Welcome to Beyond the Brief a creative spotlight on agencies and makers across animation, design, illustration, product design, and brand design.

We dive into the stories behind the work, uncovering the ideas, processes, and brave thinking that push creative boundaries.

What role does storytelling play in creating impactful animations that resonate with users?

Storytelling is everything! Scriptwriting, design, animation style, sound design, music, voiceover – all these aspects play a part in the storytelling and they all need to work in perfect harmony to create a convincing message.

With a vast range of clients, including Headspace, Amazon, and Deliveroo, how do you adapt your approach across different industries and audiences?

The first step is to ensure we fully understand the brand, the brief, the target audience, and what the client wants to achieve with the project. Then it’s about allowing enough time for exploration to find the clearest way to convey the message. If a project demands skills outside our remit, we have a solid network of creative talent we can call on.

How do you balance personality and large ideas with the restraints of the brief?

Constraints can be helpful – they create clear parameters to work within, which can be liberating for creatives. However, adding personality and thinking big can offer the best hope of elevating a project, raising it above the obvious.

This is often scary to clients as it implies a certain amount of risk. But there are substantial rewards for pushing the boundaries – often this is a way to create the most inspiring work. Keeping an open mind and establishing a good working relationship with a client is the first step towards greatness.

What does “great animation” mean in 2026? What are clients asking for now that they weren’t even thinking about two years ago?

Clients sometimes ask for work to feed AI systems now. There is a sense that some clients are scared of being left behind, and are trying to shoehorn AI into projects that would do better without it. Maybe some lessons could be learnt from last years’s Christmas ads.

There was a stark contrast between the depressing AI slop of McDonalds Christmas offering and the truly wonderful Intermarche “Unloved Wolf’ ad. Whilst the former was pulled shortly after release due to public backlash, the latter proved hugely popular with audiences.

It was a warm, heartfelt, emotional, authentic and beautifully crafted film made by creators pushing their craft and ability to the limit. That’s the ideal we should be aiming for in 2026.

With AI accelerating production, what parts of illustration and animation do you think can’t be automated and why?

AI can copy, but it can’t invent. This requires imagination and an understanding of human connection. One of the things AI imagery lacks is the personal awe we experience in seeing the human excellence involved in its creation. AI is anathema to arts-based craft. This is one of the reasons we don’t use it. It degrades the value in the art we create.

As AI increasingly affects people’s livelihoods worldwide, it also feels like AI-produced advertising is not the way to enamour a brand to its audience. The McDonalds Christmas ad is a good example of this.

When animation goes wrong in a product, what’s usually the cause: too much motion, the wrong motion, or motion without a clear purpose?

All of the above! Animation needs to feel appropriate for its purpose and create a connection with the viewer or user. Choosing the right kind of motion for each project is critical to its success. Beautiful design will not save a project if the animation is flat. Whether it’s a character in a film, a UI feature on a website or a slider on an app, its feel is as much defined by the way it moves as it is by the way it looks.

What trends are you seeing in animation that brands should consider for their digital strategies?

One trend that is still evolving is the 2D / 3D hybrid. Marrying the tactility of traditional illustration (or the digital equivalent) and placing it on 3D objects in real-world space. This acts as a stylistic device that can reinvigorate illustrations in motion. There’s also a lot of hand-crafted work coming out at the moment which may well be artists’ response to AI – to do the things AI can’t do.

What was one project that stands out to you as a career highlight?

We’re pretty new as a studio, but of the projects we’ve done the highlight is probably the Amazon Costa Rica project. We found innovative solutions for the client that paid off. We punched above the weight class of the budget that was available to us and we fought for the creative in all its aspects. Some of the still life images from the films look like Renaissance paintings come to life. That was a real joy.