When my good mate Jay approached me for a brand refresh, we knew he needed more than just a logo.
Jay is a freelance motion designer trading under the name MIllMotion, and he tasked me with building him a comprehensive new visual identity; a system he could apply across his work, from his showreel and social media to personal projects.
Jay and I have collaborated on numerous projects over the years, so I was pretty familiar with his style and needs (and I knew he’d tell me straight if I took things a little too far!). To kick things off, we held a few brief workshops over a coffee or three to dive deeper into his goals. He wanted a brand with strong visual presence, something he could roll up his sleeves and get stuck into bringing to life.
Jittery from the caffeine overload, the challenge of this project quickly began to dawn on me… much of Jay’s work involves animating other brands’ assets, so his own branding needed to be versatile. It had to complement and flow across, not clash with, the brands he collaborates with – especially in statement pieces like his showreel. How do you create a brand that doesn’t just look like another one of his clients, but rather runs a continuous thread across all his outputs? Well…
The core idea for this brand was inspired by peeking behind the scenes of motion design. I focused on the unseen elements: keyframes, moving parts, and the intricate work that goes into every project. I spent some time sketching the various keyframe shapes and interface elements before an idea solidified: what would happen if we added limbs and personality to these elements? How could they come to life? And how could a brand form around them? Could the MillMotion brand become the stage on which Jay’s work performed? Could I add any more rhetorical questions here…?
To make things dynamic and engaging, I built the brand out in several layers:
Logo design/brand mark
Jay had previously used the letter “M” as his logo, but he wanted something more iconic and distinctive. After experimenting with various ideas (see the slightly jittery sketches above – again, I blame the coffees), I landed on a design inspired by the playhead in the timeline of Adobe After Effects.
The playhead also rather neatly forms the negative space of the letter M when it’s placed in a rectangular holding shape, creating a flexible and scalable logo that works in various layouts and sizes, with oodles of possibility to move and animate (check out my rather crude example above, which I excitedly sent to Jay late one night after the idea hit me).
Characters
Jay is passionate about character animation, so we created characters based on keyframe shapes from After Effects. These little guys add a playful, cheeky element to his brand and can be used across his projects – plus I’ve challenged him to animate them using their different easing styles (animation nerds, you’ll know what we mean – is that even possible?!).
Colour Palette and Typography
I developed a broad, friendly colour palette with neon accents, and I was super happy with how the various brand colours all blended to create such an expressive array of gradients too. Pairing this up with a simple, professional and yet friendly typeface gave MillMotion a complete suite of new brand elements, all linked together by a core idea and strategy.
Throughout the process, I always had motion in the back of my mind: picturing how Jay would animate elements and bring the brand to life. The result is a versatile, dynamic identity that he’s already started to implement and expand on.
It was a pleasure working with Jay on this project, and I’m excited to see how MillMotion’s brand evolves in the future! If you’d like to check out his (excellent) work, visit his portfolio: https://millmotion.co.uk/