Background:

When I joined the team much of the work was functional but had relatively low production quality.

Gathering Data:

I don’t like to jump in and start changing things without understanding all the context so I started by organizing retrospectives to look at past work. I asked questions about why decisions were made and I listened. What I learned was that there were a lot of talented animators and editors and producers on the team but not much in the way of visual design experience. The team was hungry to make beautiful work but they needed the tools, knowledge and process to make it happen.

Changes I Made:

• I put on presentations and lunch & learns for the team about color theory, composition and other basic design principles.

• I standardized the early design process for all projects and made sure that it included style frames, color pallets and storyboards when necessary.

• I established monthly design reviews to share learnings and encourage collaboration between the siloed animation and video teams.

• I talked with the team about the importance of being creative partners and began pitching design solutions instead of allowing ourselves to be passive vendors.

• I hired designers to fill much needed gaps in the teams’ skillset.

BEFORE

frames from a live action and animation hybrid video made by the team before I joined

AFTER

frames representing work that the same team built after my guidance and process improvements

BEFORE

frames representing a typical animation before I joined the team

AFTER

frames from animations that the same team built after my design and process improvements

BEFORE

a collection of frames showing how text was treated before I joined the team

AFTER

a collection of frames from projects that benefited from my changes to the early design process