Lee Daniels Entertainment

As we worked with producer, writer, and director Lee Daniels on the main titles for The Deliverance, he also tasked us with redesigning the animated logo for his company. With this short logo, Daniels wanted to tell a very personal story about his life and approach to art.He had a difficult childhood where he experienced and witnessed a lot of suffering and difficulty. The art of filmmaking became his medium for personal transformation. We wanted to express this in the logo by telling the story of a little boy who starts from a dark place, but then he takes off and soars, transforming himself, and bringing light and color into his world.
He breaks free from that dark, confining environment, becoming a bird flying towards the sun. The soaring bird transforms, multiplying to many birds that bring on the letters of the Lee Daniels logo.Although Daniels works in film, he has a deep appreciation for fine art, which inspired us to approach the logo with a painterly aesthetic. This style provided a fluid visual language that could naturally support the continuous metamorphosis at the heart of the piece.To create the desired effect, a cell animator digitally painted each frame so together they create the sensation of a moving painting.