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2020 One Show - Design

Great Stories Are Timeless

Agency DDB NY / New York

Client Tribeca Film Festival
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Annual ID

OS_DE20_200M

About the Work

Great stories stand the test of time. To celebrate this, the Tribeca Film Festival reimagined some of today’s most iconic stories, including “The Simpsons”, “Apocalypse Now” and “This is Spinal Tap” using one of the world’s oldest forms of storytelling: Egyptian hieroglyphics. To prove that great stories are timeless, we partnered with an Egyptology professor to re-imagine over 100 scenes, staying true to the integrity of the language and its precise artistic forms. In the process, we developed an entirely new alphabet for each story. By combining modern iconography with phonograms and classifiers from the ancient language, we created over 270 hybrid glyphs and symbols. These could also be translated into English with our app simply by taking a photo. The project was a success for the Festival, giving people a chance to experience their favorite stories like never before. And the work was so groundbreaking, it even prompted academic papers at prestigious Brown University. TFF is the largest film festival in NY. It has grown beyond film into a celebration of all types of storytelling including video games, virtual reality, music, television, talks and online works and the festival prides itself on showcasing the latest cutting-edge forms of storytelling.