“75 frames for 75 years in 75 minutes”: Atlantic Records launches anniversary lock-up

Atlantic Records UK has teamed with London studio Cha Chaan Teng ahead of the label’s 75th birthday. When Luke Tipping, creative director of Atlantic Records, approached Cha Chaan Teng to celebrate the date, the record label originally only wanted a simple lock-up. But the team decided animation would be the best way to celebrate its 75 years working with a long line of greats from Dusty Springfield to Charli XCX and Cardi B – you can read more about Atlantic’s early history in Rhythm and Blues here.

Not content with the challenge of animating the label’s 75 years, Cha Chaan Teng also decided to film the animation in one shot in 75 minutes, using 75 frames. “We created a base animation to keep us aligned, printed off each frame, then Char and Wei redrew each frame in a competitive speedrun,” says the team.

The final stop motion looks over some of the label’s past logos, like its original 1947 mark, featuring an extended A crossbar as a dramatic underscore, and its 60s logo, which was introduced with the US release of a Led Zeppelin record. “We loved looking at the ways the Atlantic Disc has been used on vinyl labels over the years and wanted to try to integrate that into the typography of the lock-up to continue that legacy,” says the team.

The new anniversary lock-up, which unbinds the Atlantic symbol from the box that it traditionally sits within, can be seen across a number of variations, like a gold logo that skews the “more traditional celebratory route” and is inspired by birthday balloons.

“We’ve been friends with the Atlantic Records family for a while and they’ve given us many opportunities to push ourselves into new areas,” says Cha Chaan Teng. “Shout out to Atlantic for always having trust in us!”