When Alejandro Ortiz, owner of Once Once Audiovisuales (onceonce.tv) approached me for a project he had in mind to promote his company in an upcoming convention, I knew at once it was going to be an awesome opportunity to go all out with a creative idea.

Alejandro and I have been long time friends, we know each other well, respect each other’s work and feel genuinely interested in working together any chance we might have, which up to know, strangely enough, has not really happened. The truth is, every time he has a project I can be a part of, or viceversa, it ends up going another way or simply falling through.
This time it DID happen, however, we ended up in a client/vendor relationship. Him being the client.
But again, because we know each other, and have deep respect for what we do, our talents and our visions, backed up by a great friendship, I knew this would be one of those circumstances where you know you don’t have to worry about situations brought on by bad communication, hard headedness, or just bad attitudes. Which can sometimes mar what could have been a great experience.

Simply put, Alejandro gave me “Unlimited Freedom“.
This itself is simply awesome. But at the same time does put a little preassure on my side. Since I don’t want to disappoint not only my friend (and customer), but also MYSELF!
You almost never get a project where you not only have complete freedom and utter faith from your client, but also presents the opportunity to let creativity fly.

This also can lead to something, that as it turns out was the case in this situation. Which is: You might end up getting a little more than what you bargained for. Meaning, you are the one setting project requirements and expectations, so in the end, if the project has a lot more work than what it could have been, it’s all your own doing.
Of course, this also leads to work you can surely be proud of. And so, this is what happened with the Once Once surreal infographic concept illustration.

Once Once is a Production Company. They do from commercial tv ad productions, to documentaries, web animated infographics, 3d animation, etc. They have a wide range of products and specialities, and this is what I needed to put through in the final result.
Now, Alejandro was very clear from the start, that he didn’t want just a straightforward, serious and possibly boring representation. That’s why he gave me total freedom from the start. He told me: “go crazy!  smoke something if necessary!“.
Well… I didn’t smoke anything. But I did try to go crazy. Calling to the surreal world table notable and well known pop-culture characters and scenes, for each one of the steps I wanted to represent in the production process.

I decided on an infographic that would explain each one of the departments/groups of people involved in the development of a project.
From brainstorming and storyboards, to casting (talking animals in this case), to musicalization (you can find some well known characters in there), to sound editing, to filming in different scenarios and situations, special effects, to video post editing and finally screening and presentation.
The number 11 (once means eleven in spanish) is very important here. Not only because of the company name. Alejandro has personal reasons relation to the meaning of the number 11:11 (look it up). So I tried to incorporate it literally, or in a more subtle way (easter egg style – have fun finding them!).

All in all, this project was very satisfying. And the result, something I’m proud of.
Of course, I’m also happy that my friend is also content with it.

A dream project for sure!