zdf spring
We've been working with ZDF for a while now on their seasonal branding, creating bespoke animations for their spring and summer slots. The initial idea was to reimagine the "Lerchenberg", where the ZDF resides, in a miniature world. Nitted hills, wool-textured characters, little wooden details. Handmade, lived-in, specific.
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We pulled apart the knitted blanket of snow and revealed different, lighter materials — embroidered grass instead of snow, linen-textured figures and intricate crafted flowers.
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Embedded in this world where some prominent faces of the ZDF programming, reimagined as puppets brought to life by digital strings.
What we cared about most was that this miniature world rewarded attention. We created something with enough going on that a viewer catching it for the twentieth time between programs might still notice something they hadn't before. That kind of density takes a while to build, and it only works when the client is willing to be in the weeds with you. The ZDF team was.
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The spring campaign ended up feeling like a breath of fresh air with it's handmade quality. ZDF's visual identity got a little more layered, and viewers who'd grown up with the channel had something that acknowledged that history without being sentimental about it.
Client
ZDF
Year
2025/26
Creative Direction
Christian Zschunke, #Saskia Kretzschmann
Producer
Stephanie Baumgarte
Artists
Philipp Brates, #Ignas Blažys, #Quinten Delahaye, #Tania Shapovalova, #Anastasiia Vorobeva, #Guilherme Todorov, #Saskia Kretzschmann, #Christian Zschunke
In the middle of winter, right before christmas
we sought refuge in creating a digital spring
that wasnt supposed to feel digital at all.
Half the fun was in reintroducing analog imperfections to our perfect digital images.
One of the major challenges to overcome for this project was to nail the right look and feel.
We established early on that we wanted to introduce alot of analouge imperfections to the sterile digital images to make them feel tactile and handcrafted.
So we applied the same love and care one would apply to a craft project and made sure there was no smooth surface left.
The audience fell in love with the amount of details and love in our animation, so we created more for them to love.
By keeping the structure that the audience loved the first time, we made it easy for them to reconnect.
After half a year on-air we talked to our partners at ZDF and decided to refresh the animation for another year.
We accomodated changes in personal and a refocus of sub-brands they where working on by weaving in the changes naturaly.
By keeping the structure the audience loved the first time we made it easy for them to reconnect but also added a lot of new details to discover.
behind the scenes
A lot of the creative work is being done before we ever open up a 3D software.
One of the most crucial aspects of detail-filled works like this for the ZDF is to plan ahead to not get bogged down in the sometimes cumbersome production process.
We use a mix of sketches, moodboards and quick visualizations to make our ideas tangible to our partners and each other.
This step allows for fast iteration and experimentation to find out what works and what doesnt.
After carefully planning ahead we started to translate all the ideas and sketches into tangible visual worlds.
There is a certain kind of magic in seeing our collective vision coming to life.
A big part of bringing the world to life is to make it move. Every planned character or object that is meant to move is prepared in a specific way to allow for the movement we intent.
For the characters this means creating a digital skeleton that allows us to deform the digital puppet.
This step always feels a bit like magic. Suddenly the still and stoic 3D objects start to feel like characters.