In honor of its 15th anniversary, Sony Pictures Imageworks has designed a new logo that it unveiled this morning (Jan. 17, 2007) at the Culver City-based studio. The logo is an animated iris configured with a circle of squares, touched off by a twinkle.
Ron Taft served as creative director of the project, providing the animated concept for the logo, which was then developed and executed by visual effects supervisor Kevin Mack (GHOST RIDER). Visual effects supervisor Carey Villegas (New York plate supervisor on SPIDER-MAN 3) was also part of the team. Dave Taritero served as producer.
The concept is comprised of three touchstones: humanity, imagination and technology. Sony Pictures Digital Ent. president Yair Landau not only lauded the studio's unique three pipeline system comprising live action vfx, animation and the performance capture hybrid, but also looks forward to the convergence in movies and games as a result of the latter. He said while THE POLAR EXPRESS, MONSTER HOUSE and the upcoming BEOWULF have upped "the level of resolution, emotion and storytelling," we can likewise expect "more realistic, more emotive and more visceral games in the future."
Meanwhile, Sony Pictures Imageworks president Tim Sarnoff proclaimed, "Our experience allows filmmakers to produce anything they can imagine." However, he key to future success will depend on "the most effective partnership with the creative community."
Bill Desowitz, former editor of VFXWorld, is currently the Crafts Editor of IndieWire.
