Theodore Daley — Designer

Theodore Daley is a designer and director working out of New York, with a portfolio that runs from game cinematics to sports broadcast to brand film. He's featured in the Art of Styleframe library, and every entry below deep links to the project page on his own site.

What he does

Daley's portfolio is a good argument for range. The same person who built the look for God of War: Ascension also handled ESPN tournament packages and an Exxon Mobil spot about plants. Those briefs have almost nothing in common, and yet the frames share a habit: heavy, physical materials lit hard, with the composition built around one dominant shape.

Game work taught him that. Cinematic design lives or dies on whether a still can carry mood before any animation starts, and his God of War frames do exactly that with stone, ash, and metal.

Selected projects

Three God of War entries sit in the portfolio: the in-game cinematics, the teaser, and the earlier God of War III work. Opening them in sequence is the fastest way to see how his surface treatment tightened over a few years.

Sport is the other big cluster. ESPN EuroCup 2016 and ESPN World Cup 2014 are both tournament packages, and both are built for a broadcast team to rebuild nightly, so the design has to be modular rather than precious.

Then the brand and title work. Bloomberg ESG is the most restrained piece in the set, all data and typographic hierarchy. Exxon Mobil: Plants and Pepsico x Westfield are the commercial end. Smirnoff Blueberry Lemon and Screenvision Upfront round out the advertising side.

Television titles show up too, with Hell on Wheels, Rubicon, and Witches of East End. Shine Shortfilm and Re-birth are the personal pieces, and they're where the palette gets strange in a way client work rarely allows.

Why we feature him

Because the transitions between disciplines are invisible in the frames themselves. A designer who can move from a Sony console cinematic to a financial data package without dropping quality has solved something most portfolios never even attempt.

Where to see more

• Portfolio: theodoredaley.com

Portfolio highlights

• cancelled game - Role: Art direction & design Company: Imaginary Forces
• crossbones - Role: Design Company: Imaginary Forces
• ESPN Eurocup 2016 - Role: Art direction & design Company: Imaginary Forces
• ESPN Worldcup 2014 - Role: Art direction & design Company: Loyalkaspar
• God of war ascension in game cinematics - Role: Art direction & design Company: Imaginary Forces
• God of war ascension Teaser - Role: Art direction & design Company: Imaginary Forces
• God of war III - Role: Design & lead Compositor Company: Imaginary Forces
• hell on wheels - Role: Design Company: Imaginary Forces
• nickelodeon galaxy - Role: Art direction & design Company: Imaginary Forces
• Re-birth - Role: Direction & design
• Rubicon - Role: Design Company: Imaginary Forces
• Screenvision - Role: Art direction & design Company: Eyeball
• Underground- - Role: Design Company: Imaginary Forces
• Witches of Eastend - Role: Art direction & design Company: Juniper Jones
• Xbox one- - Role: Design Company: Logan