Alumnus designs spot of Olympic proportions

Alumnus Nicholas Francis created a 30-second animation for the 2006 Winter Olympic Games in Torino, Italy.

By: Amanda Tower

Published: Friday, March 3, 2006

The Olympic Games are the pinnacle career experience for many athletes. One Savannah College of Art and Design alumnus also reached a career high at the 2006 Winter Olympic Games in Torino, Italy. Nicholas Francis (M.F.A., broadcast design and motion graphics, 2004), a broadcast and graphic design professional in Dartmouth, Mass., produced a logo animation for the television broadcast of the 2006 Olympics, which was seen by millions of people around the world.

The 30-second spot, displayed each night on several large plasma screens in Piazza Solferino, introduced a performance by Christopher Hedge and the Magnetic Poets, a multimedia visual and musical group. The performance preceded the medals ceremony in nearby Piazza Castello.

One of Francis’ clients, Big Picture, worked with the Magnetic Poets and mentioned to Francis the need for an animation piece. He jumped at the opportunity to create the animation, and worked closely with Big Picture to develop ideas for the piece.

“Chris Kozub [of Big Picture] had an idea of a single gold ring that would come on screen and dictate the rest of the animation,” said Francis. “He also provided the music for the piece, which was helpful in determining a style, look and feel.” Francis noted that because the wording used in the animation had to be pre-approved by the Olympic committee, much of the content was provided to him.

The animation features a large gold ring with the phrases “one heart,” “one beat” and “7 billion voices” fading in and out of the ring. The Olympic rings fade in and zoom out and the flags of various nations wave together as a pulsating beat drives the movement of the images in the animation.

“Coming from a graphic design background, I like to treat every piece as a printed piece or still-frame photograph,” said Francis. “I try to be able to stop at any given frame in a commercial, video or film that I am creating and, if it holds on its own, then I know it will hold as part of an entire project.”

Francis completed his undergraduate degree in visual design at the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth in 2002. He was inspired during his undergraduate education when Mikon van Gastel, creative director for Imaginary Forces, spoke to his graphic design class and showed clips from some television spots and movie intro title sequences he created. “It was then that my attention and passion started to shift from traditional graphic design and typography to motion graphics and broadcast design,” said Francis.

Francis enrolled in the Master of Fine Arts broadcast design and motion graphics program at SCAD.

He admits that his most challenging experience in design came during his first quarter at SCAD. He had very little experience in broadcast design and, though he enjoyed the field, he had difficulty grasping what was being taught in class. “I didn’t think I would last beyond the first quarter,” said Francis. “It wasn’t until I stopped looking at it as an obstacle and started looking at it as a challenge I needed to overcome — because no one could do it except me — that I was finally able to succeed.”

Francis graduated from SCAD at the top of his class and earned the Outstanding Academic Achievement Award. He returned to Dartmouth and is now a freelance graphic and broadcast designer with local, regional and national clients including AT&T, CyberTrust, PBS and the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy. He created movie intro title sequences for “The Manchurian Candidate” (2004) and “Piece of My Heart” (in production). Francis’ work can be viewed on his Web site, www.nicholasfrancis.com.

Francis credited SCAD with helping him to develop many of his design skills. “I’d like to think I always had good business sense, instilled in me by my father,” he said.  “But my artistic eye and skill sets for my current field didn’t fully develop until I attended SCAD.” He noted that SCAD pushes students creatively and emphasizes working with other students to create the best possible products. “One of the advantages SCAD has over other schools that I have experienced is their ability to have real-world clients for course projects instead of just giving an assignment developed by the professor,” he said.

Francis is developing a five-minute film for AT&T, introducing the company and its leaders to attendees at a large international conference. He also just submitted a 30-second spot to Converse. The project, “A Tribute to Chuck Taylors,” was created with a friend and submitted as part of a contest sponsored by Converse. He has shown his work at the Cannes Film Festival, SIGGRAPH Conference, the May Poetter Gallery in Savannah and Gallery X in New Bedford, Mass.

His ability to tell a story and keep the audience’s interest with creative editing is perhaps Francis’ greatest talent. “My editing technique is something that I pride myself in,” he said. “If you can’t hold someone’s attention with a given piece of work, then you’ve failed, in my opinion.”

Although one of his future goals is to create and produce a commercial to air during the Super Bowl, Francis may have already surpassed that level of achievement with his Olympic spot. However, he enjoys his other assignments equally well.

“When you boil it all down, most every project I work on is cool,” said Francis. “To do what you love for a living allows your work to rarely, if ever, feel like actual work.”


Tower is a publications editor.