From kinetic typography (moving/expressive type) to character-driven work, motion design encapsulates an entire design discipline. Some artists and studios will even specialize in just one aspect of it. At Sarofsky, we employ experienced, senior artists in each discipline and further expand from our black-book of creative talent to supplement the team on larger-scale projects. As such, we are able to offer our clients a full range of design-driven solutions for everything from extremely small to vast, large-scale projects. More importantly, this allows us to pivot easily if the needs for an assignment change midstream—which, let’s be honest, they sometimes do.

Visual Effects (VFX) is a broad term used to describe the process of merging live action footage with computer generated imagery together into a single, cohesive image. It is a merging point where art and science become equally important in creating an image that is wholly fabricated and totally believable to the human brain.

The category also covers a wide array of our creative partner’s needs. Visual effects can encompass removing a logo from a shirt, or a blemish from an actor’s body, to fully integrating a character into a live action scene. It can also mean the reverse: Taking characters and creating a world around them that did not previously exist.

Chicago based Nolo Digital Film specializes in high end color grading for commercials, music videos, feature and documentary films. Colorists Mike Matusek and Elliot Rudmann bring a combined 40 years of expert artistry to the craft of color correction.

There are times when filming is the only way to impart that very special something into a piece. Oftentimes it’s humanity. Unless you see a person actually doing, going, achieving, experiencing, or emoting, it can be hard for the audience to “get the feels.”

Live action covers a wide gamut of styles, genres and expertise: From shooting on location to on set…from working with actors to working with props…from filming assets (such as people on green,) to building out full sets…from filming stop motion miniatures to creating large scale props from a comedy gag. We can be thoughtful and resourceful about how best to produce your job, not just how to capture the visuals, but to also come up with a post plan that ensures success.

When a brand is looking to create content outside the traditional commercial space, this is called brand funded entertainment. We regularly help brands and organizations conceptualize work around achieving specific goals and to capture a specific audience’s attention. We can not only conceptualize the project, but we execute it and help organize distribution and PR efforts. At the end of the day we will grow brand recognition, sales and its status in the community.

We have always considered ourselves a teaching studio, looking to find young talent that we can develop internally so that we can instill good work habits in a truly collaborative, supportive environment. So it was natural for us to come up with ways to engage both our clients and the larger design community in that way.

It was from this ethos that Sarofsky Labs was born. A weekend workshop series that invites members of the design community to the studio to do a personal project under the guidance of our key team, Sarofsky Labs has become a great laboratory for new talent.  Also, as we have been delivering more work as kits, it’s been important to include training along with them, sharing information with our clients so they can maintain the work we created on their behalf.