LETTING IDEAS GROW: THE MILL ON FORWARD'S MAIN TITLE'S
What does an idea look like before it knows what it will become? For The Mill, it took the form of three seeds, each shaped by the tools of making: a stylus, a clay pot, and something built for flight. In our interview, Matthew-Ben Campbell, Head of Design, shares how the team grew a one-line brief into a visual language of sketched lines, flat color, and sculpted forms, bringing Forward Festival's 2026 vision to life in a title sequence that moves from creative chaos to a moment of calm.
The Mill created the Forward Festival Main Titles 2026. Tell us about the core idea behind the clip.
Matthew-Ben Campbell: The core idea comes from a well known metaphor: The seed of an idea. In the film we take a seed to represent our ideas and watch them grow, flourish and resolve into something unexpected and beautiful as we take action on them.
The brief was a single line: turn ideas into action. How much did that leave open, and where did you go first with it?
Although the brief was just one line it was very direct and relevant immediately pointing us in the direction of the excitement and chaos of the creative process and the challenges that we face when we begin to take action on our ideas. We felt 'open space' when we began to think about how to represent that visually on screen. At first because we were thinking about creative processes we took inspiration from our own creative processes. Eventually after much discussion we landed on using the metaphor of the seed as an idea and we used our creative processes and tools to instruct what the metaphor might look like visualised. In the end we structured our visual language specifically around sketching or mark making, colour and modelling/sculpting.
The clip opens with three seeds drifting across the screen, standing in for the three pillars of an idea. They move through the film and eventually resolve into a single artwork. Where did those shapes come from, and what pulled you toward nature as a reference point?
Because we started with a seed our first port of call was real seeds in the real world. However, as we'd decided to use our own creative process to drive the visuals, we felt like we could design our own seeds that hinted at the processes we and other artists and makers might recognise. We jumped off from nature, understanding essentially what makes a seed a seed and then played with those rules, adding in shapes that looked like a stylus or a clay pot for instance. The seed we named the 'colour seed' was essentially designed with flight in mind, so we referenced seeds that travel through the air and had fun creating something that looked like it would fly but felt a little more surreal and unusual.
There is a moment you call the turning point, where ideas start taking shape. What happens there, and how did you decide where to place it?
Before the turning point we are looking at our seeds, sifting, sorting and selecting the best seed, or the best 'idea'. One idea is chosen- in the previous shot- represented by a 'clay seed' which we then dive inside ready to take action. It is this seed that will form the main structure of the artifact at the end of the film. At the turning point we reveal the tag line 'Turn Ideas Into Action' (to really drive home the point) and pull out from a group of seeds called 'line seeds'. They are shaped like a stylus of sorts and feature geometric grooves that run along the surface. As we pull back, long inky lines begin to flow out from the grooves. These lines represent drawn or painted lines and signify the initial sketch or doodle that often follows the first thoughts of an idea. Whenever we want to share our ideas in their early stages, we often start with a sketch or an outline and so it is in the film. This moment is a key part of the narrative; that moment we decide to take action and do something about our idea. We wanted the film to focus mainly on taking action and the growing of our seeds so, this moment occurs earlier, about 1/3 of the way through the film.
After the turning point, everything is in motion and the music builds. What were you after in that second half?
Energy and chaos! Creativity and taking action is not always so straightforward, sometimes things don't work, more ideas come in to challenge the original idea and maybe you have to change direction multiple times. This is a process of discovery and it can be a bit messy but this can also be lots of fun! So, we wanted this moment to feel a little chaotic, with a lots of different effects combining and building some uncertainty as to how they might resolve.
You have described the final artwork in the clip as its own case of turning an idea into action. How did it come together?
We named the final artwork the 'artifact' and that is mainly because we did not know what it would be for a long time! We had our seeds, and had even decided on how we would visualise the action that would grow from them, but the end form was still a bit vague in our minds. We knew we wanted it to feel like it had grown out of the combination of all the preceding visuals and of course the seeds themselves. I'd hoped to discover this final artifact organically but in the end we settled on the idea of using our action elements to form a tree like structure. It seems kind of obvious that it would be a tree now, but our tree feels special in that it is loosely put together it kind of appears in a fleeting moment of creativity. It represents wisdom, a place of gathering for the community, shelter and strength- all themes that resonate with the Forward Festival community.
The clip carries a lot of small details, hidden meanings, and layers. Where did those come from? Were they planned from the start, or did they emerge as you worked?
A lot of those details emerged as we worked especially during the script/storyboard stage. Sometimes you might get a complete picture with your idea but often it's a bit hazy or incomplete. Then you discover more and more of the direction as you go. That's why it's so important to take that first step when you have an idea- you don't necessarily have to have it all figured out from the outset. I personally found that writing down just the one idea, one shot or scene on the timeline seemed to draw out the next and the next.
The sound design plays a crucial role. How closely did picture and sound develop alongside each other, and was there a point where the audio changed what you did with the image?
We're so happy with the sound in this piece, we think it supports the image and the narrative so well. We were able to determine the general direction for the sound fairly early on but as the film is quite abstract, tying the audio beautifully to the visuals really required our visual development to be quite advanced. We did make some tweaks to the edit mainly to line up with the beat that was eventually set in the audio track.
You mentioned that the clip combines animated analog drawings, digital design, and elements made with AI. How did you decide which approach suited each part?
We had a good idea about how to make this film from when the storyboards were finalised. We knew we would rely heavily on CG tools for the foundation of the final image, mainly due to the photoreal look of the seeds and the complexity of the animation. However, to create the final look we referenced lots of different ways of making things and wanted our CG not to look like CG but more like sketchy lines or flat graphic colour in places- almost like a remix of the final image. Our sketches, AI and other digital tools were used during design to help finalise what we could create with within our CG toolset.
Was there a turning point in your own process, a moment when the rough ideas started to hold together?
Three moments stand out here. One was when the first storyboard and animatic were completed, which was very exciting. Another came when we saw our first styleframe from Youkyung Kim, our head of 2D in Seoul, and the third when Hansae Kim, our lead designer, revealed the first rendered version of the artifact's structure. In those moments, we knew we were really onto something.
Looking at the finished sequence, what detail do you hope people notice?
I hope people have that surprised and uplifting feeling when they see the elements resolve in the final shot. I do wonder what people might see in that final shot. I hope they see the unusual tree come together out of all the elements, and that, from the chaotic creative rush, they find that familiarity and calm at the end. This film is also meant to mirror the emotional journey of the creative process, so I hope that comes across.
