Meet BSD: Questions with Chino

Chino was brought on to Blue State Digital as Director of Motion Graphics after his work on the Barack Obama presidential campaign. Prior to working with Obama for America, Chino spent a decade designing and making animations for film, television, Internet, mobile and outdoor audiences. He has been responsible for design and animation at the Food Network and the Walt Disney Internet Group, and has managed motion graphics teams at advertising agencies such as Draftfcb.

1. What first got you into motion graphics?

Motion graphics combined everything I enjoyed about storytelling and film, with the communication challenges presented in the art and science of graphic design.

2. Before working for BSD, you were responsible for creating motion graphics for the Obama campaign's New Media Video team in Chicago. Tell us about that experience.

I quit my job and moved to Chicago in less than two weeks, and when I got there I lived off of 3 lbs tubs of egg salad for about 6 weeks before realizing the possible health risks involved. I remember my first impression of the office -- an entire floor of a Michigan Avenue corporate high-rise -- as a friendly cross between a stock exchange and a college dorm. As part of the campaign's video team I was given the opportunity to animate, and in some cases, design variations of the "O" sunrise logo for constituency, rapid response, voter protection, and Get Out The Vote videos. You would be surprised how many different ways you can make the sun rise. Election night was a combination of joy, relief and indigestion.

3. Why did you choose to go to OFA from the corporate world?

Right before I moved to Chicago to work for the campaign I was working at an advertising agency. I had become used to making clients' successes my own, despite what I may have felt about the product or the company. Joining the campaign was a rare chance where my client's successes mirrored my own values and ideas of success on a personal level. Working for an organization and leader you believe in is deeply satisfying.

4. So, what brought you to work for BSD?

Being a part of the Obama campaign's New Media department really made me respect and admire Joe Rospars and the organization he built. When I was asked to be a part of another organization he helped to build, it was a no-brainer to give it a shot.

5. Being involved in so many different motion graphic designs, are there any that stand out as particularly fun to work on?

I haven't been at BSD long, but I really enjoyed working on the American Red Cross video for Target's Facebook contest. It was a project with a broad reach, generous creative latitude, and a concerted effort by the client to push the video in front of supporters.

6. You have developed motion graphics for film, television, web, mobile, and outdoor audiences. Is there any difference between these media? Any one you like better?

Understanding context, scale and resolution are really the dark arts of designing motion graphics across various media. The scale of movement and the amount of ambient noise a viewer watching a film experiences differs greatly from a passive viewer of outdoor advertising. And both of those viewers will have a completely different experience than someone watching videos on a tiny mobile screen riding the subway, or a viewer at home watching embedded YouTube videos on a desktop.

It's almost impossible nowadays to anticipate on what device and in what environment your animations will be seen. So the most important thing to remember is to make sure your story or idea is clear, relevant and compelling. The next step is to ensure that your images will degrade gracefully as playback scenarios change.

I think that the way video is consumed online has improved dramatically over the last couple years, but I still like the reach of television and its overall quality for viewing motion graphics. This will probably change as television technology plateaus at high-definition screens in living rooms, while Internet video expands to handheld devices and place-based screens.

7. You are the developer of the most comprehensive directory of motion graphics in the world, the Motion Design Directory. How did that come to take place?

I went to graduate school for animation on the West Coast and was completely obsessed with finding out every motion graphics studio in Los Angeles and comparing that with the number of studios in New York. Seven years later the list of 50 studios I had collected from both coasts grew to a collection of nearly 2,000 motion graphics studios and 500 motion graphics artists from around the world.

8. So, which city has more studios?

Right now, NYC and LA have almost the exact same number of motion graphics studios, with both cities being home to slightly more than 300 studios.

9. What are the major differences between creating a video for corporate clients compared to non-profit/political campaigns?

I think the biggest difference between corporate client videos and non-profit and political campaign videos, aside from the obvious differences in marketing and creative budgets, is the level of authenticity that the latter needs to have visually. That doesn't necessarily mean that there is less production involved, but videos for non-profits rarely benefit from over-the-top-looking graphics, whereas some corporate clients can gain a lot of value from visual complexity.

10. Is there any sector you have not done design or animation for that you would like to work with?

I'd love to do a music video. I had an internship with Universal Music Group when I was in college and it was great to see how the designers there would try to describe visually what the music artists were creating aurally. The link between sound design and graphic design is something that has always fascinated me.

11. What advice do you have for people who want to break into the motion graphics field?

Hone your craft as filmmaker/storyteller, editor, animator, and graphic designer, because the art you have chosen to pursue is a combination of all those roles. Update your reel often.

A Chino original graphic of his name

12. In a previous interview, we asked Murali why he went by just one name. Why do you go by just the one name - Chino?

Why not?

13. Okay, well whose “one name” is cooler, yours or Murali’s?

I wouldn't compare my name with Murali's --- that's such a question someone who goes by two names would ask.