Black Acre — Micah Shannon | Brand Design & Illustration Portfolio

Illustration Animation Worldbuilding

Concept Work

Black Acre

The Big Idea
A gripping title sequence and worldbuilding for an imagined 1980’s farmtown thriller.

The Story

In the isolated town of Blackthorn, struggling farmers accept an offer from AgriCore Ventures—financial security in exchange for cooperation in a top secret agricultural study. Under constant surveillance, the farmers follow precise orders: burn their crops, reshape the land, and perform cryptic tasks without question.

Things seem normal until the shift begins. Days blur, memories lapse, inexplicable anomalies spread, and anyone who tries to leave vanishes. Most ignore the cracks in reality, but 20-year-old farmhand Clayton Hayes can’t. The changes are deliberate, controlled. As he digs deeper, he realizes AgriCore’s true experiment isn’t the land—it’s the farmers.

And Blackthorn is running out of time.

Process

Creating this project from scratch, I wanted to build a rich film world for this title sequence to live in. The visuals are inspired by lofi 80’s effects, rural midwest landscapes, and rudimentary corporate instructional films.

Throughout the worldbuilding process, I generated rough AI film stills to conceptualize the look and feel of the film itself.

An in-depth visual library of vast fields, atmospheric foggy shadows, and crunchy film effects, used to direct the illustration and animation process.

Final Illustrations

The stark geometry, layered with hazy, analog effects, is riddled with motifs hinting at isolation, secrecy, and the dissolving of both free will and reality.

Look at another project

Email me:

SHANNOM7@MAIL.UC.EDU

A brand designer & illustrator crafting playful stories for fellow humans.

MicahShannon