Interspectacular opens with Comedy Central redesign

Post, June, 2004

NEW YORK -- Creative directors Luis Blanco and Michael Uman, and the team at the recently launched design shop Interspectacular (www.interspectacular.com), provided a redesign for Comedy Central. Inspired by pop and street art, the network's new look has an authentic feel, as it was created with the help of numerous underground artists.

Shepherd Fairey of the Obey/Giants projects and Studio Number One; Friends With You, designers and makers of plush urban toys; and Dr. Revolt, an old-school graffiti legend each provided icons and symbols for use in the project. Interspectacular also collaborated with Brazilian design firms Lobo and Piloto. Comedy Central SVP/creative director Peter Risafi says the new look had to reflect the edgy and provocative comedy found on the network. He feels the icons, graffiti and distressed look accomplished that.

Imagery was captured using a Sony TRV-900 DVCAM camera and Nikon and Casio digital still cameras. The studio used a combination of Adobe After Effects 6, Photoshop 8 and Illustrator 11 on the project, along with Apple's Final Cut Pro 4 running on a Power Mac G5 workstation.