Awards shows are often showcases for really terrible design. And often, the bigger the awards, the worse the design. Its hard to know why - perhaps too many people with too much influence that have no business making creative judgement calls, or maybe just the mentality of any large entity that goes with what theyve always done - veering from that is just too risky. (as I was once told in my early days in radio: 'we dont make the hits, we play the hits.' lesson learned.) So when the Emmys, the Oscars, et al come around, you can expect a lot of awful typography and overblown gold, sparkles, 3D, script etc. There are exceptions. I only saw the end of the Oscars last night, but what I saw was one of those exceptions.

The design wasn't knock-you-over groundbreaking, but it shouldn't be. The typography was exceptional in its simplicity. The motion was nicely understated, and the consistent use of the five-panel slabs in various ways was a nice touch. The package was done by Prologue, a motion design company in Malibu. Theyre the creators of tons of great stuff you probably don't realize that you've seen. Except for some poor bumps, everything I saw seemed to work nicely. Worthy of applause.