If you’ve tuned into VH1 on Friday night recently, you’ve probably noticed something: “Best Week Ever” is back. When VH1 was putting a design team together to re-package the hit show, they sought out an artist who had been an integral part of the show’s previous iteration, Nice Shoes ACD Lucien Yang. Yang approached the project with a theme of celebration, updating the classic Best Week Ever intros and transitions while keeping a wink to the past. After starting work on the comedy clip show’s package, VH1 expanded the scope, bringing Nice Shoes onto “Best Movie Ever” and “Best Super Bowl Concert Ever”; which aired the Friday prior to the Super Bowl.
Each show includes the “Ever” as a core part of the logo. “For ‘Best Movie Ever,’ they wanted something grand, but not too serious,” said Yang. “So our approach was to go for really serious, because in the context of the Best Week brand, it would go beyond serious into funny.” For ‘Best Super Bowl Concert Ever,’ which aired the Friday of Super Bowl weekend, the creative involved blending football and music with the fun colors and fonts associated with the weekly show.
Yang had been a lead designer of Best Week Ever from 2007 through 2010, and was thrilled to be a part of the show again. “Lucien speaks the VH1 language. The VH1 design team has nicknames for things that people who haven’t worked with them wouldn’t pick up on right away,” said producer Haydee Cepin. “There’s a trust that they have in Lucien, and that sped up the process, allowing us deliver all of these projects in a short amount of time.”
Credits Design/Production Company, Nice Shoes; Creative Director/Art Director, Lucien Yang; VH1 Creative Director, Amanda Havey; VH1 Producer, Dave Perry; Designer, Lucien Yang; Producer, Haydee Cepin; 3D artists, Jay Kim, David Campora About Nice Shoes NYC-based Nice Shoes is a full service, artist-driven design, animation, visual effects and color grading studio specializing in high-end commercials, web content, film, TV and music videos.
Since its inception in 1996, the studio has prided itself on consistently reinvesting in its talent, technical backbone, and client experience to set the standard of excellence both creatively and technically. Key company principals include: CEO/Partner Dominic Pandolfino, Colorists/Partners Chris Ryan and Lez Rudge, MD Kristen Martini, CD Brian Bowman, and CIO Robert Keske. www.niceshoes.com
–SHOOT Publicity Wire