Animation is a powerful medium to communicate your brand identity, values, and message to your audience. But how do you ensure that your animation project is on brand and consistent with your other marketing materials? Here are some strategies to help you plan, execute, and evaluate your animation project.
Before you start any animation project, you need to have a clear and comprehensive set of brand guidelines. These are the rules and standards that define your brand's visual identity, tone of voice, personality, and values. They should include elements such as colors, fonts, logos, icons, imagery, voice-over, music, and sound effects. Having a detailed and accessible brand guidelines document will help you and your animation team to align your creative vision and avoid any confusion or inconsistency.
Start by thoroughly understanding your brand's values, personality, tone, and visual identity. Familiarize yourself with brand guidelines, style guides, and any existing brand assets. This will provide a solid foundation for creating animations that align with your brand.
Recently, brands have been incorporating more motion into their branding. Not only into the content they produce but a part of their brand and design. With the use of Motion toolkits, and Motion guidelines, we're seeing a significant influx of brands wanting to combine motion into their branding. This helps achieve consistency, set a style and develop a way in which your brand moves. I'm looking forward to seeing the future of motion within branding.
Understand the brand deeply. Collaborate closely with stakeholders for insight. Create a comprehensive style guide incorporating approved elements. Maintain visual and narrative consistency throughout the project. Refer to the style guide consistently. These strategies ensure your animation aligns seamlessly with the brand's identity, capturing its essence effectively.
Define Brand Guidelines: Clearly outline brand guidelines, including colors, fonts, and overall visual style, to maintain consistency throughout the animation project. Understand Brand Values: Align the animation with the core values and personality of the brand to ensure it resonates with the target audience. Collaborate with Brand Stakeholders: Regularly communicate and collaborate with key stakeholders to incorporate their input and ensure the animation aligns with the brand vision. Storyboard with Brand in Mind: Develop storyboards that reflect the brand's tone, messaging, and identity, ensuring a cohesive narrative that reinforces the brand image.
The animation style you choose for your project should reflect your brand's identity and message. There are many different types of animation styles, such as 2D, 3D, motion graphics, stop motion, whiteboard, and so on. Each one has its own advantages and disadvantages, depending on your goals, budget, and audience. You should consider factors such as the complexity, realism, emotion, humor, and engagement of your animation style. You should also look at the examples of other brands in your industry or niche and see how they use animation to communicate their values and differentiate themselves.
Storytelling with purpose: Ensure that your animation aligns with your brand's overall storytelling and messaging. The narrative should resonate with your target audience and reinforce your brand's key messages and values.
Yes! Style says so much. It’s the voice of your project. So I chose a distinct style from a distinct artist. Very much in the tradition of graffiti/ pop art/ 80s cartoon. This style I think is essential to the core of the project; which is Hip-Hop. The artist’s name is PAPERFACE and almost two years later, through many trials and tribulations we are almost ready with our final animated film. Style was the catalyst to us digging deeper and finding a voice for rap group Run The Jewels. Our animation piece comes out next month.
Your animation team is composed of different roles and responsibilities, such as scriptwriters, storyboard artists, animators, editors, voice actors, sound designers, and producers. Each one has a specific skill and contribution to your project. You should communicate your brand guidelines and expectations clearly and regularly with your animation team. You should also encourage feedback, suggestions, and revisions from your team members and respect their expertise and creativity. By collaborating effectively with your animation team, you can ensure that your project is on brand and meets your standards of quality and professionalism.
Once you have completed your animation project, you should test and optimize it before you launch it. You should review your animation for any errors, glitches, or inconsistencies that might affect your brand image or message. You should also check if your animation is compatible with different devices, platforms, and formats that your audience might use. You should also measure and analyze the performance and impact of your animation, using metrics such as views, likes, shares, comments, conversions, and so on. You should use this data to improve and refine your animation project and learn from your successes and failures.
Quality control: Regularly review and evaluate your animations against your brand guidelines to ensure they meet the desired standards. Pay attention to details such as color accuracy, typography, and overall visual coherence.
Your animation project is not a one-time thing. You should update and maintain your animation regularly to keep it relevant, fresh, and on brand. You should monitor the changes and trends in your industry, audience, and competitors and see how they affect your brand identity and message. You should also solicit and respond to the feedback and suggestions from your audience and stakeholders and see how they influence your animation project. You should also review and revise your brand guidelines periodically and see if they need any adjustments or additions. By updating and maintaining your animation, you can ensure that it stays on brand and delivers your value proposition effectively.
Collaboration and communication: Foster open communication between your animation team and brand stakeholders. Regularly collaborate to align on the brand vision, objectives, and feedback. This helps maintain consistency and ensures everyone is on the same page.
Reflect brand personality: Infuse your animation with the personality and tone of your brand. Whether it's playful, sophisticated, or professional, the animation should reflect the essence of your brand's character.