The judges praised the flowing and seamless animation, celebrating our region’s beauty and wildlife. The whole team poured their heart and soul into this project and it’s a topic we’re all really passionate about. We’re really proud of it, and it represents everything we want Little Motel to stand for, so it’s amazing to see it recognised.

The whole team got glammed up for the Awards, and we had a blast celebrating the best of TV and film in the local area. Huge congrats to all of the winners and nominees.

The three-film series spans the whole fishing community, reflecting on different needs and requirements, from policy-makers and fishermen through to consumers and conservationists. The films are used at conferences, events as well as online, to help communicate the project’s messaging and ways people can support the marine ecosystem.

We threw ourselves into understanding the science and translating the messaging into something we knew would work in animation. Breaking the content up into three sections created digestible chunks that can be viewed alone online, or as one film at conferences and events.

The clear, diagrammatic visuals illustrate the complex scientific content. This includes simplified fish and shellfish designs that were a nod to specific species, while emphasising the important information – for example, size and abundance of fish species.

Over the project, the team at North York Moors filmed their work, capturing hours of content. This included interviews with key stakeholders, landowners, and volunteers. Alongside recordings of activities ranging from community engagement with volunteers and schools to planting trees and reconnecting habitats in collaboration with farmers.

North York Moors commissioned us to help edit and structure the footage into a short film that showed the depth and breadth of the Ryevitalise project scope. We built a narrative from the existing interviews, then collaborated with the project team to develop a script. Then they recorded this with their team across a few key project locations. This brings the whole film together succinctly, and also adds extra detail where needed.

We used animated text breakers to signpost each section of the film and highlight key statistics from the project. Adding illustrated wildlife to these scenes gave us a chance to bring to life some of the animals that the project has been helping too.

The film is shared with people interested in nature conservation and the river Rye, as well as the wider river restoration community. The scheme was supported by The National Lottery Heritage Fund, North York Moors National Park Authority and other partners.

The biggest part of any agency’s pollution footprint is the work they do for their clients — and the footprint of fossil fuel clients is massive.

While the fossil fuel industry is failing to pursue a clean energy transition, they are investing in marketing false solutions and greenwashing. This dilutes the impact of genuine effort to make change by other businesses. 

The scientific consensus is that fossil fuel advertising and PR are contributing to the climate emergency. One campaign with the wrong client can wipe out years of our agency’s sustainability gains. Shifting away from fossil fuel clients is an opportunity to lead our industry into a better future. 

Becoming a signatory to the Clean Creatives initiative shows our commitment to doing business the right way, and to a future free of fossil fuel pollution. You can learn more about the growing initiative here.

Saint-Gobain Off-site Solutions help house builders of all sizes to build better homes easier, quicker and more sustainably. We helped them catch the attention of prospective clients by telling their story differently. 

We turned an extensive offering into a memorable, engaging sales tool with the power of animation. The animation has helped drive traffic to Saint-Gobain OSS’s new website, and pushed their branding into an area they hadn’t explored before.

To tell their story, we started with the unlikely backdrop of the fairytale, The Three Little Pigs. While the third little pig achieved great things with their brick house, we imagined what they could’ve done with an off-site solution.

We love it when clients come to us with a bold idea for communicating their messaging. Collaborating with the Saint-Gobain team, we developed a unique narrative that clearly highlights all their team has to offer in 90-seconds. 

It was the first time that the Off-site Solutions team had commissioned an animation. So we set a style for the animation based on Saint-Gobain’s brand guidelines that is both attention-grabbing while staying true to their professional tone.

Get in touch to find out how we can help raise your brand awareness by telling your story with an unexpected narrative.

The advantages

I find I have to approach tasks quite differently to most people. This brings a fresh outlook and it drives me to solve problems in my way own. This helps the team as I tend to deviate away from the norm and come up with unique solutions for problems. My methods might not be the most conventional but somehow they work!

There’s also hyper-focusing on tasks. Once I’m honed in on a project, especially ones that I really enjoy, I work away without breaking concentration. This means I can get things done a little quicker than intended, which I’m sure can be helpful for scheduling and deadlines!

Bursts of ideas are another great advantage at work. I’ve started having to make notes on my phone of certain ideas that just come to me randomly in the day. This sort of ties in with the problem-solving I mentioned before, but I’ll always have a concept for something, even if it was meant for a previous project, it can be applied to a project in the present and is really helpful in some cases!

I’ve got so much enthusiasm to try so many different new things. I’m always intrigued by things I’ve seen on social media – cool techniques, courses, and tutorials. Recreating styles or attempting to create a motion piece in a way I haven’t before. This can be highly rewarding and the payoff can be great, especially when those ideas or methods get picked up and used for client projects.

The challenges and overcoming them

The big negative for me is that I know more about the negatives than I do the positives. It can be easier to pinpoint the negatives of having ADHD. As I said before I’m still learning a lot about my diagnosis. But, the brilliant thing is I can now understand my behaviours a lot better, which is very validating and reassuring.

As much as hyper-focus is a great asset at times, it’s also a bit of a hindrance. It’s great being able to finish projects fast, but at times it is to the detriment of my health and time. I can forget to take lunch, and often work a bit later than intended! I’m trying a lot more to get better at this, it’ll take time but I’m glad I’m more aware of it these days. I’m fortunate enough to have the support of the whole team, who communicate with me effectively and respectfully to ensure my health comes first on every occasion. It’s been a huge help having them support me since my diagnosis. Their approach has been massively beneficial on days that I’ve struggled.

I’m sure this one isn’t just exclusive to those who are neurodivergent, but getting feedback is tricky. Sensitivity rejection is a big thing for me and always has been, and I had no idea until my diagnosis that it was one of the symptoms of ADHD. I can find it quite difficult receiving feedback at times, it can often feel quite personal and really affect my mood for the rest of the day and sometimes my self-esteem. There are methods I’m working on to help with this, which are starting to come in handy.

Communication at times can be quite draining for me. I often speak/type faster than my brain can process or keep up with. I find it difficult at times to articulate what I want to say and I feel a rush to need to say a very specific thing and miss the point entirely at times. I get very conscious that this could offend my team members sometimes and come off as rude! Following on from this, concentration. The most typical of things I’d heard about ADHD before my diagnosis was trouble concentrating, and for me, it’s quite true. There are times when I can become very distracted by something my brain needs to engage with, almost like I need to scratch an itch.

Tips for people who have ADHD in creative roles

• At the start of the day, do something fun that stimulates your brain. I personally like to either draw, or find inspiration on Behance or Vimeo. It sets you up rather than just jumping straight into the day and gives you a boost.
• Do your hardest task second. If I have amends to a project, for example, I tend to leave the most complex and mind-boggling task until the end. I like to make a bit of room in my brain and declutter before tackling the more challenging tasks.
• Take a break. I’m still getting used to this myself but try and take ten minutes here and there just to have a conversation with somebody, get up, and stretch. This feeds back to the idea of hyper-focus getting in the way and burning yourself out.
• Don’t do too much at once. I find that having a massive to-do list can be super overwhelming and contribute to burnout. Be honest with your team about what’s realistic and try not to overpromise. Get better at saying “no”. Recently I’ve tried saying “no” more. You get very used to saying yes and trying to overpromise, and as much as that may be useful to getting work out on time, it’s not good for your mental health. Saying no is hard at first, but remember you’re the expert at what you do, you know what’s realistic and achievable.

I’m still learning a lot about ADHD and what it means, with the positives come advantages that benefit my process and the final outcome, and with the negatives come valuable lessons that help me figure out what it means to have ADHD and my limitations. Throughout all this, it’s been great to have the team as part of this journey. Constantly listening and learning with me as I go. As much as it may be a struggle at times, I really do feel as if being neurodivergent helps me see things in a distinct way, which I think is pretty awesome and worth celebrating! 

AGI Glassplant designs and manufactures premium scientific systems for the pharmaceutical industry. This animation introduces their new Pilot Controller, the next generation in reactor controllers.

The animation is aimed at professional scientists so there was no need to explain the science behind the technology. Instead, we focussed on all the ways the reactor controller will make their lives easier. We highlighted the unique benefits of the product, illustrating its key functionalities. The innovative design helps scientists scale up from lab to pilot scale simply and effectively. 

Our team developed visuals based on AGI’s “hand-cut stamp” style icons alongside their brand colours. This gives the film a premium and crafted aesthetic. AGI’s marketing team were so happy with the video and felt that the animation and development work undertaken with this project has really helped them not only get a great animation, but influence the visual direction of the AGI Glassplant brand.

We helped South West London and St George’s Mental Health NHS Trust increase brand awareness across their video communication with this set of animated brand assets and templates. Our graphics help the team bring consistency to all their video content no matter who is creating the video.

Following a striking new rebrand, SWLSTG asked us to develop assets that the internal team can use simply and effectively in their video communications. This included a logo animation, opening and closing graphics, transitions, as well as name straps for any filmed content. The team are now using the graphics across the web, social media and event films, helping the audience buy into the new brand.

This kind of thing is great when your team has some understanding of Adobe software, but just needs that added flourish an experienced animation studio can bring to the brand. We created customisable templates that were easy to work with, and suitable for even the novice After Effects user. And we’re delighted at how they’ve been received.