Role: Graphic and Motion Design
Project Type: Marketing
When General Assembly launched their first course focused solely on visual design, they wanted to find a unique way to announce this new step in the development of their business. The first question we needed to answer was "What would be an appropriate medium to convey this message?"
The format had to communicate the kind of progressive education model that General Assembly had developed while also being simple and versatile enough to work in both email and online applications. Given that the target was younger students, we thought that an animated gif would be perfect. It would allow General Assembly to tell a succinct narrative about the course without the need for high production value.
Following the success of the VIS marketing gif, General Assembly wanted to create gifs for additional courses, focusing first on their more high-profile classes. The Sales & Business Development Immersive program offers full-time instruction on sales tactics and business skills. It is largely pitched as a great way for students to gain key experience that can help fast-track their careers.
Process
When looking at the course curriculum for VIS, and having gone through design education myself, I knew the gif would be the perfect opportunity to tell an abridged version of the design process. I wanted to quickly walk students through the basic design principles they were likely to encounter, from selecting a typeface, to picking the perfect color, to building a layout. In order to connect these three parts of the process, I kept one letter as a narrative constant, showing how it changes along the way.
VIS storyboard
The instructional narrative for SBDI was not as strong as it was for VIS, so I focused more on the lessons taught and the skills acquired during the course. I looked at some of General Assembly's existing iconography and used those assets in the abstract to paint an overall picture of the class.
SBDI animation direction