Animation: a Sizzlin' Hot Reel

Sometimes there are projects that, when you're finished and take a step back, you think, "oh this is sweet."

It feels even better when that project gets seen in front of a crowd of over 500 people.

That's what it was like working on this project for Symetra's 2024 National Sales Meeting. The multimedia team was given the task of creating a hype video to introduce the conference and build excitement for the week ahead. My manager took one look at the brief and said, "John, this is all you."

So, it was all me.

Starting with the theme of the video, I was really interested in exploring kinetic typography as the main motion element. Our design team did a great job of designing the conference assets with a bold font, so I was very excited to give that typeface its own moment to shine. My inspiration that I pitched to our senior leaders included some references from Apple's keynotes, as well as this reference from Burger King's brand refresh.

When my team got word that they were on board, I was ecstatic. I knew it was a great opportunity to blend our prior conference footage, as well as stock footage, with this killer bold font. After sourcing all of that, it was time to get to animatin'.

Pixels pushed, keyframes eased, and layers labeled, I came up with this piece.

While it felt great to finish, what made me mildly emotional was seeing it on the giant LED screens at the conference. I've seen my work on social media before, but watching the faces of hundreds of people viewing my work was a different experience entirely.