Posters promoting this year’s Ottawa International Animation Festival feature a character nicknamed Roger Mortis, an empty-headed body that gets dragged around on various adventures by its rebellious brain.
Every September, the Ottawa International Animation Festival presents the world’s most cutting-edge, quirky, and important animation -- and transforms Ottawa into the center of the animation universe.
Built around the theme of “a thrill ride for your mind,” the posters promoting this year’s edition of the festival feature a character nicknamed Roger Mortis, an empty-headed body that gets dragged around on various adventures by its rebellious brain.
The campaign was conceived by the McMillan agency, which has once again partnered with the OIAF for another round of fringe-flavored ads. Illustrator Michael Zavacky created the characters, while the posters themselves were designed by Jared Barter and written by Ian Driscoll, the same core team, along with Zavacky, that worked on the previous OIAF campaigns.
This year’s limited-color posters pay homage to artwork from the 1970s, particularly MAD magazine and the work of Ed “Big Daddy” Roth.
“The guy would draw these wacky hot rods that were really over-the-top gross, with saliva and tongues hanging out, eyeballs bulging,” Zavacky, who names The Ren and Stimpy Show as one of his favorite cartoons, said to Design Edge Canada.
The 2014 OIAF festival runs September 17-21. Its official poster was designed by filmmaker David OReilly, who is the subject of a special retrospective at this year’s event:
Formerly Editor-in-Chief of Animation World Network, Jennifer Wolfe has worked in the Media & Entertainment industry as a writer and PR professional since 2003.
