We love making brands move.
An animated video is a great way to tell your story, express your values and showcase your services.
Our approach is to define the objectives of any brand animation before visualising it in a storyboard. The storyboard then becomes the foundation on which the animation is built.
Stylistic directions are then explored and refined before moving into the final edit. We also provide interaction design for digital products like websites and apps.
Brand animation is an area of brand identity design and content creation that uses moving images and motion design to tell a story.
This story can be about a brand, product or service and can take several forms, from simple executions to more complex films. Brand animation can also be used in advertising campaigns to build awareness of a brand while creating engagement with an audience.
Within all disciplines of branded animation, clients can communicate with their audience more engagingly than they could through traditional ‘static’ means.
Simple brand animations may use subtle motion design techniques to create a sense of movement. These can effectively bring a brand to life, particularly online. Complex branded animations, like product explainers or architectural projections, can be more immersive and include sound design and lighting. They are particularly effective in fixed environments such as exhibitions, brand homes, showrooms, and other experiential spaces.
Brand animation as we know it today has its roots in early 20th-century American film, where some brands, such as Coca-Cola, implemented elements that could later be identified as brand animation techniques. These brand animations were designed to engage and entertain, which is still an essential principle of how brand animation is used today. As brands became more complex throughout the 20th century, brand identity design became increasingly important in communicating product value through visuals and copywriting.
Brand animation also found a home on television screens during this period through title sequences, brand idents and closing credits. These brand presentations often aimed to distinguish programmes from their rivals when there was little opportunity for direct consumer interaction. Creatives like Saul Bass used animation to create brand identities for companies like Audi, United Airlines, and AT&T.
Saul Bass’s branding work with movie studios is exciting in the context of brand animation today because it demonstrates how brand identity design can engage an audience through moving image. Rather than just creating a title sequence related to the film being shown, Bass used brand animation to create an immersive cinematic experience.
Many principles that characterised brand identity design in this period are still relevant today and have only been enhanced by new technologies. Brand animations can be created seamlessly across multiple platforms with modern software tools like After Effects, allowing brands to communicate their message fluently regardless of where their audience is located.
Much like illustration, brand animation can essentially visualise thoughts and ideas that would otherwise be impossible through traditional film and photography. In its simplest form, animation uses many pre-planned sketches to bring these ideas into reality. In the world of brands, animation can be a potent tool, particularly when combined with brand storytelling.
Together, these elements can build up a picture of a brand that its audiences remember and love.
As technology continues to evolve, so does branded animation. There are many common types of animation, including brand animation, product animation and service animation.
Brand animation is the umbrella term for brand-related animation, often used to bring a brand’s personality or values to life. Brand identity design can include anything from subtle movement in logo animations, product videos, and brand identities to complex architectural projections. The goal remains the same: create an immersive experience that engages audiences.
Product animation is a type of brand animation that promotes a product or service. It is often used in online e-commerce stores, catalogue presentations, and brand explainers shared on social media platforms such as YouTube.
Service animations can range from simple brand identity stings to immersive brand experiences. We design this type of animation to bring services to life quickly and meaningfully, making complex information digestible. Animation’s advantage for a service explainer is its ability to lean into the abstract.
Motion design is used in website design and animation to bring a unique sense of identity to movement. An object can be designed to move in any number of ways, using pace, trajectory, trail and more.
