St Andrews Links - Brand Identity Video

‘A new brand identity, rooted in the rich heritage of St Andrews Links, shaped by the very landscape that defines it.’

Following on from the fun-house project that was Snapchat, Dark Horses approached us to collaborate on a new rebrand video for St Andrews Links in Scotland. With the edit safely in DH’s court, we were teed up to create the background graphics, visual design, and 3D animation for the film.

With St Andrews steeped in golfing heritage, it was only fitting that the very landscape be woven into the rebrand: “The distinctive cuts within the word reflect the bridges over the Swilcan Burn, a symbol of every journey taken across these historic fairways.” Over the course of the video we went a fairway in Adobe After Effects and Illustrator to demonstrate how different landmarks influenced St Adnrew’s identity through graphic design and animation. This ranged from breaking down the composition of a local monument to show its influence on the font, to reshaping the path around the text with mock-up handles, giving the impression of the brand edit happening mid-video.

The hole in one! This was an ace shot to produce, combining layers of footage and animation to create a seamless sense of motion as we moved from drone footage, to satellite imagery, to our own 3D world in Cinema 4D, before fading out via the perfect piece of stock. All of it was brilliantly composited again in Ae.

To break it down: as the drone reached optimal height, we matched it to high-res satellite footage, we cut a hole through the imagery in order to reveal the course below. To blend this, we used green turbulent noise around the edge, plus a cloud layer to add depth whilst softening the transition. The satellite imagery was then masked onto the globe as we pulled further back, scaling it down to obscurity until we were left with a fully realised 3D earth. This asset has become a regular part of our toolkit, having also featured in projects for CERN, Omega, and Red Bull, providing us the opportunity to continually tune each iteration.

Finally, back into AE for the final composite as we pull further back, revealing masked stock footage with a golf ball dropping into the hole before dipping us to black, transitioning into the UGC sequence. The stock footage itself was straightforward to implement, though we added colour grading to match the overall mood.

Alongside the user generated content sequence, featuring a 3D fly-through of footage captured by players on the course, we also designed and produced illustrations for each of the courses. What began as a single overly animated write-on soon expanded at the client’s request. Several iterations later, we finalised on an extensive 3D fly-through that gave each course its fair share of screen time.

All in, not a bad project and a very happy client, judging by their own words: “This isn’t just a new look, it’s a way to connect golfers everywhere to the spirit of the Home of Golf — where everyone belongs.”