Here at Pixel, we’re always pushing ourselves to learn new things, try new ideas and tackle new challenges.
It’s part of our culture as a business, borne from the early days when Pixelbuilders’ was just one designer, one developer and one project manager and if they didn’t know the answer to a client question, they had to go out and learn it.
Since then, although the team has grown considerably (to eighteen of us no less) that way of working, that can do attitude and that proactive approach to problem solving, is still the way we work today. It’s why we’re given “innovation time” on Friday afternoons. It’s why we have significant training budgets and it’s also why, when given the right combination of time, encouragement and support, our team can produce amazing things like this…
These animations came to fruition after our Commercial Director presented our design team with a new challenge. That challenge arose after we decided to enter this year’s Umbraco awards. Part of the entry requires a video. It must be no more than two minutes long and it had to present the amazing things we created, why we created them and perhaps most importantly, the results it delivered. No small task as we’re sure you’ll agree.
The problem this challenge gave us, was how to produce a piece of video, that met the needs of the award entry criteria, with an office full of generally camera-shy designers, developers, marketers, and project managers… the answer our design team came up with… a video animation. This solution wasn’t without its challenges either though, animations take time, thought, not to mention planning and it also meant getting to grips with Adobe After Effects.
Now Adobe After Effects is a platform we have some previous experience with, but this was the first time our designers Gabbi and Jamie had really got into the full suite of features and functions on offer, with a brief that was fairly open, allowing their creative ideas to really flow.
To get a little further under the skin of how the design team approached this creative challenge our Digital Performance and Insights Manager Rachael, chatted to our Digital Designer Gabbi and our Junior Designer Jamie…
Gabbi said, “it was great to create the AG Barr animation for the Umbraco awards because it really champions all the effort put into the project across the wider team. From discovery, through design and development and into delivery, it really has been a successful project. Using the animations really brings the different AG Barr brands to live and gives our award entry loads of personality.
It was also a bold, clear and engaging way to showcase all the facts and figures that demonstrate how impactful the new website has been since go live”. In the end, we’re absolutely thrilled with the two videos our talented design team produced But even without the awards themselves, we’re delighted to have these two fantastic video assets to use across our website and social media channels plus, our designers have learned a whole new set of amazing skills. Keep an eye out for more videos and animations from the Pixel team very soon!