hidden world of rainbows and unicorns
Glitter & Greed: The Lisa Frank Story
Client
Maxine
Was it all rainbows and unicorns or were those neon hues concealing something darker? 'Glitter and Greed: The Lisa Frank Story' takes a deeper look at the storied brand and its secrets in the four-part documentary from Prime Video and Maxine.
'Glitter & Greed' is a stranger-than-fiction original series about one of the most visually iconic brands of a generation. BGSTR designed the nostalgia-soaked graphics for the series, creating a rainbow-hued visual identity for the documentary that leaves a memorable impression.
Recre + Series Design
A returning partner of ours, Maxine is known for taking on meaty stories rooted in pop culture and we knew we could create something amazing when designing for their newest project about Lisa Frank.
To set the stage for the series, we needed to determine our direction for the recre (ie: ‘recreation’) style and series design. A lot of the series imagery would need to highlight the elusive Frank herself, and due to lack of available or licensable media, we knew off the bat we’d need animated recres.
Our partners at Maxine had a really specific visual language in mind for the documentary and had envisioned a color palette comprised of specific hues. We kept the Lisa Frank brand and the palette that the Maxine team had begun to set in mind as we began our design exploration, testing out two different styles—a fully illustrative version and then a collage, multimedia style.
After getting buy-in from Prime Video on the direction, we were off to the races and it seemed like the multimedia style we’d created worked best in the show’s context. Building on that direction set the throughline for the rest of the series and was the foundation for its visual identity.
As for Lisa herself, we explored a couple of options for representing her on-screen. It was a long (and fun) process nailing down the best way to feature her in the recres while continuing the mysterious legacy she’d built up around herself over the years.
Should we add cartoon googly eyes on her? Do we try and obscure her like a sitcom pregnancy? Stock imagery collages? Ultimately, we went with a live-action inspired style that saw a lot of shots from behind or with identifying features cropped out, enabling us to still infuse the vibe of Frank while keeping her somewhat enigmatic.
After firming up the style direction, we began to tackle the full series worth of graphics. Artist Kurt Huggins storyboarded most of the recreations for the series for us while Carol Cai headed up the art direction.
For the final version that would appear on screen, BGSTR animator Casey Drogin and Eun Sung Do transformed these collages and graphics into the personality-driven recres that appear in the series. We think they are the perfect combination of entertaining and informative and fit the tone of the series perfectly.
Main Title
Aside from the series graphics, we needed a psychedelic title sequence to set the stage for the documentary. The nostalgia-soaked, 3D title sequence we conceptualized references key moments in the neon-hued company's history while showing off its roots in Lisa Franks' signature design.
The iconic '90s brand defined girlhood for a generation and we wanted the title sequence to reference an abbreviated version of the journey the doc takes viewers on. Designer Nick Woythaler led the title sequence design and incorporated a treasure trove of psychedelic illustrations and references to the company’s hidden world while taking special care to nail the LF style.
‘Glitter and Greed: The Lisa Frank Story’ has been a certified hit since debuting on Prime Video in December of 2024, inspiring conversations between new and old fans alike. Thank you to Maxine for letting us be a part of this complicated story about a not-so-rainbow world.
Props where props are due
Credits
Lisa Frank
Founder, Executive Creative Director Josh NortonExecutive Vice President, Executive Producer Carson HoodVice President, Head of Production Virgil ConklinSupervising Producer Kristen PritchettArt Director, Designer/Illustrator Carol CaiAnimation Director Casey DroginMain Title Original Design Gabriel PerezMain Title 3D Design & Animation Nick Woythaler3D Modeling Kintan Chauhan, Leo BaiDesigners Eun Sung Do, Ann KruetzkampAnimators Chia-Lung Liu, Christopher Scales