The Einstein Portal
Paradigm & Princeton University Press
The Einstein Portal is a new digital database bringing together The Collected Papers of Albert Einstein, published by Princeton University Press with Paradigm. For its launch, they needed a 90-second film to introduce it.
THE CHALLENGE
The Portal is the definitive home for Einstein's collected papers, and not only
the physics. It holds his letters, his politics, his humanitarian writing: an
intellectual history of the twentieth century told through one mind. Our task
was to make that significance land in 90 seconds, for a scholarly audience, with
limited material to work with, mostly letters.
THE APPROACH
Rather than open on the science, we opened on something human: a 1921 letter from
the director of Princeton University Press, chasing Einstein over an overdue
manuscript. A recognisable, slightly awkward moment.
From there, the archive itself became the film. That same letter multiplies, row
by row and column by column, into an immense library of shelved correspondence,
the scale of one of the greatest minds in history. Then the library becomes an
infinite wormhole of Einstein's work and life, and the titles carry the viewer
down into the papers. Rado modelled and animated the sequence in Houdini.
THE OUTCOME
The full 90-second film launched on the Einstein Portal site as the database went
live on 30 September 2026. We also cut a 30-second version and two social edits
for Princeton and Paradigm's channels.
MOODBOARD
WHAT BEN SAID
"I love this! Loved working with you both on this project, as always it was such
a smooth and enjoyable process. That's why we've worked together for so many
years. It was simply genius, the concept to make a portal out of the Einstein
portal."
- Ben Sherriff, Spellbinder Productions
CREDITS
Director & producer: Ben Sherriff
Production company: Spellbinder Productions
Concept, art direction & 2D animation: Monika Sieminska
3D design & animation: Rado Bogasch
Sound design: Ben Sherriff
