My journey into the world of animation

When I was studying Product Design at uni, I was always wary of entering the world of animation. My degree required me to create 3D prototypes on CAD (Computer Aided Design) and then animate them to showcase the products.

But every time I reached this part of the process, my stomach would flip at the sight of the software, and I’d revert to my analogue drawing ways.

I think this fear stemmed from my fascination of animation. There’s a magic to it – a wizardry that I couldn’t understand. How are these graphics dancing on my screen? It was something I thought wasn’t accessible to us mere mortals.

But when I stumbled across Illustrator and Motion Designer, Ben Marriott, my journey into the world of animation began to flourish.

Ben’s philosophy really resonated with me because of this statement, “Animation is still magic to me. The fact that I can think of something, draw it and then bring it to life on screen never gets old.” I knew I had to give animation a go. So I started by watching Ben’s YouTube explainer videos.

Now, it’s part of my daily working life and I learn more about it with each animation I create.

The endless possibilities

Animation is a great art form for pushing boundaries. It has a fantastic ability for capturing attention, simplifying complex ideas and evoking emotion. It can really help brands to stand out in a crowded landscape.

One of the simplest but most effective forms of animation is when it’s applied to a logo. A logo is your core brand mark, so why not add extra personality by making it move?

Take the Gousto logo animation, created by an animator named Pica. Gousto’s brand values are goodness, togetherness, longevity, honesty and empowerment. And Pica has embodied these values perfectly, with a simple, fun, light-hearted animated ‘G’ that represents the joy of cooking and how it brings people together.

I recently heard Pica deliver a talk at the Birmingham Design Festival where he shone a very amusing light on his design process. He has a passion for retro gaming and explains that this is where he gets most of his inspiration from.

My inspiration comes from things that aren’t so perfect too. I love to see old ephemera, vintage magazines, concert tickets, beer mats and even sardine packaging.

There is a nostalgia and feeling to these types of items. The bright colours now dulled by time, print imperfections, the dust and texture. All of this against a world where everything digital we interact with is mostly perfect and clean. I like my animation style to look like a piece of nostalgia – especially in an evolving AI world, we need to revel in human imperfection.

Discovering my motion style

I recently designed a set of educational leaflets in partnership with Framescape to promote creative careers in animation, games, marketing and esports. To accompany the print products, I created animations that would resonate with college and university students thinking about their next steps in the esports industry. There was also a nostalgia to tap into to get parents on board too.

This gave my design style a great platform to flourish. I chose a mixture of muted and vibrant colours using cut outs of retro digital systems, then animated them with low frame rates and exaggerated movements. These animations are designed to be used as website blog headers or social media posts to promote the leaflets and signpost the audience to them.

Back to those animated logos

When we were evolving our own visual branding, I animated the Starbots Creative logo to show the team where the brand could be taken. I wanted to show that we’re creative, ambitious and human. The different graphical elements represent our creativity, ambition to innovate and how we celebrate the personality and individuality within our team. The graphics take the form of the Starbots ‘b’ which is used to encompass us all - not just our team, but our clients too. The motion shows off these characteristics in quick, poppy succession to give it a playful flow – in keeping with our team culture.

To celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Appetite Big Feast Festival we created a logo animation that embodies the event. The festival embraces family-friendly creativity through performances and art that will tickle everyone’s taste buds.

I wanted the motion to have its own fluid flow to hone in on the tickling of the taste buds and the satisfaction that it brings. We have the fork falling into a bowl encouraging it to tip and release all of its contents (creativity), all coming together to form the Big Feast Logo.

Animation can be used in all sorts of ways to help every kind of business, from simplifying information in an explainer video to helping engage prospective customers on social. I’m personally very much looking forward to experimenting with what the world of motion design is going to offer us in the future and discovering more about how this will inform my own motion style. And of course, I’m excited to see what my favourite designers are producing and innovating with.