Christmas mood from 65 artists in Daniel Savage's Yule Log 2.0

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Animation director Daniel Savage brought together 65 artists and designers across genres and techniques in a collaborative project to reimagine the classic Christmastime TV screensaver.

At the very end of 1966, the New York broadcaster WPIX-TV presented the city's eight million inhabitants for Christmas with a festive fire, blazing merrily in the fireplace. The looping seven-minute video of the Christmas-tree log instantly became a new holiday tradition in many countries. This year, almost half a century later, Brooklyn-based animation director and illustrator Daniel Savage decided to revamp the iconic Christmas mood icon.

We were sitting at my friend Boy Brandon's house and I was searching the net for the original, but Netflix [the American Internet video streaming service] didn’t have it yet, and there were only poor quality videos on YouTube,”explains Savage. "And I thought it would be cool to have a few people who could remake it." What actually happened: Savage brought in 65 artists, designers, illustrators and animators to the project, who produced 53 new author's versions of the old story. Short videos were posted on the Yule Log 2.0 website created by Wondersauce studio.

Savage began recruiting with close friends in and around New York City, and then began to connect with artists he admired but did not know personally. Thus, he managed to assemble an impressive in size and rather motley team. “I tried to recruit people from different fields. I didn't want the project to involve only illustrators or only animators. I wanted to have artists who usually don't do animation work. Collaboration on the videos was also encouraged,”says Savage about the organizational process. - Actually, I didn't know what to expect from each of the participants. I knew that everyone was very busy at this time of year, and assumed that the work would be simple, but some really shocked me. For example, animation with marshmallows. It's great when three people [Michael Fuchs, Daniel Leyva, Bianca Meier] are working on one project."

Short videos (ranging in length from ten seconds to half a minute) can be watched individually, as a standalone looping video, or one after the other. The second option allows you to fully assess the idea of the project. It contains so many creative interpretations of the same theme that one is involuntarily surprised at the limitlessness of human imagination: from cut paper that develops in a stream of air and painted fingers, to full-fledged illustrated stories and completely abstract digital images.

Even more Christmas spirit: René Baumann's gingerbread house, Hugh Turvey's transparent gifts and 500 Sand Santa Clauses on a beach in India.