Mosin Synth "Pursuit"
An '80s sci-fi-inspired animated music video that captures the underlying themes of the synthwave artist's song "Pursuit."
'80s Inspired Themes
What began as a logo redesign evolved into the video above, all thanks to colors. While auditioning colors for the stroke around the logo's letters, I chose a yellow gold that reminded me of Galaga. From here, ideation floodgates opened.
When Mosin approached me to redesign his logo in preparation for the release of his single "Pursuit", I listened to the song to gather insights and gain an understanding of the artist's identity as he moved into the next phase of his journey as an artist.
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Just a few moments after pressing play, I began to gravitate towards '80s scifi. Synthwave is in itself deeply rooted in themes from the 1980s, so it came as no surprise that those themes emerged. At this point, I began to search for inspiration to foster a sense of authenticity in the era. My initial thoughts were:
Arcade Games
16 bit scifi and space age games like Galaga.
SciFi Films
Dystopian worlds like Blade Runner that gave a sense of erie surveillance.
Iconic '80s Pop Culture
Products that took on a life of their own like the DeLorean.
A Deeper Understanding through Films and Synthwave artists
Searching for and watching '80s Sci-Fi films was by far the most enjoyable research I've ever participated in. I had seen the classics. For this project, I was after the obscure.
I wanted to give Mosin his 80s-inspired identity while maintaining individuality. What I needed was the unseen and underappreciated. By accident, I discovered a space in the mid to late '70s that captured the eerie feeling I was searching for. Nonsensically large buildings, futuristic products were absurd, and themes clashed. Although I discovered several films from the era that fit the mold, the movie "Rollerball embodied all of these qualities. If you haven't seen it, you should. It's bizarrely captivating.
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Aside from the various films and themes of the past, I knew I had to investigate the trends of today's synthwave artists. Surprisingly, synthwave artists shared many similar key visual elements: Palm trees, '80s vehicles, a sun broken up by Venetian blinds, neon colors, gradients, sometimes water, and some buildings here and there. The image was almost always in a city or reminiscent of Miami.
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This was the "aha" moment I was looking for. I needed to tap into the films and themes from the '70s and '80s, while staying true to synthwave.
Creation, Inspiration, and Imagination
With the help of Illustrator, Photoshop, and After Effects, "Pursuit" transformed from a song into a whole new world.
Mosin's logo was the starting point and encapsulated the essence I was after. The font was '70s and '80s inspired, with a custom-made capital M to add movement and a unique pillar of personality that spoke to feelings of intensity. Colors were true to synthwave, but offered an expanded and diverse palette that nodded to the darker side of synthwave. Lastly, and in staying true to the genre, a sun divided by Venetian blinds (reminiscent of a planet) and a color gradient were added. The stroke, however, was the finishing touch that spoke to the arcade game aspect I wanted to include as a result.
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With images and films constantly by my side as inspiration, the scenes that developed from a quick storyboarding session started to come together. A balance between 16-bit arcade games, dystopian sci-fi, and synthwave was struck. Assets for each scene were meticulously created, and their respective Photoshop project files were exported into After Effects. With a combination of preset and custom-made animations, the scenes came alive, the character lines were created, and the music was added, which pulled it all together.
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I hope you enjoyed the final result!