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Torino, ItalyAugust 28, 2026
Mindsparkle Mag
Araldica is the internal R&D project of illo: a sound-reactive motion design system built around heraldry, designed to scale across formats and stay in tune with the music — or even generate it.
In January 2026, illo took heraldry as a personal brief. One video came out of it: sharp, rhythmic, built entirely in Cavalry and screened at OFFF Barcelona. Around the same time the studio was deep in a project for a major international music player it is contractually not allowed to name, and working that closely with sound changed how the team read the original piece — it moved like music.
So illo built a motion toolkit around it: a single visual system born from heraldic colour and pattern, from deep greens and sharp yellows to checkered geometries, reshaped to move in time with sound. From a playlist cover to a single track’s artwork, from an in-app visual player to full video mapping on a wall, everything scales from the same source, with the palette and pattern language staying recognisably heraldic at every size and format.
Inside the toolkit, two generative tools push it further. One turns sound into image: a track goes in, and its rhythm, genre and length shape a live animated visual, with a dedicated podcast mode where a coiling, serpent-like line shifts colour with every change of speaker. The other reverses the process entirely — working in TouchDesigner, the studio scans the original Araldica footage colour by colour, translating it into music through Ableton.
Design & Direction: illo
Creative Direction: Ilenia Notarangelo
Creative Direction: Cristina Pasquale
Project Direction, Motion & Design: Giovanna Crise
Motion: Miguel D'Errico
Motion & Tool Development: Tommaso Azzarello
Motion: Luca Gonnelli
Design: Elena Maggiolo
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