Captivating copywriting, dynamic design, and interesting imagery go a long way toward capturing an audience's attention. Somehow, animation and video propel that same audience to go the same distance faster, in a more immersive, moving, and inspirational way…ways that engage and activate viewers.
The following projects showcase my style and approach to animation, motion design, video editing, and visual storytelling.
The Project: Diversity Richmond
Categories: branding, motion design, animation, video editing, marketing, visual storytelling
The Process: When CapTech supported the consolidation of Diversity Richmond and it’s associated entities under one brand look and feel, they unveiled the overhaul with press releases, a new website, a sizzle reel, and more.
Leveraging the expertly crafted design materials created by designers at CapTech and source material from Diversity Richmond, I worked to breathe life into the new brand by reminding audiences where they were and welcoming where they were headed.
The Results: Launched in the fall of 2023, organic traffic to diversityrichmond.org has grown from around 1,150 organic visitors per month to over 12,500.
Putting your best foot forward with a strong and cohesive brand in your social posts, printed material, signage, and solid video storytelling is a great way to earn traffic and, ultimately, support for your organization.
Project created while at CapTech Consulting
The Project: Vistar App Launch
Categories: branding, motion design, animation, video editing, marketing, explainer, how-to, visual storytelling
The Process: Leveraging brand material created in-house at CapTech, my role here was to outline, and storyboard the visual sequence for three separate videos released as the app was being deployed.
To do this, I created a fake brand (Vital Energy), to show how paid users could incorporate their brand as they support the placement and installation of utility equipment by way of an augmented reality experience.
The Results: The app launched in a limited capacity in early 2023 and immediately began facilitating sophisticated collaboration between utility and technology installers and property owners. The app itself went on to win a Technology Builder Award later that year.
The Project: Citi Retail Services Midyear Sizzle
Categories: experience design, motion, animation, UX, UI, user research, persona development
The Process: Halfway through each year, Razorfish would meet with their Citi Retail Services account leads to re-examine the work they’ve done, get a sense of business and market conditions, revisit short and long-term strategy, to adjust accordingly.
In these efforts, one thing we, at Razorfish, and the client looked forward to was the sizzle video, or demo reel for all the previous year’s work.
This required cross-team collaboration in identifying the work that was done, gathering material, crafting an outline and storyboard, and finally animating and editing.
The Results: These were always the grand finale slide at the end of presentations and were electrifying in the room. The relationship management value was indispensable and this partnership continues today after nearly ten years.
The Project: Quaker + Under Armour Campaign Review
Categories: branding, motion design, animation, marketing, data, strategy
The Process: Working with our data and Account Management teams, my copywriter and I crafted a story around the metrics gathered for a global marketing campaign ran by UA and Quaker in the MyFitnessPal app. I helped a junior designer in their support of storyboard design, and together we assembled a visual outline. Once approved, I sourced stock audio and got to animating.
The Results: A campaign review deck was the baseline deliverable for marketing partners. However, this partnership was worth around 10 million dollars and we wanted it to continue. The account team assured me and my team this went a long way to renew and build that partnership.
The Project: Pigeon Forge Fall Campaign
Categories: branding, motion design, animation, video editing, marketing, travel
The Process: At Austin-based agency had the skills internal to design for a paid digital media campaign but were lacking in video production and motion design.
The account team provided me with a modest footage directory, the banner campaign designs, and some ideas for music and copy. In short order, we sent two new videos to support the broader marketing push.
The Results: Because these videos might only play as skippable preroll content, the videos were designed to play well without dialogue or sound. For a period, they were garnering more than 5,000 views per week. Tourism increased marginally and may have been hindered by an emerging virus out of China.
The Project: Ford + Under Armour Event Loop
Categories: branding, motion design, animation, video editing, trade show, events
The Process: Under Armour’s Connected Fitness division was courting Ford for a marketing partnership and wanted to welcome them to the flagship Baltimore UA store for a private, catered event. With limited turnaround time, my copywriter and I quickly ran an audit of available client material the account team had access to. We crafted an outline and began editing and animating right away. Edits and approvals came quickly.
The Results: Running on loop on a massive screen in the store, Ford and UA attendees were impressed by the atmospheric enhancement generated by going this extra mile. Ultimately, Ford and UA did partner for short and long-term marketing partnerships worth tens of millions in that fiscal year.
The Project: AT&T Internet of Things Sizzle
Categories: branding, motion design, animation, video editing, marketing, technology
The Process: When AT&T wanted to tell the story of how the Internet of Things was poised to change the way we use technology forever, a small team at Razorfish helped design an immersive online experience to do so.
Working with the Art and Creative Director and a 3D artist, I used their material as assets in this motion design project for our client.
The Results: This deliverable was received well and helped rally AT&T internal teams, as the video was ready before the site, and everyone could visualize what was coming. It also helped greenlight the budget for extending the Razorfish partnership.
The Project: Ruckus by Razorfish
Categories: branding, motion design, animation, video editing, production, interview, narrative, audio
The Process: Razorfish had and continues to have offices worldwide. They did go through a bit of an identity crisis when Publicis acquired Sapient, a competitor (often) with Razorfish. While processes and broader strategies aligned office-to-office, substrategies for how the company did business development, engaged with the community, staffed, etc., were pretty autonymous.
Prior to the short-lived elimination of the Razorfish brand, I and a small team of people in the Atlanta office started an initiative to seek out the most inventive ideas and connect with the most innovative people in the region.
To do this, we did a lot of research and writing, wewent on location or invited people to the office for source material, we procured footage and audio, and edited vignette videos to showcase what was happening in the southeast.
The Results: As shortlived as the project was, it was well received by the community. One interviewee would suggest another and people began volunteering for subsequent productions. We even generated a small social following that has gone dormant.
All-in-all, this was a great exercise, it did get some BD conversations started, and it would have been good to continue. I also learned my OCD was not unwarranted. Because I could not go on all the shoots, I had to work with some material that had poor audio or lighting, which led to a lot of post-production repair work, but we cleaned it all up well. We developed a process. We all learned a lot about boots-on-the-ground video production.