Lisk Animated Series

During 2018, as Head of Design at Lisk, I led the effort to create various animation series that would ultimately become fundamental pieces in Lisk’s marketing strategies. The main goal of the series was to introduce an innovative and crafted format for Lisk to translate highly technical and complex content into visually appealing and informative animations. By doing so, the target was not only to increase Lisk’s brand awareness by maximizing the engagement with the existing community, but also boost its adoption by attracting new blockchain enthusiasts.

As Lisk's Head of Design, I was responsible for ideating, producing, and directing all the video series.

COMPANY

Lisk

YEAR

2018/20

TYPE

Brand, Motion

Key challenges

Complex content, made easy.

Blockchain technology is complex, and for these series to be successful, it was key to dive deep into the technical aspects of each of the portrayed aspects of both the platform and the technology, and meticulously identify storytelling opportunities for animations in favor of digestible technical content.

Stand out from the crowd.

In early 2018 the blockchain industry saw a massive inflow of new enthusiasts, and competing content was generated on a daily basis. Creating unique, crafted, and high-standards content was a critical factor in order to win the attention of Lisk’s target audiences.

Leverage the opportunity.

The blockchain space was getting more crowded each day, and the industry was witnessing a unique opportunity to evangelize new users. The animated series would need to be appealing and informative enough to attract new blockchain enthusiasts that might initially reject the blockchain technology due to its complex technicalities.

Increase participation.

The animated series needed to be visually engaging and have a strong message to encourage viewers to share them within their network. Sharing is crucial in building brand awareness, particularly in the Web3 space, and ultimately the animations were supposed to be a tool attracting new members to the Lisk community.

Introduce a new format.

Animations were not a consolidated format of Lisk’s style guide at the time, so it was key to ensure that the animation style was not only scalable to adapt to different types of technical content, but also consistent with Lisk's brand guidelines.

Solution

Lisk Animated Series were crafted around a specific set of modern animation techniques, with engagement and scalability in mind. Each animation followed a strict process from scripting to storyboarding, animation, and sound design, permitting the Creative team to develop high-quality pieces that supplemented Lisk’s messaging and positioning.

Starting with research.

At the outset of the project, our team conducted a thorough research of the most popular animations related to blockchain topics. This research helped us to identify patterns, best practices, and opportunities to add value to the current offering.

Prioritizing storytelling.

Each animation was structured with the target viewer in mind. We placed a strong emphasis on storytelling to help viewers understand the technical concepts in an easy-to-understand way, ultimately adapting the rhythm of the script to the visual pace.

Advanced animation techniques.

The format opted for advanced animation techniques versus usage of scripts or templates to create unique and visually appealing animations that would stand out. Meticulous manual animation processes allowed us not only to be intentional about the animation rhythm, but also to translate a high quality product by focusing on each single keyframe.

Dynamic rhythm.

By paying close attention to pacing and maximizing opportunities for transitions, and other elements that would help to create a dynamic piece, we were able to maximize viewer engagement throughout each animation, which helped to increase retention.

Blockchain education

One of the animated series involved creating animations for general blockchain education content that targeted the full community of blockchain enthusiasts. The goal was to cover a wide variety of technical topics, and explain them in a simple and engaging way.

The topics covered a wide range of technical areas, including cryptography, consensus algorithms, mining, smart contracts, and more. The animations used visual metaphors, analogies, and real-world examples to help viewers grasp these concepts.By creating animations that were accessible to non-technical audiences, we were able to promote Lisk's mission of making blockchain accessible to everyone.

The project was successful in attracting new members to the community through raising awareness of Lisk's educational initiatives.

Lisk Monthly Update - November 2018, published on December 1, 2018

BLOCKCHAIN EDUCATION RESOURCES

YouTube playlist

Lisk Academy

Lisk Technical Explainers

The Lisk Technical Explainers animated series was targeted to the Lisk community and blockchain developers interested in joining Lisk's ecosystem. Animations were used as explainers of Lisk products, services, or features, with the aim of showcasing Lisk's broad range of products, including Lisk's blockchain platform, Lisk Core, Lisk Elements, LIPs, and more.

The Lisk Technical Explainers were heavily marketed on social media, Lisk's web properties, and events, and became fundamental pieces for communicating to the existing and growing community.

What is Lisk Core?, published on July 9, 2018

LISK AFTER-MOVIES RESOURCES

Blockchain for kids

The Blockchain for Kids series involved the creation of ‘explain like I’m five” (ELI5) content related to basic features of the Blockchain technology. The goal was to make it fun to watch pieces that emulated more the storytelling of children tales rather than technical blockchain video. The main audience was blockchain enthusiasts that might feel unsure about learning about blockchain due to its highly technical entry barrier.

The animations were designed with children’s audiovisual formats in mind, with a strong emphasis on soundtrack, sound effects, and narrations. The technical aspects of the blockchain were portrayed through analogies of popular tales, with relatable characters and scenarios, such as Santa Claus and the North Pole, that helped to explain blockchain and in a way that was easy to understand.

Lisk Vlog #3, published on May 31, 2018

BLOCKCHAIN FOR KIDS RESOURCES

Lisk Academy

Outcome

The animations created for Lisk were a huge success and were ranked as some of the most shared pieces of content within the Lisk community. In total, the animations received over a million views, which is a testament to their popularity and impact. Additionally, many viewers praised the team for their creative approach to explaining blockchain and Lisk's offerings through their comments, as well as the quality of the animations themselves.
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By creating engaging and informative animations that explained blockchain and Lisk's offerings in an accessible way, the team was able to attract new members to the Lisk community and promote Lisk's mission of making blockchain accessible to everyone.

TEAM

Julian Alterini

Valeria Ippolito

Xana Ramos

TOOLS

adobe after effects

adobe premiere

adobe illustrator

animation

digital illustration

motion design

video editing