2D Animation for Vericon Systems

Vericon Systems, a leading developer of hardware and cloud-based software for the social housing market, approached us to create an engaging and enticing 2D animation which shows what they do as a business.

The client provided us with a rough storyboard to give our design team initial direction – where the underlying purpose of the animation was to inform city councils and private landlords of potential issues within their housing stock before those issues turned into problems – such as a boiler breaking down beyond repair or service, leaving the tenant sitting in the cold.

The real-time hardware monitoring solution would be fed data from a boiler and from sensors across different rooms in a property, after which the data would be sent straight to the cloud via GSM to be delivered to the landlord or city council. This needed to be explained in an exciting, interesting, and digestible way in a brief 2D animation video.

Our designers famously lived up to the challenge, supporting the animation with colours and hand-drawn illustrations that wowed our client and helped them increase sales of their product by an impressive margin.

Since our team was already supplied with the storyboard, we had more time to focus on the actual animation design.

• We came up with custom illustrations to show how the client’s products, once installed, would impact people living on rented property.
• We also showcased how data would flow to the cloud from above the house using Wi-Fi and GSM technology.
• Our team demonstrated through the animation how tenants might react when there is no heating in the home or mould has grown in one of the rooms – and how one of the client’s products would mitigate such issues.
• Part of the storyboard also included showing animation where someone from the housing authority receives negative data from the client’s product to their online dashboard, so that they can proactively take action by informing the tenant of looming problems – which then transitions to a qualified engineer showing up at the house to rectify the issue.
• We had to capture all this in the briefest, most straightforward and succinct manner possible, and so, our design team put all their creative heads together to come up with the perfect mix of text, illustrations, graphics and colours to showcase the product’s underlying value.
• The animation closes with an image of the client’s full range of products, each with a quick explanation of the technology used and its benefits.
• Our team took great care to use the client’s brand colours and guidelines throughout, keeping the tone of the 2D explainer as friendly and easy-to-understand as possible.
• From the icons and graphics to the product descriptions and red/green dotted lines we used throughout to convey specific messages, everything came together harmoniously to explain to the audience how easy it was to use and benefit from Vericon System’s products.
• To come up with the simple yet impactful and thought-provoking animations, we used a combination of Adobe Premiere, Adobe After Effects, and Adobe Illustrator, along with some of our own design tools. Plus, we used mostly blue and green colour tones throughout, not only as part of our client’s branding but also to instill a sense of confidence, ease, and trust in the target audience.

The feedback we got from the first few versions was stellar.

Once we got the look and tone down perfectly after a few revision requests, our client was more than happy to sign off and proudly showcases the product animation/explainer on their website to this day.

A great animation starts with a great storyboard – leave it up to us to create one for you, or if you already have one, let’s get the show on the road, shall we?