The 2009 football season opened at Edward Jones Dome for the St. Louis Rams with crowd prompts, sponsor graphics and a "helmet shuffle" on the video displays, created and delivered by design company Keyframe.

Keyframe art director Tony Biggar explains that the Rams didn’t want a clean sports graphics package, opting instead for something with a hip, contemporary, edgy feel. "Our artists took that information and provided a couple of storyboards that led to a ‘moderately distressed’ style that doesn’t quite reach a full grunge look.

“The Rams came into the initial meetings with very clear input,” continues Biggar. “They had some things that they specifically wanted to include in their content, and things they didn’t like as well. Because they were able to describe their vision clearly, it was fairly easy to turn that into a style guide for all of our animators to stay on the same page as we began working on the project.”

Keyframe artists designed a package based on the Rams colors—predominately dark blue with gold accents—and included secondary fonts for texture and effect. Bright lighting effects against dark and dramatic scene lighting also played into the identity of this package.

“We were able to successfully execute what the client wanted without very many revisions due in large part to our animation pipeline, but also because we were given clear boundaries before the start of the project,” notes Biggar. “Overall, the project went very smoothly and was a lot of fun to work on.”