Leonardo Da Vinci

Da Vinci’s notebooks are the core of the documentary, guiding the storyline with their explorations of nature and the human body and their mathematical theories of both artistic representation and the world around us. For us, we had to determine a way to incorporate the pages and the process it inspired through design and in service of the film’s narrative.

Directly reflecting the film’s subject, we applied an architectural style to our design exploration rounds. Typography and title card explorations incorporate geometric lines and other markers that we could add motion to in order to facilitate the film’s storytelling.

Once we landed on a style, we began to bring the pages of his notebooks to life. The BGSTR team wanted to design a way for the audience to see the leaps that da Vinci was making in his designs and to visualize the connections he was making in his sketches. We achieve this by bringing the art off the page with motion to capture da Vinci’s wonder-filled perspective, and transitioning the graphics to the next element of the documentary in order to continue the narrative throughline.

The first episode closes out with a step-by-step rendering of “The Last Supper,” the foundation of which was geometric lines used to create symmetrical drama among the disciples at Christ’s dinner table. Our partners wanted to find a way to show the making of the painting and the lengthy process it required.

Many of the inventions detailed in the famed notebooks were never constructed as da Vinci considered them less “possible” but necessary as “gateways to the possible” and so we wanted to link the two distinct worlds. By layering the illustrations over da Vinci’s more recognizable artistic endeavors, we were able to show the parallels between how he thought and what he was able to accomplish. This synergy achieves the effect of immersing the viewer into the world of da Vinci and his mind while also exploring his larger biography and contributions to art and science.

We crafted our design to bring the same spirit Ken Burns, Sarah Burns and David McMahon, infused into the documentary in service of their storytelling. The result is a visually stunning account of the singular genius with a mind of infinite curiosity. Congratulations to our partners on the film's premiere! Watch the two-part documentary on your PBS station and the PBS App.