Bran Dougherty-Johnson

One day more again here.., and right after flying high-high across the outer obscure clouds of my most shameful thoughts.., and having been at the verge of insanity.., it appears a new face, it burns a new glow within my eyes; such as one of those divine lights, when faded in darkness, when crawling in a never-ending labyrinth, it appears with the speed of lightning the hand of God to save your soul. There it comes him, from the ravaging flames of hell, when facing up the Devil, a lie like that shines stronger than the sun..., a lie like that bleeds at night when the clock stops. A lie like that buries your conscience, for God’s light iluminates, but also blinds.

One day, just another ordinary day within the chain of endless ordinary unemployed summer days.., and surfing amongst the waters of the cybernetic ocean I have come to meet the following name, “Bran Dougherty-Johnson”, and his career.

We have 3 things to clear up today. First, the “Who” “is” “Bran Dougherty-Johnson?” Second, the mystery of Grow Design Work and third, the project called “PSST”.

Bran Dougherty-Johnson says:

“I studied Film at Vassar College and then moved to San Francisco where I became a motion-graphics artist at Pomegranit Editorial.I moved back to New York and worked in staff positions at the Attik from 1999-2001 and Brand New School from 2002-2005. I've also done freelance work for Buck, Digital Kitchen, ESPN Classics, Imaginary Forces, Loyalkaspar, National Television, Showtime, Transistor Studios and others...”

What is “Grow Design Work”? In plain words, Grow Design Work is the home to Motion Designer & Director Bran Dougherty-Johnson. “Grow” is a film-making studio specializing in motion-graphics, broadcast design, short film and typography and is not restricted in any way by medium, technique or style. Grow takes a craft-based approach to creating unique works of animation design, working personally and directly on every project. Grow’s work encompasses: Creative + Art Direction, Animation, Design, Typography, Illustration, Character Design, Music and Sound Design.

Now, between Bran Dougherty-Johnson most remarkable and visible productions we have the project called “PSST”. According to the project itself, the north of PSST is to produce original short films through the collaboration of different teams of designers, directors, and animators. Each film is to be comprised in three sections produced by three different teams. This process is the whole idea behind PSST – a technique derived from the Dadaist game of “Exquisite Corpse” and the children’s game Telephone and applied to the arts of motion graphics, animation and film-making (http://www.psstpassiton.com/about.html).

PSST has released two productions so far, being the second one exposed in this third post. The first PSST Project had six films and was released in July of 2006. On the other side, PSST 2 had nine short films and was released in March of 2007. In terms of work mechanics, PSST uses a collaborative process that is based on the idea that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. At this point, we might remark that to every artist involved in the process of creation, sometimes result very difficult working together amongst other artists, mainly when working over one single object and bound to obtain one single product. In terms of ethics, a product this way made is not the essence of one single artist, but a part of every people involved in the process of creation. In a broad sense, the work realized belongs to everyone, but at the same time, to belong to no one. The idea of Bran Dougherty-Johnson, when gathering different artists from different places; therefore with different cultures, points of view and work’s methodologies is quite outstanding to every aspirant, for it requires to “entrust” another completely with something that you hold dear to your heart…, that’s the big deal and just that makes of PSST a very thrilling and challenging proposal..

PSST is a project in which the outcome is also left up to a certain amount of chance – because the whole process is determined by the successive artist's reactions to the previous work. PSST is also intended to showcase the personal work of designers and artists that generally work in relative anonymity or within a studio system in which credit is applied to a company rather than individual artists.

Well, before the end I lead you to the videos posted this time. The short films added belong to the second production of PSST. This production contains 9 films, every one of them realized by three different teams collaborating at different levels (Exquisite Corpse Technique), so you might expect to see something really special. So that’s it, let’s get the hell out of here.

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To further information about every short film visit: http://www.psstpassiton.com/index.htm

Decompress Still-Life Poem - (Dir.) Jonathan Cannon

Buble Eidetic Syndrome - (Dir.) "Radical Friend" (Julia Grigorian & Kirby McClure)

Fracas Giant America - Honest

Drift Slycicle popped! - Noah Conopask

Sparkle Esperanturum Stimulation - Ted Kotsaftis

Unreciprocated surgery zombie - James Wignall

Loquacious Eyesicle Wild-bites - Hoon Chong