Designing the world and technology of a time-spanning dystopian sci-fi epic.

Years ago, my good friend Ryan Serrano wrote a script about a quantum physicist living in a near-future dystopia who competes in a mathematical race for the chance to reunite with his long-lost father-across time. This was a gripping sci-fi thriller with a heartfelt story of a father and son at its core.

During the pandemic, we all time on our hands and nowhere to go. So Ryan and his wife, Cheryl (also the film’s editor), assembled a group of creative friends — most of whom worked in and around the film and advertising industries as videographers, photographers, animators, sound and lighting techs, HMW specialists, etc. — to help bring this story to life.

Dynamic film making duo Ryan (writer, director, actor) and Cheryl (editor, actor) Serrano

Much of the brutalist offices and laboratories in the film were shot in a concrete parking garage.

I joined the crew as a graphic designer to help create the look and feel the world within the film, as well as the advertising and branding for the production itself. I also shot still photography on set, covering both behind-the-scenes imagery and stills used for the film’s advertising. (A page dedicated to my photography for this project is coming soon).

A huge thanks to Ryan and Cheryl for bringing me along for this ride. This is one of the most satisfying projects I’ve ever worked on and I’m thrilled to finally share the design work I contributed to this film.

Director of Photography Andrew Kommers

Branding The Consortium

A Sinister Corporate Empire

In the world of The Jump, The Consortium exerts control over all government, science, technology, culture, commerce, agriculture and more. As far as we the viewers can tell, the people who live in this world can not escape its “Big Brother”-like surveillance and influence. Those who resist are “pacified.”

This organization began with noble ideals, but eventually was corrupted by its own unrestrained power. So, the Consortium’s identity system was designed to feel authoritarian and oppressive, though with a veneer of optimism and hope.

Here are outtakes from the Consortium logo design process. I was heavily inspired by 1960s soviet-era space-age branding and brutalist iconography.

Visualizing the logos as three-dimension badges, door placards or machine labels.

The winning design was decidedly aspirational, implying an organization that at one time was driven by “noble ideals” of discovery, exploration, and human achievement — ad astra.

The logo applied to UX design and ID cards — which I handmade as a prop for the film with card stock, hole punches and corner-rounders.

The Consortium logo was transformed into a three-dimensional badge emblazoned on the uniforms of Consortium officers and goons.

Designing UX Interfaces

The technology is at the center of The Jump‘s story. Key plot points and story beats are developed (or at least bolstered) by the graphics on the various holographic displays and computer terminals throughout the film.

I helped Ryan design the tech for his film world, creating a system of typography, colors and graphic style that would feel polished and cohesive throughout this futuristic space. Another collaborator on the film — the ridiculously talented artist, musician, computer programmer and all-around tech-tinkerer Simo Virokannas — animated the designs and worked with Ryan to implement them into the scenes.

The UX

The computer interfaces in the Jump were floating, holographic displays the characters could interact with in three-dimensional space. Additional devices came in the form of clear glass-like disks, rectangles and pads.

The Quantum Terminal

This is the control console for the temporal engine the physicists are racing to create. To configure the engine and plot their path through time, I imagined a series of floating consoles or widgets: a keypad to configure a jump path and enter destination coordinates, digital knobs and sliders for adjustments, clusters of infographics displaying sensor data and graphs, and a large center display showing the algorithmic heart of the engine.

It’s all 100% imagination and some of the most fun I’ve ever had as a designer. And it was amazing seeing the Simo and Ryan animate these designs and bring them to life in the film world.

Project Metrics

“May you achieve your goal.”

The two physicists in The Jump are engaged in a race to solve temporal equations. The designs for the Project Metrics help visualized which scientist is in the lead for the observers at The Consortium as well as for the film’s audience, The use of orange and blue for the two physicists help identify who is in the lead at a glance and help build tension and progress the storyline.

The “smile” puzzle

A temporal-mathematical puzzle that has the appearance of a smily face comes at a key moment in the film where the main characters understand who they are and how they’re being used by The Consortium.

World Building

Beyond the computers and technology inside the offices and laboratories of The Consortium, we peer into the personal space of the film’s protagonist. His apartment is filled with texture — leather couches, stone, steel and mineral artifacts, books and paper ephemera from bygone eras. Ryan’s vision was to portray a character nostalgic for the past — grasping to retain any memory from his childhood world. Here are a few designs I created to help build out the nostalgic, analog world of the main character.

Temporal Engine Diagrams

Inside the office of the film’s protagonist, he has numerous diagrams on the wall representing the complex temporal “engine” he’s building to travel time. All the content in these is completely made up, though these were heavily inspired by mid-century science textbook diagrams.

The temporal diagrams make their way into the holo-graphics later in the film.

The Star–Consortium News Bureau. When the protagonist was a boy, his father went mysteriously missing. And now, 30 years later, he still watches old film reels and keeps an old newspaper from the days his father went missing. This newspaper’s headline provides crucial information to the plot, and it’s one of my favorite things I designed for the film.

Look closely — The star icon in the newspaper’s masthead is from the top of the Consortium Logo, hinting at their dubious control of media and culture and subtly laying the foundation for their monopoly on societal life in the present day timeline of the film.

Consortium Sanitation Co.

Spoiler alert!

In the film’s alternate (and brighter timeline) The Consortium is a trash company! But it’s still the future, and therefor needs to be oozing with style. We converted the Consortium’s brutalist logo shapes into a stout, stately trash bin. The star became hexagonal bits of trash.

Labels were designed and produced for the trash bins — a subtle implication that in this timeline The Consortium directs its pervasive control over waste, not people.

I also put the logo on a futuristic trash truck concept vehicle from Foresee Car Design (thanks!). Obviously, this vehicle never made it in the film, but it’s fun to imagine.

Advertising for the film

in addition to the design of the world inside The Jump, I helped design the branding and advertising for the film’s release and subsequent tour of film festivals on the East and West Coasts. I’m proud to be a part of this film — it won more than two dozen awards at some of the country’s most competitive independent film festivals.

For the film’s title we chose my favorite typeface of all time: Idlewild by Hoefler & Co. It’s dripping with mid-century futurism, and those gloriously expanded letterforms beautifully convey a story that stretches over decades of time.

Before hitting the film fest circuit, Serrano Films hosted a private premiere screening in the abandoned studios of an old radio station in an undisclosed New England town. The vibe was perfect, and we created posters, postcards, and other decor to carry the mood of the film into the space.

The award-winning soundtrack to The Jump by the ridiculously talented Simo Virokannas is on Apple Music and Spotify. Listen now!

Apple

Spotify

“Drew's impeccable, minimalist taste is felt throughout the graphic interface of the world, as well as in the poster and film titles. Above all, as a friend, Drew brought positive energy to me and the crew—especially during the most difficult moments that inevitably befall any production. I would work with Drew any time, and preferably sooner than later.”

Ryan Serrano
The Jump screen writer, director and actor

This is the core cast and crew and contributors for The Jump. This lovable band of rebels contains some of the brightest, most creative minds and kindest hearts I’ve ever known. Of course, many other people not pictured here helped make this film possible.