Surface
Graphic designerMar 2023 – Jul 2023
Apple TV
SDTA Productions
Season 2
Production designer: Catrin Meredydd
Supervising art director: Fabrice Spelta
Lead graphic designer: Brendan Ewen
Lead graphic designer: Andy Bottomley
Graphic designer: Mickey Ralph
Assistant graphic designer: Jon Urquhart
Graphics assistant: Ned Kimber
Graphics trainee: Daisy Bailey
Apple TV’s Surface provided a brilliant opportunity to put my ten years in magazines, journalism and publishing to good use — the action focused largely around a British magazine office, and the discovery of an archive of newspaper clippings.
I advised the production designer on the features of a contemporary editorial office. I also developed the identity, masthead and cover template for the The Britannian magazine, as well as an entire 64-page issue — of which hundreds were printed to use as desk dressing. The magazine templates also made up the large ‘flat plan’ wall, and were printed at large format to dress the walls. With illustrations by Ned Kimber.
For Sophie’s newspaper clipping archive, I bought and scanned tens of newspapers from the 1960s to present day — these were used as templates to insert our own story headlines, copy and photos.
Early masthead and front cover layout options.
References: We looked at the New Statesman, The Atlantic, New Republic, and The Economist — magazines that boast big ideas, politics and culture.
I designed an entire magazine, which was displayed on the ‘flat plan’ wall — a physical mockup of the magazine pages in sequential order, where editors can gather to see how the issue is shaping up.
A flick-through spreads from The Britannian magazine.
The Britannian bullpen set was inspired by The Economist’s editorial office.
Screen graphics, featuring various schedules and desktop publishing software windows, were provided for over 40 screens.
A Britannian cover poster in Callum’s office.
Past editions of The Britannian magazine line the office walls.Cisco phones with The Britannian branding.Journalism awards etched into glass.Proofs and paperwork on a journalist’s messy desk.Branding in red cut-out vinyl was applied to the entrance doors — inspired by The Economist’s offices.
One of 16 magazine covers printed and framed.
Callum’s messy desk — full of magazine proofs, publishing schedules and notes — reflects his busy job and chaotic personality.
Sophie discovers a hero archive box.
Private archive corridors, inspired by the repositories at the National Archives, in Richmond.Hundreds of archive boxes were painstakingly labelled.
Sophie’s archive is chock full of hero newspaper clippings about the Huntley family. Tens of newspapers, from the 1960s to present day, were sourced, scanned and edited, or designed from scratch. Headlines written; fonts closely matched to period originals, and often VFX tracking markers placed — to suit our story.Some ‘older’, and delicate, newspaper clippings were crudely mounted onto scraps of card with parcel tape — inspired by my uncle’s personal clippings archive.An early 1960s British newspaper clipping. The replacement headline was set in a typeface and style that closely matches the original, and period- and story-appropriate photos were sourced and added.Double-sided newspaper printing — for authenticity.I scoured for interesting 1920s artworks in the public domain. Cleared and printed Jaromir Funke’s gelatin silver print Composition (1927), for Sophie’s hotel suite set. The large artwork — at almost 2 metres wide — was printed to foamex (before framing) by Displayways, to avoid bowing.Inside Henry Huntley’s desk drawer.Ephemera reflecting Henry’s interest in art and antiques.I commissioned fine artist Jason Line to produce two 3ft-high contemporary oil paintings of our hero characters, played by Julian Glover and Rupert Graves.
Options for a hero plaque (mockup).
Property and style dressing magazines.
A journalist’s hastily printed research.Eliza’s cello sheet music.
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