Gentleman Scholar Joins Barrett SF for Yellow Pages Rebrand

Yellow Pages – now YP – prepares for an explosive entrance into the digital world with an energetic internal digital promo designed and animated by creative studio Gentleman Scholar. The spot, via Barrett SF, repositions the brand from a print-centric resource to a multimedia powerhouse with a mobile and Web presence that functions as a local ad network and one-stop marketing partner. An elegant four-color geometric display toggles with shifting typography to tell this new story in a simple, evocative fashion.

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“YP is an incredibly strong brand that was ready to overhaul its business model for the digital age,” states Gentleman Scholar CD and Director William Campbell. “Any rebranding must begin internally, of course, and they needed a video that would reintroduce the brand to their employees and get them excited about the upcoming changes. By distilling this vast effort into one vibrant, concise story, we felt that we could inject huge momentum into the company’s efforts.”

Faced with a tight deadline and a strict requirement that the promo use only Yellow Page’s four core brand colors, Barrett contacted Gentleman Scholar to execute the project. Working with a logo that the agency developed and Yellow Page’s expressed preference for simple shapes and designs, Gentleman Scholar developed the brand’s animation language, drawing up the color palette and orchestrating the image movements and transitions. The spot demonstrates the studio’s ability to communicate a brand message in a simple yet compelling way, using powerful visual metaphors crafted from minimal design elements while departing from Gentleman Scholar’s norm of elaborate visuals and dramatic camera work.

“I love coming up with designs that are under strict limitations, because it challenges you to make something thought-provoking and clear,” notes Gentleman Scholar Art Director Heather Aquino, whose background in illustration and typography proved invaluable to the effort. “The YP project not only had limited design elements, but we stuck to only four colors that helped really identify what the brand stands for.”

Downloads:

Credits:

Client: YP (Yellow Pages)

Agency: Barrett SF
Creative Director: Jamie Barrett
Creative Director: Martina D’Alessandro
Producer: Susan Crimley

Production Company: Gentleman Scholar
Creative Directors: Will Campbell & Will Johnson
Executive Producer: Lindsay Bodanza
Art Director: Heather-Lynn Aquino
Designers: Heather-Lynn Aquino, Sang Shin, Macauley Johnson
2D Animators: Heather-Lynn Aquino, Sang Shin, Macauley Johnson, Shawn Kim Producer: Nikki Maniolas

About Gentleman Scholar:

Gentleman Scholar is a group of solution-driven artists situated at the intersection of story, style and technology. Wielding extensive experience in strategy, live-action production, animation, digital and print, we help the world’s leading agencies and