Using animation as brand storytelling

How to tell a complicated story through simple brand motifs

Freeman does a lot of event work for a lot of places. In 2023, I art directed a project to connect audiences to the complexity and range of products Freeman offers.

Strategy

Let me explain the variety that Freeman offers. Freeman has the capacity to do every service that is needed for a live event. Live feeds, sponsorships, freight, exhibits, picking up the trash and data analytics. And they do this for healthcare, sporting events, tech conferences and so on.

Freeman is probably best well known as a general services contractor (GSC) by event organizers and exhibitors, but they have the capacity to do so much more. We needed to embed this idea into the brand visuals.

Design

What better way to explain the idea of being everything than through transformation? When Freeman comes to events, they always let the brand be the spotlight, perfectly fitting into the background. What makes Freeman great is that they allow the event to be the spotlight. If they were a Pokémon, it’d be ditto.

I hand drew the first iterations of the Freeman caret through different styles and aesthetics. Brands like Glossier, Ador,

I collaborated with an in house animator to help make an animation that was seamless and fun, and I really need to give credit here: Noel is one of the best animators I have ever worked with. Fun, intelligent and insanely skilled. I really love my creatives!

Impact

The actual animation did not grow legs, partially because the ideas and concept would be used to introduce the parent company, partially because the website launch it was tied to had it’s own technical issues. But the motifs and ideas that came from it would be used as the foundation several other projects and campaigns.

Also, while the animation was not used, the still logo variations have been used for multiple events, resources, and other deliverables.