Motion Design / Animation
StorytellingThe Smithsonian Channel was looking to create a six-part short series, highlighting some of the pop-culturally significant items in the Smithsonian collection, specifically items from the 1980’s. Being a child of the 80’s this truly felt like a passion project, and the team at the Smithsonian Channel were wonderful partners and collaborators on bringing these stories to life.
Client: Smithsonian Channel | Agency: Neo Pangea
Role: Motion Designer | Animation
Awards: 2022 Webby Honoree
Narrative SequencesOne of my primary roles for this series was to create a series of detailed narrative sequences for each episode. These would be unique full feature moments within the episode, using custom illustrations and animation to tell a deeper part of the story. Each episode was meticulously storyboarded out, in a collaboration between myself, our staff designer, and the copywriting team at SMC.
In some instances, such as featuring Prince or Elmo visually, were restricted, creating the challenge to cleverly highlight these persona’s in a way that was recognizable but permissable.
Storyboards & illustrations by Sarah Trafford
Templated GraphicsFor the entire series, I was also responsible for conceptualizing and creating the visuals for the title sequence, lower thirds, and interstitial title graphics. These needed to pay reference to the styles and graphics of 1980’s design, but also feel modern. These also needed to be templated so that custom graphics and titles could be developed for each episode.
