Masters & Savant Worldwide's animated SABC Arts Alive campaign

To celebrate the Arts Alive September month, SABC turned to another artistic homegrown talent, South Africa's leading animation studio Masters & Savant Worldwide to produce the promos that would be aired during the month.

Says Roger Smythe, JHB MD of Masters & Savant Worldwide, "The opportunity to produce the Arts Alive promo was a great one, as we at Masters & Savant are artists of the moving form. Animation demonstrates the unique ability to bring a beautiful still image to life. The treatment we decided to use was to draw inspiration from an everyday roadside hawker's table. These sidestreet vendors keep sweets and fruit on brightly coloured plates on boxes and wooden tables draped in graphic fabrics across the continent. We used 2D stop-frame style animation to create typography out of everyday goods, like bananas, matches and sweets. The promo shows different products typically displayed on a hawker table in stop-frame animation as they interact with each other to ultimately invite you to the arts festival. The poster and print ad relies on this simple takeout message we devised that would work for any of the sponsored events - simply 'COME ALIVE'.

"The end result is in itself a fun, uniquely African, promotion of the SABC-sponsored arts happenings in above- and below-the-line media. The client's marketing objectives were boldly met using African design, a fun animation 2D style and innovative and personality-filled graphic design. Through this approach we wanted to demonstrate that art of various forms surrounds us on a daily basis, whether we appreciate it or not, and that art is simply not only found in expensive art stores or museums," concludes Smythe.