Laid is a romantic comedy, following Ruby Yao, a 33-year-old single woman who is searching for love. She suddenly finds herself at the center of a mystery: her ex-boyfriends keep passing away, one by one. Contrary to how the Peacock Original Title team typically operates, all GFX for the trailer were created (and versioned out) in-house by myself.
Using the show’s title sequence and the locked key-art as starting point, I created a 2D/3D world of a “detective board” for the internal cards to sit in. This is later coined as Ruby’s “sex-timeline” by her close friend. I also designed the initial “temp-art” (posted below) used for internal purposes, before the final art is established. Even though the show is suggestive in nature, the Producers wanted to veer away from most sex-related puns or taglines.
Skills Involved
Motion Graphics Design, Art Direction, Static Design, Versioning
Agencies / Studios
Peacock Creative (Internal), Art Machine/Trailer Park, UCP
When
October – December 2024
Hero Trailer
Using the key-art, I pulled elements from the Laid detective board and created a web of strings, thumbtacks, sticky notes, and photographs. The change of focus helped create a sense of depth as the camera moved around the board. I also used the purple/lime green landscape with handwritten text for the title card.
Title
“Laid” – Teaser
Tools
After Effects, Photoshop
Summary
While the teaser GFX did start out much more detailed, they got slowly whittled down by Creative Directors to avoid letting it distract from them message. Some of the original style frames can be seen below. The Helvetica like font is seen throughout the show’s title sequence.
Key Art
HERO ART
TEMP ART
OUT OF HOME
Times Square
Art Machine executed this Times Square OOH placement during the pre-launch period. The apparent curve of the screen typically gives the team an opportunity to explore 3D anamorphic options. However when we didn’t shoot for 3D, we generally try to combine motion graphic elements from the art with footage, pushing the star-sell for this IP.
Trailer GFX Frames
Below are some of the original style frames I designed and brought into full motion for the trailer and teaser. Over time some elements were removed, in favor of the copy, but the concept more or less remained the same. I also versioned this out in standard sizes: 16×9, 9×16, 1×1, and 4×5, as well as created a toolkit for vendors to use across all digital, linear, and social placements.
