The Andantes: Motown’s Secret Blend
This animated video brings to life the story of The Andantes, the unsung hero's behind the iconic sound of Motown music. These talented women served as a back up singing group, adding their voices to countless hit songs and creating the unique harmonies that are now synonymous with the Motown sounds. These are animated segments from the documentary.
These women combined created the “secret blend” to these classic hits. I used that as the inspiration for creating the style for the animation section. Each character is unique, but the elements can blend together.
You can watch the full documentary here.
Credits :
Creative Development : Duke & Duck
Client : AARP
Creative Development (Client) : Dana Voorhees
Producer : Tarisa Poirier-Shelton
Creative Direction : Alex Herder
Art Direction : Hannah Churn
Illustration + Design : Hannah Churn
Animation : Todd Churn
Awards :
- 2022 New York Emmy Award
This was an early concept sketch that helped determine the current style. Using the lasso tool in Photoshop, I created these “angular - shaped” style characters.
Bringing in elements of texture helped blend it to a more organic look and feel.
We were tasked with creating the title cards, and look for the lower thirds. While both of these ended up going in a slightly different direction, the use of vibrant colors blended together was a key design element throughout the documentary.
Each woman had a design element that represented the musical part she added to the group.
Louivan’s voice carried the melody. Notes on sheet music are usually the melody, so I simplified shapes to represent them.
Marlen’s voice was in the middle and kept everything together. I simplified the stave (lines usually found on a music sheet).
Jackie’s voice was lower voice. I used bold shapes to represent a more “base sound” of music.