“If there’s one thing that’s come out of this pandemic it’s aesthetics that make use of this gridded platform known as Zoom. That’s what these titles do — for the most part — to great fun and effect,” says Louise Sandhaus, designer, educator, author and panel judge for Art of the Title's Top 10 Title Sequences of 2020. “If you’ve got limitations, exploit them.” 

This year conferences and festivals the world over were tested for their resourcefulness. Events were cancelled, postponed or transformed altogether. In the case of Playgrounds, a set of conference-style events taking place bi-annually in Eindhoven, Berlin and Amsterdam, the events moved entirely online. Tasked with creating the festival’s opening video, director Erwin van den IJssel and the team at Amsterdam-based studio The Panics decided to follow suit. Using a combination of this year’s video-chat software of choice, Zoom, paired with the time-honoured technique of stop-motion, each member of the 22-person team contributed to the titles from the comfort of their own homes. 

With 962 printed pages, 3848 edges cut, eight ink cartridges used, and 3 papercuts suffered, the project is a delightful, feel-good example of playfulness and ingenuity at their best. 

* Voted one of Art of the Title's Top 10 Title Sequences of 2020