MTV's most recent series of image-building promos, which break August 28 on the MTV Music Video Awards, takes its cue from the rudimentary instructional drawings most commonly seen on airplane safety cards. Animated from the original illustrations of New York-based artist Matt Vescovo's Instructoart, the promos show MTV viewers how to get by in life - from the mundane to the informative.

Set in a muted color palette with line-drawn characters, each of the eight segments - running 15 or 20 seconds - gives viewers a simple instruction, such as how to remove a curly hair from a soap bar; how to cover a farmer's tan; or how to distinguish a straight from a gay ass slap. Limited movements and only the most basic of sound effects drive the action.

Michael Bellino, producer of on-air promotions at MTV says the appeal of Vescovo's original art, which he first came across at a show in New York, was the humor. "No one would expect to see these stories," he says. "I feel like people will appreciate the humor in his original artwork."

It's also a bit of a departure for MTV, which Bellino says has a proclivity for a loud and visually in your face style. "MTV is barraged with noisy ideas. These just stop everything and catch your attention because they're so quiet."

MTV employed New York design shop Hornet to bring the single image instructions to life. Creative director Eng San Kho says the challenge was to find the right animation style to suit the illustrations.

"Most of the artwork speaks for itself," he says. "We didn't want to go too far in terms of technical animation; we wanted to keep it really flat. Also, with complex animation it wasn't funny anymore. The way it moves is a bit campy and almost primitive."

The eight spots took four weeks to edit and animate on what Bellino calls "a very limited budget."

Hornet executive producer Michael Feder, who worked closely with Bellino, says the most interesting thing about the package was MTV's willingness to stay true to Vescovo's original concept. "Only MTV would do something like this. They're all so different; some are social commentaries and some are just how to do a comb over, yet they all make sense for MTV in a weird way."

View the spots:

CREDITS

Kevin Mackall - Senior VP of On Air Promos, MTV
Michael Bellino - Producer of On Air Promos, MTV
Production Company: Hornet, NY
Creative Director: Eng San Kho
Executive Producer: Michael Feder
Creator/Director: Matt Vescovo
Producer: Marla Puccetti
Art Director: Susan Hildebrand
Editorial: Mike Gleason, Hornet
Audio Post: Shahin Motia, Victoria Gross, Metatechnik, NY
Music Production: Metatechnik, NY
Sound Design: Shahin Motia, Victoria Gross, Georg Bissen, Metatechnik, NY

http://www.instructoart.com

http://www.hornetinc.com

http://www.mtv.com