Design in Animated video – the key to success
Motion graphics are becoming more popular – many businesses are starting to learn the term when it comes to animated video, but in practice, the ‘graphics’ part is often lacking.
Often when a business is discussing creating a new video, they talk about the animation and the scenes, but often the conversation about the design style and illustration isn’t there. It’s overlooked and taken for granted as it’ll just appear and look good.
The first brief is often ‘explainer video, maybe with my site icons’, but that’s so vague and samey, will that be the best route to tell your business message? An explainer video can be so much more than that.
An original design concept with bespoke illustrations can lift the animation and be so much more impactful – which has a real effect on video engagement.

But talking about design is sometimes difficult for clients – they don’t know where to look for references, and they may not be able to articulate what they like. But this is where creative studios need to have the knowledge to guide them properly.
There is a lot to consider with design – it’s all about the relation to your target audience. In essence, the design will help show them how to feel, and what information is most important.
An animated video for 20s aged entrepreneurs needs to look and feel quite different from a video for internal communication purposes.
The video is also representing the brand – so it needs to look right. You may choose for it to fit in with your other branding materials or may decide to create a new campaign, or it can be stand-alone. Either is fine, but it needs to be a considered choice.
Making the video match your branding precisely as an automatic response without thought, can be restricting and potentially bland.

Design in video needs to achieve a few things:
- Clearly communicate the story
- Have the right tone
- Align with the brand
- Be cohesive
- Be unique