8 ways to brand your animation
These days branding is much more than just a logo on your website and office stationary. A great way to think about it is how people talk about you when you’re not there.
If you are thinking of commissioning an animation for a future campaign, here are some tips that will ensure that the finished product best represents your brand.
1. Use your brand colours
A colour scheme is the most common way to visually communicate a brand, and any animation you produce should clearly reflect your brand colours.
If you already have a brand guidelines document you can pass this onto your animation studio to help them understand who you are.
2. Choose a unique medium
A particular style can become associated with your brand so choosing one that is unique will help to develop your branding. The more distinctive the medium used in your campaign the more of an edge you will have over your competitors.
For example using a traditional craft can help your campaign to stand out, and if you can find one that has never been used before you will be able to create something completely unique and bespoke. Mediums that have often been seen as old fashioned such as knitting, needle felting or wicker crafting are great examples of techniques that are ripe for reinvention and could be used to add a human and quirky feel to a campaign.
3. Use music to engage your audience
Music is well known for creating emotional responses in people and when used cleverly in a campaign audio can help to trigger these feelings with your audience. This can then help to boost your company’s branding by helping to form an association.
The 2005 Sony Bravia ‘Bouncy Balls’ advert is particularly memorable for us, not only for its beautiful visuals but also for the soundtrack. It featured the Jose Gonzalez song ‘Heartbeats’, which help to create the striking and unforgettable campaign. After its use the single got to number 9 in the UK chart.
4. Create a brand ambassador
An incredible way to build branding is by designing your own brand character. This character can embody your brand’s values and will be a recognisable mascot for your company.
Alternatively you could choose to create a quirkier character that has nothing to do with your service. For example Compare the Market have had great success with their meerkat campaign. The thought of meerkats is now instantly linked with the thought of insurance comparison.
5. Include your staff
This is such a simple idea but can be so effective. You could choose to create a caricature of your employees or use live action footage of them, either way you are able to present a genuine representation of your brand to your audience.
The campaigns by Halifax bank are great examples of this. They give their company an honest human face, instead of using beautiful actors, which helps to build trust with their consumers.
6. Bring your own fonts
If you already have a font outlined in your corporate guidelines, this is a great thing to bring into an animation. The fonts can even be animated or made 3D to make them more dynamic.
7. Use consistent shapes
The shapes you use to construct your brand can become part of your identity. For example if your logo uses rounded edges that design aspect can be incorporated in all elements of your animation.
A great example of good branding created with shapes is the BBC. They use a very squared style in their logo which then runs consistently throughout all elements of their persona, this perfectly represents their identity as a serious and longstanding institution.
8. Think about lighting design
Lighting can be used in an animation to help to create an atmosphere that perfectly represents your brand or product.
Whether you want a dark tone to reflect a serious brand or a more magical effect, using techniques such as shadows, silhouettes and lens flare can help to craft your mood.
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Great tips on using techniques/way for animation a very helpful. Thank you for sharing this.