Hornet Inc. founded in New York in 2001. It consists of award-winning directors from around the globe who cultivate the hornet with their unique passion of classic storytelling. They produce work in a manner which redefines the art of storytelling, by creating worlds from the nuance and small details and brings ideas to life. The privately held organization deals in the field of animation, stop motion, fabrication, mixed media, live-action, 3D animation, 2D animation, design, storytelling and promise award-winning entries.
1. Selfridges
To escape from the daily grind of life, fashion acts as an ideal humorous escape. Here, the design ideology was to turn the stock items into smart footwears.
The most humdrum appliances of the household were refashioned creatively and presented comically.
2. Chobani
The word “Chobani” means “shepherd” in Turkish, to embody the hard-working and compassionate spirit of the mountain farmer. Chobani’s plant-based, non-dairy yoghurt was launched by the Hornet director Peter Sluzska in a stop motion campaign. Swaying palm trees, flitting hummingbirds, hand-made fruit, and bursting coconuts draw you into a vibrant papercraft paradise that you will never want to escape. And the papercraft world they’ve created here is proof-in-the-pudding confirmation that commitment to craft, and devotion to detail, go a long way toward creating something memorable.
3. World of Dots
Each room in this world adorned with a different theme of DOTS patterns, and each environment ebbs and expands into the next one, showcasing not just the diversity of DOTS colours and designs but also the near-infinite universe of creative possibilities. Since DOTS themselves are small tile-like pieces, the ideology was to showcase the pattern-making potential of the product. Each room was revealed by way of walls and doors that open, slide or split apart to the next room. DOTS here, talks rather than showing.
4. Squarespace
The ideology here is a square used metaphorically. It’s a stylized system of frames acting as a portal to the possibilities. It’s the source of elements to the customers in the Squarespace campaign. Sander Plug created a display through modern nail art, stark floral arrangements, dripping honey and dogs to sell interiors in an elegant way for the viewers.
5. McDonald’s
The miniature world created with an expertise of proportion and scale. The setting features a tranquil countryside, which gives an essence towards more natural ingredients, and within this countryside are life-sized Happy Meal boxes that resemble large buildings, which the miniature caricatures interact within unexpected and delightful ways. It’s the juxtaposition between life-sized and pint-sized that gives the spot a fun, humorous quality.
6. COS
The ideology was to design a space to cater an extra guest. A square-shaped table creatively transformed into a circle by cutting its corners. Decked out in the latest line of COS clothing, the four friends measure and saw and glue their way toward an inclusive and elegantly minimal dinner party with an unexpected guest.
7. Headspace
The ideology was to design a place for restless sleepers using the idea of meditation and music. Adding sleepy soundscapes and adopting a brighter original Headspace palette for busy and illuminated scenes. The power of these spots is in their subtlety. The character design features a captivating mix of soft expressions and simple facial movements. An open eye, a furrowed brow, a designated exhale; these are all that’s needed to get the Headspace message across. The characters with their understated design are believable, relatable, and completely endearing, with facial expressions as a good dose of indoor surrealism.
8. Little Lungs
In the direction of Peter Sluszka, a digital series on the tobacco-tinged ‘Little Lungs’ is made, which shows his attempts to be cool and join in with normal teen life while his healthy pink lung friends are spoiled by his stunted growth, caused by smoking. Specifically, the campaign focuses on reaching at-risk teens, living a more chaotic lifestyle and suffering from lower socioeconomic and educational levels making them more stressed out than their peers. The miniatures in a friendly attire in different conditions, and different signages used to convey the messages.
9. Frooti
Yves Geleyn and Sagmeister & Walsh teamed up to bring Frooti’s miniature stop motion world back to life. Supporting the colourful visuals is a nuanced story that, in 5 short films, weaves together themes of star-power, sibling rivalry, and allusions to the timeless tale, Gulliver’s Travels. When it comes to technique, every detail was deliberately designed to enhance the story and create a world fit for the Frooti brand. This world slowly and intimately swells. In the first few weeks, modelling work was done using 3D software to create characters given pose-by-pose animation. These characters are sent to the 3D printer where they go from CG files to real-life figurines, each of which is hand-painted and posed into rigged, ready-for-camera positions.
10. Amazon Box
The ideology was to proceed, thinking “inside the box” with the foundation swelled into a textured universe of paper and cardboard, for the Amazon shipping box. Through the juxtaposed use of different colours, forms, and proportions, Hornet director Peter Sluszka brought the Prime Day world to life with obsessively detailed fabrication and stop motion animation. This world has a whimsical, graphic edge to it, and there is a tangible charm and authenticity that comes with using actual paper.
