Ronnie Koff & Imaginary Forces Brush Up on Abstraction to Open WAR on HBO

After landing two more Main Title Emmy nominations this year (for Ponies and Young Sherlock), Imaginary Forces’ CD Ronnie Koff is back, mining drama and texture from abstract expressionism for HBO’s legal drama WAR.

Ronnie Koff: We wanted the sequence to feel like conflict distilled to its most elemental form. Instead of showing lawyers, courtrooms or traditional imagery from the legal world, we visualized what happens when two opposing forces come up against one another.
 

“There’s something beautiful about abstract expressionism because you can feel aggression, tension ,and emotion without being told exactly what you’re looking at.”

 
We thought about the two sides almost like two boxers in a ring. One advances, the other responds. They collide, separate and come back at each other. Once we started giving the paint that kind of intention, the abstraction suddenly had a story.

There’s something beautiful about abstract expressionism because you can feel aggression, tension, and emotion without being told exactly what you’re looking at. That felt like the right language for War. The title sequence isn’t illustrating the conflict — it becomes the conflict.
 

Images

 
Abstract painting with thick, textured black and white brushstrokes forming a large X shape in the style of Ronnie Koff for Imaginary Forces. Frame from Stash Magazine article.
 
Abstract painting in the style of Ronnie Koff, featuring thick red and black paint strokes on a white canvas. Frame from Stash Magazine article.
 
Black abstract brushstrokes by Ronnie Koff on a light background with the text AND CELIA IMRIE. Frame from Stash Magazine article.
 
Abstract painting by Ronnie Koff with thick black brushstrokes and red paint splatters on a textured canvas, featuring the text Directed by Ben Taylor from the WAR HBO series. Frame from Stash Magazine article.
 
The word WAR in capital letters centered over a background split vertically between black and white, in the distinct style of Ronnie Koff for HBO. Frame from Stash Magazine article.
 

Credits

 
Client: HBO

Production: Imaginary Forces
CD: Ronnie Koff
Art Director: Henry Chang
Designer: Kathy Liang
Painter/Animator: Drew Tyndell
Editor: Lexi Gunvaldson
Producer: Christina Hwang
EP: Renée Robson