Lalu Brand video
LaLu is an eco-friendly bag company. They specialize in making uniquely designed bags following their core values of Sustainability, Fair Trade, and Veganism. I was tasked to design and animate a brand video that spoke about the companies core values and the difference they were looking to make in the world. This project was especially interesting because it closely aligned to my own values.
Role: Art Direction, Design, Animation
Client: LaLu
Website: laluproducts.com
Video can be found here: laluproducts.com/pages/meet-lalu
Music: Another Good Reason by Robert Meunier (premiumbeat.com)
Client: LaLu
Website: laluproducts.com
Video can be found here: laluproducts.com/pages/meet-lalu
Music: Another Good Reason by Robert Meunier (premiumbeat.com)
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On this project I had the opportunity to work on everything—from its initial conception, developing a brief, mood board, script writing, sketches, storyboard, style frames, color palette selection, finding a VO artist, finding music, animatic, all the way to final animation. It was a whirlwind of a project but I super happy with how it came out. Take a look at some of the process below.
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Brand story + Brief
Learning about the brand and then developing a brief from the intent of this project was imperative in getting the process started. The team decided it was important to showcase the brands core values of Sustainability, Fair Trade and Veganism.
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Mood/Style board
Little bits of inspiration came out of this exploration such as the 3 circles spinning to represent the values, the flower style, and the use of the actual material (hemp, nettle, cotton) as textural elements in the design.
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Scriptwriting
During the scriptwriting process, the team at LaLu and I went through multiple rounds of revisions to get a clear and concise story that honed in on the intent of the video, outlined in the brief.
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Sketches/Storyboard
Sketching the visuals that came to mind gave the clients their first taste of the video to come. These quick and dirty sketches were enough to get the visuals rolling. Some of the initial feedback was that the animals looked too "cartoony" so I had to figure out a style to make it more serious.
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Design Development
Here was the first pass in translating the sketches into art. I stayed in black and white to focus on the objects value and keep from getting hung upon the different hues. Every stage has gotten me one step closer to figuring out the look and feel of the design.
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Final Boards
The final designs came after a number of revisions to style, color palate, texture, etc. Note the use of texture—the bags themselves are made using sustainable materials (hemp, nettle, and cotton). Thinking through the style, it made sense to utilize these material textures to provide more dynamism to the otherwise flat vector art. Also, using a color palette with the background in the midtones (the tan color) allowed me to explore the whites and darks, in addition to the shadows.
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Animation sketches/planning
Sketching these were a very important part of the process in coming up with what and how to animate. Note the directional arrows in the sketch below. Each frame has motion that corresponds to its adjacent frames and to the project as a whole. For a scale in, there's a scale out. For a position/rotation left, there's a position/rotation right. This type of oscillation helps to establish a rhythm that helps it feel more intentional and harmonious.
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Animation Bits
These were some of the fun bits of the animation. A lot of these animation ideas stemmed from thoughts way back in the beginning but some of it was figured out during the actual animation stage.
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The rest (it's getting a little long haha)
These were just the highlights and there was plenty more to this process still, including finding a VO artist, selecting and timing the music, the animatic, the first to final passes at the animation, adding sound fx, client feedback, etc. Overall it was a great project and I'm happy to have learned so much working through it.
If you'd like to hear more about this project, I'd be happy to share! Shoot me a message. :)
