Putting the Motion in Emotion with Itay Tevel

Driven by the emotional story behind any project, Hornet’s creative director Itay Tevel has a devotion to the nuance of concise and powerful communication which enhances his ability to bring emotion to motion. He compares clever motion design to a magic trick - sleight of hand through seamless transitions that focus an audience's attention elsewhere, taking them on an intuitive journey through shape, light and movement. 

Speaking to LBB, he touches on several themes that have influenced his career and shaped his perception of the illusory properties of motion design. Among other topics, he discusses why it’s important to embrace change, the value of curiosity and how trial and error is an effective method to create unique and boundary-pushing work.

These are themes that have shaped Itay’s career and passion for motion design:

Control your own destiny

I went to a technical high school for computer science, joined the military, and then opened up a bar in Tel Aviv before ever learning about design as a profession. A few people then encouraged me to look into design school after I had created all the signage and marketing materials for my bar. Once I made it into design school, I realised instantly that I wanted to learn much more about motion design than what was taught in the limited offering of animation classes. In most classes, we would all get the same brief and then have to come up with the most unique and clever way to visually communicate an idea, so I incorporated motion in as many of the classes and projects as I could. I took a motion design approach to everything. 

This is something I have done throughout my career. During my time as a freelancer, if I wanted to learn more about character design, I would pitch character-driven ideas. If I wanted to do more type at the time, I would pitch a type-driven idea. So I was lucky enough to be able to learn through doing. 

Most recently, I directed a collection of short films called the ‘Obsessed’ series that explore new motion design trends and techniques my team and I wanted to learn more about. I pitched ‘Obsessed’ as a playground for our team to try things and fail and try again, which is a privilege we don’t have with fast-paced client work. But in my opinion, it is the only way to create something unique and push our styles. I try to align what I want to work on with the goals and expectations of our clients and our team.

Get out of your comfort zone and watch what happens

For my grad project in design school, I wanted to make a live-action short film about a diagonal person who wants to be upright like everyone else, and he learns to value his uniqueness over the course of the film. My mentor kept saying it was too ambitious for a solo project, however, the department head was the only person who understood that this was an incredible learning opportunity, no matter how it turned out, and he encouraged me to pursue it. 

A friend of mine asked me about the characters in my film and, after I described this very specific lead, she said she knew the perfect person and introduced me to an Israeli movie star who agreed to be in the movie! So I ended up getting an entire crew based on the premise of him starring in my movie. Granted, people also seemed to connect with the story, each one with their own scars, but I can't imagine everyone coming on board without having him as the star of the film.

The film lived on after I graduated and it opened doors for me to jumpstart my career in design. That would never have happened if I didn’t push for my vision after people said it was too ambitious, or if I didn't choose to share my ideas with the people who wanted me to succeed. 

Embrace change

At this moment in time, it seems like the most controversial topic in design is around artificial intelligence and whether or not people who have had design training and experience will be replaced by those who haven’t. There are two main issues being discussed. Some creatives fear that new technology might be going for their jobs and will replace actual people in the industry, and the second controversy is that some people who write simple prompts to achieve visuals (which would take a digital artist days, if not weeks) consider themselves digital artists. 

History has shown us again and again that technological advancements are not something to fear - not to say that there can’t be unhealthy relationships with technology - but mostly when technology takes away certain jobs, it creates new ones. 

Either way, no matter which side of the debate you’re on, know that technological advancement can’t be stopped and, whether you like it or not, it’s coming. There’s no use in fighting it. Instead, you have to embrace it and stay ahead of the curve to see how it can benefit you. A lot of creatives I know already use AI to their advantage and I think that’s a wonderful thing - to always stay ahead of the curve when it comes to trends, style or technology.

Advice I’ve given to design students

When I meet design students, a lot of their questions are about what to do when your idea or execution isn’t working out. My advice is to take time to explore and fail and learn from it. It’s okay to not be perfect all the time. After school, no one will look at your grades or how much a teacher liked you, only your portfolio or reel. If you don’t allow yourself to fail, you don’t grow. 

Being a ‘generalist’ can have a negative connotation, but there is a lot of value in being curious, having a wealth of knowledge in a variety of fields, and being able to work with and lead a variety of creative roles. I learnt this out of necessity - being part of small teams that relied on people to wear a lot of hats - and it has really paid off. 

Always take time to take a step back. When a change is made (by a client, yourself or your team), it can create a domino effect that ends up changing the entire work. Changes in design are not done in a vacuum, so you have to take a step back and make sure the whole system is always balanced and be open to welcoming some happy accidents.

One of my biggest takeaways from the ‘Obsessed’ series is that when you work with people you admire, it’s important to let them do their thing. Even when you have a specific vision, you’ll get creative ideas you would have never come up with on your own. When you control too much, no one will enjoy the process and the creativity will be stunted. Giving away this control is a helpful creative benefit.