In January this year Alex Moulton, Chief Creative Officer of Trollback+Company, in an interview for Design week, said that animation and motion graphics design will play a bigger part than ever in brand strategy to stand out on social channels (thanks to CamCreatives for posting the article!)
As an animator, and an Alex, it’s hard to disagree. Animation has a hotline to our hearts thanks to childhood memories of cartoons. However the market has changed since I wrote my first Sookio blog on using visuals to explain complex subjects and viewers have become more savvy, and harder to engage.
When to animate
Animation is perfect if you need to tackle a subject that is complex, such as a new traffic layout; painful, such as the law surrounding bereavement and inheritance; or a little bit icky, such as a medical procedure. Animation can help, but it has to be the right kind of animation, and not necessarily the most obvious kind.
The Lego Movie and Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse have energised cinemagoers. Crucially, they’ve stepped off the familiar and reassuring path of Pixar and Sony films to create a whole new visual identity, so they share much more in common with your brand. On TV, Steven Universe has crafted a unique and instantly recognisable visual identity while She-Ra and Carmen Sandiego combines dynamic animation with elegant backgrounds.
Effectively using animation for your company
How is this relevant to your service or product? Their verve and dynamism are infectious. Their use of distinctive visuals, fast pacing and humour entices us and holds our attention. They are fiercely inclusive too, we all want to be a part of the future, so seeing ourselves, whoever we are, in educational or promotional animation is essential.
Munich-based design studio and YouTube channel Kurzgesagt is absolutely smashing this. Their style is immediately recognisable thanks to their wild colour scheme, wry voice over and the consistent presence of a happy duck. I can watch these until bedtime and then some.
There’s so much going for animation as a medium - the clarity and sense of fun it can bring to social issues, complex problems and abstract topics in engineering, legal and medical fields makes it an obvious choice.