The Goal
Brand consistency is easy to talk about and hard to execute across a library of video content. A polished intro/outro animation was the solution — one asset that could bookend every video Hawk produced and make the whole library feel like it came from the same place.
The Plan
Create a short, reusable animation built from Hawk’s brand elements that could attach to the beginning or end of any video project. Flexible enough to work across formats. Distinctive enough to actually be memorable.
The Process
I wrote the brief and brainstormed with the animator through several rounds of concepts. We worked through a lot of options from the brand guide — different treatments, different motion approaches — until we landed on a use of the Hawk icon that felt dynamic without being overdone. The kind of thing that’s harder to find than it sounds. We previewed the final version at a company-wide meeting, where it got positive notes from the CEO, CTO, and the rest of leadership. Which, in my experience, is not always how these things go.
The Results
The animation became the standard bookend for Hawk’s video content — attached to every video project that followed. No metrics to report, but “every video we made used this” is about as good as it gets for a reusable asset.
The Learnings
- Reusable brand assets have compounding value. One well-made animation saves time and maintains consistency across every future video project. The upfront investment pays off every time someone hits record.
- Brief first, iterate second. Starting with a clear brief meant the creative exploration had guardrails. We explored a lot of directions, but we weren’t wandering — we were looking for the right answer to a well-defined question.
- Getting leadership to sign off in a group setting is a cheat code. One preview, one room, one round of feedback. Infinitely better than async notes from five different stakeholders arriving at five different times. (Highly recommend. Will do again.)
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