Carlos Ferreyros, creative director at CA Square, steps up to answer Five Questions.
1. What are you working on today?
We’ve got a lot of projects in the mix at the moment. We’re wrapping up two assignments, the first is a global on-screen redesign for Reuters for use across multiple touch points, from mobile and the Web to broadcast, interactive television, and outdoor electronic signage. The second is a graphics package for Poland’s largest music festival, Sopot.

Currently, we’re in the early stages of two network redesigns, the first for a kid’s global network and the second for a network geared towards pre-schoolers. We’re also doing a ground-up launch for a new network here in the U.S. (name, logo design, on-air, off-air, web,) and a special project for VH1. Like the saying goes, when it rains it pours…

2. What have you found is the best tool or innovation that has come out in the last year?
I think one of most interesting innovations if you can call it that, is the explosion of video content available online. Services like iTunes, VSpot, YouTube, and others are opening news doors to content delivery and providing an amazing amount of niche content at the same time.

3. The project (film, television, commercial or music video) that most impressed you in the last year? Why?
Again, the do-it-yourself viral video television channel Current TV and sites like YouTube. Both put a mass distribution network into the hands of any average Joe with something to say. I'm looking forward to the next evolution of this trend as more compelling and interesting artistic community models begin to appear.

4. The best or favorite project that you worked on in the past year? And why?
The VSpot branding package was cool to do. It included promos, branding for VSpot (on-air and online) and show packaging for their top 20 video countdown show. Each of the pieces was unique but when you look at the big picture they connect well.

5. Name the top four artists on your iPod?
– Imogen Heap
– Sia
– The Streets
– Niyaz

www.ca-square.com

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Recent Project
CA Square Catpults Vspot Into The “Top 20” With Imaginative Show Package

Viewers are transported into a unique architectural environment where photoreal CG and transformer-like constructs meld together creating a merger of two of VH1’s most solid brands, VSpot and Top 20 Countdown, creating VSpot Top 20 Video Countdown. Having branded VSpot for its 2005 relaunch New York’s CA Square creates an interactive world bringing one of VH1’s hallmark shows to the new music and entertainment broadband network. The VSpot Top 20 Video Countdown aired for the first time on VH1 and went live on the web via VSpot on April 7.

CA Square created a comprehensive brand package, which included an open, a suite of graphic elements, lower thirds, upper thirds, bumpers, transitions, backgrounds, and a family of original iconography. The design features glass-like panels that project out to greet the viewer. Complex three-dimensional elements build on-screen forming numbers only to deconstruct seconds later. The studio was charged with taking the language of VSpot’s online, community-based environment and bringing it into the world of broadband television.

“The VSpot team wanted the package to have a strong connection to the overall VSpot brand that we had created previously,” explained Carlos Ferreyros, CA Square Executive Creative Director. “We sought to unify the Top 20 package with the brand by creating an extended visual environment while utilizing a complementary color palette. There is a natural tension and evolution to the construction and deconstruction of the numerical elements. It reinforces the concept that viewer interaction is ultimately responsible for the Top 20 video list itself.”

CA Square Art Director Ariel Eroles who served as the project’s lead designer and animator explained, “Viewer interaction is an underlying theme of the entire package. From the very beginning we see a person interacting with the interface thus setting off a chain reaction. This idea is reiterated throughout the piece as video windows pop out towards the viewer and numbers continually change. I think it speaks to the point that the top twenty videos are continuously in a state of flux until the moment they air.”

The studio has also recently created show packaging for VOCES, a new program set to debut in the fall, for PBS Affiliate Stations and Latino Public Broadcasting, and is currently working on projects for Disney International and Reuters.

CREDITS
Client: VH1 (New York, NY)
VP, Brand and Creative: Phil Delbourgo
Executive Producer: Dave Perry

Design and Production Company: CA Square (New York, NY)
Executive Creative Director: Carlos Ferreyros
Art Director, 3D Animator & Compositing: Ariel Eroles
Live Action Direction, 2D Animator & Compositing: Alejandro Melguizo
Director of Photography: Robert Aumer
Producer: Alison Shields

Audio: Compound (New York, NY)