’re not really meant to play with mercury, it’s poisonous. But as a substance it’s captivating because of how it transforms, reacts, and stretches into something new. Pour it into a box or a bottle, either way, once freed it will snap back together time and again. 

Like mercury, this piece explores truth as a never static, constantly evolving thing. In each moment of its transformation, it’s exactly what it’s always been — truth. It’s just the form it takes which is ever changing. 

If you watch closely, you’ll notice the image’s shapes move in a cyclical, repeating pattern. New truths given an air of deeper history, old lies reintroduced to serve a contemporary purpose.

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BIO:
Nil Serraïma is a multidisciplinary visual designer, director and 3D Generalist from Barcelona.

He began studying art in college, and then Graphic Design at ELISAVA School of Design and Engineering. In 2016, he completed a masters degree in Motion Graphic Design from BAU.

Nil worked as Motion Graphic Designer and Art Director at Firma, Onionlab, Mr. John Sample / SCPF* and Larsson-Duprez.

He has worked with artists and brands as:
PepsiCo, Alizzz, Nike, Mobile World Congress, ADCE, FAD, Banc Sabadell, MRW, ESADE, Lay’s, Seat, Danone, Ambar, ELISAVA, among others.

Children’s toys are funny things. Some, structured and angular, teach us to build things soundly and methodically — piece by piece. Others encourage us to play make believe, to tell stories, making us the masters in our own stories. In these little dream worlds, we’re the force pulling at the puppet strings.

This piece plays with the idea of truth as a distortion, an object manipulated from above, the often cited but rarely seen ‘they’. Given the recent surge in the public’s embrace of conspiracy theories — from Q-Anon to anti-vax — it seems some of us find it easier to reject uncomfortable truths. Instead, we seek out something that makes us feel we’re in control of the world around us, trading one thought-master for another.

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BIO:
Leonstudio is a 3D animation company directed by Javier León and located in the south of Spain since 2006. We cover a number of very wide selection of different styles because we love what we do and we like to set new goals. That is why we always try to combine commercial work with our own projects that help us create new lines of work that make a difference. An example of this is the collaboration in the credit titles of The Crown. Bases on the work of jewelry design, which our artistic director Javier León carried out as a personal need to unite two worlds such as jewelry and 3D, we received the offer to collaborate in the visual development of the Netflix series. One of the styles that we like to work most, and that in a way represent this company, is the miniature or stop motion. We love creating scenarios full of personality and detail, as can be seen in the teaser of our latest Roxanne project. We also have at our disposal a photogrammetry equipment that allows us to obtain a digital double of both an object and a person and using this method we have worked in films such as Cold Skin or Superlopez.