The representation of the Water Polo European Championship was larger than anything our company had ever done before. During the first weeks of organization, the animation requests were hundreds of items long and the originally outlined plan was more ambitious than the Olympics in Rio. Nine independent surfaces had to be covered with continuous animation for two weeks in the Duna Arena, with a total resolution of 13 million pixels. In the end, we output 44,935 files. We will now try to breakdown this monster project in a very sketchy way, following the basic concept.
Since the received graphic branding was not very movable, the primary question was where we could deviate from it. It quickly became clear that strict adherence to the identity was only required during the matches, so we had the opportunity to try out new elements. This is how the design for the Grand Opening was created, which carried the central identity’s colors but still managed to show something new. The opening was the first event animation that the International Swimming Federation, LEN, saw, and fortunately they were very satisfied with everything, which gave us the opportunity to work with complete creative freedom in the following weeks.
Our personal favorite in the opening design is the perimeter encircling the pool from four directions. Before the European Championship, we conducted extensive research and found that the perimeter is typically not animated, or if it is, it is not taken to extremes. So we tried to put extra energy into every perimeter design.
The opening design was already planned with the intention of being transformed into a Grand Awards Ceremony as well. So, the central circle, which dominated the large LED walls, became an abstract medal with a simple color change, and the colored lines next to it turned into ribbons. During the Awards Ceremony, the problem arose that the on-site LED walls were not color-accurate, so the gold field became orange. We tried to compensate for this in advance by shifting the color scale of the animations in the opposite direction, so that the final colors were achieved after the LED walls distorted the color. This was the final appearance that framed the two-week event.
During the 2020 34th LEN Water Polo European Championship, we created two weeks’ worth of animation for nine LED walls in the Duna Arena. This article series will thoroughly cover this topic. At the end of Part 4, a comprehensive video of the animations will be available to watch, but if you want to see it sooner, you can click here.
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