Shots 121 Ident: Peppermelon

This issue’s extra-terrestrial ident comes courtesy of Buenos Aires-based directing collective PepperMelon.

The Stink-signed team – composed of a mixture of directors, animators, character designers, industrial designers, visual effects artists and writers – found inspiration for the impressive 3D animated film in their love for the obscure.

“Our favourite thing about what we do is developing characters on screen,” explains EP Fernando Sarmiento. “For us, the more bizarre they are, the better. For the ident we wanted to play with an ‘invaders meet natives’ theme, and so created an eccentric little fellow that looks like a horse from an acid trip.”

The collective started out life as a band back in 2007, before turning their hand to 3D animation. “And we weren’t just your typical weekend rock band,” quips creative head Tomas Garcia. “We used lay out 10-minute bagpipe solos. Completely naughty.”

Since their inception PepperMelon have carved a name for themselves in the motion graphics world, crafting content for the likes of MTV, Fox and Cartoon Network. But for Sarmiento, their formula is simple: “I would say, the more you squeeze the pulp of a fruit, the more juice flows out. I think we try to adopt that philosophy at Pepper in a healthy, creative way – squeezing our brains dry, I mean.”