An informative and engaging animated film explaining the issues around Fast Fashion for an Open University and BBC co-production.
Challenge
The Open University’s Broadcast Partnership website is their digital home where audiences can find out more about the programme themes of their BBC co-productions. They asked us to create a film for the platform that would help people dive deeper into the subject of Consumer Fashion, looking at the problem now and the challenges it faces going into the future.
Partner documentary
Our animated film was part of a wider educational piece about the fashion industry. In a partner documentary, three academics discussed sustainability and the environment, ethical practice and technology and the purpose of our animation was then to help people understand the context of the problem, the nature of the challenges and possible solutions in a way that was forward looking and positive and certainly not damning of the entire industry.
Style development
We wanted the artwork style to feel positive and have an element of joy and fun, to counter the seriousness of the subject matter.
The client was keen that the film didn't feel like an attack on the fashion industry, so we created a bright and colourful look, with quirky character designs that feel likeable and non threatening.
Character designs
After many iterations and experiments with character styles we settled on the one that felt the most friendly and relatable. The characters have big eyes and faces filled with expression, and of course the clothes were a ket factor in the designs too.
The final character designs are positive and optimistic, with a bit of humour too. The bright colours tie in with the colourful outfits and fashion choices we see in the film.
Animation
To balance with the tough message of the script, we developed an animation style that was soft and steady, gentle transitions and a muted colour palette meant reinforcing messaging without overwhelming the viewer.
Our approach was to positively explore these enormously significant issues in a way that was easier for a large audience to understand and digest, by being using playful and stylish designs, reflecting what consumers already love about the fashion industry.
Considered transitions play an important part too in order to keep the attention of the audience over a long duration and deliver facts and figures that some may find challenging to listen to, as fashion plays such an important part of many people’s identities.
The result
The overall tone of the film is informative, but gentle and friendly too, to engage with audiences about the realities of an industry which does bring pleasure to many people.
The film aims to champion consumers and leave them feeling empowered to do good.
"The film brings our exploration of the ethical challenges in the fashion industry to life, in a really creative and powerful way. It's a compelling and accessible learning experience for our audiences, and provided us with a valuable asset to support and complement our ongoing activity in this area."
Contributors & Credits
- Creative Director: Karl Doran
- Art Director: Winston Tsang
- Production Management: Emma Shaw
- Producer: Chelsea Tantum
- Illustration: Elena Gonzalez Sanchez, Nadia Kawafi
- Animation : Winston Tsang, Inês Silva, Sean Jones, Ben Young
- Sound Design : Nick Granville-Fall
