For History's remake of Roots – the landmark series that changed American television – we were asked to create a teaser worthy of the material. The concept took shape six months before production began.
We started with the Brookes slave ship diagram of 1788, one of history's most haunting documents: a schematic used by abolitionists to show the horror of the Middle Passage in clinical, architectural detail. We recreated it by hand as a 3' x 4' ink illustration, drawing each of its hundreds of figures individually on paper.
Then came the turn. Using that same visual language – bodies arranged as geometry – we created a second illustration: "KNOW HIS NAME," the show's tagline spelled entirely from human figures. The very imagery that reduced people to cargo became the medium for restoring identity.
We animated the illustrations with 3D fluid simulations, ink appearing to flow from an invisible pen as the image revealed itself stroke by stroke. The title card, tune-in, and even the History logo were drawn by hand – every element sharing the same deliberate, human touch.
Role: Concept. Design. Illustration. Animation. Music.
The project began with months of research – studying the Brookes diagram, understanding its historical context, and deciding how to honor it without exploiting it. We chose to rebuild it by hand.
Working at 3' x 4' scale on heavy paper, we drew each figure individually in ink – hundreds of bodies, each rendered with the same care the original document denied them. A second illustration followed: "KNOW HIS NAME," its letterforms constructed entirely from human figures, turning the visual language of dehumanization into a declaration of identity.
To animate the drawings, we developed a system using 3D fluid simulations – ink pooling, spreading, and trailing across the paper as if drawn by an invisible hand. The camera moves across the physical illustration, the ink appearing wet and alive, soaking into the paper grain in real time. Title cards and tune-ins were illustrated in the same style to maintain harmony across every frame.
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