Department for Business and Trade – Business Academy

Launch animation for a new government learning hub.

Working with the Department for Business and Trade, Blonde designed, animated and finished the explainer film for the launch of the Business Academy, the UK government’s free digital learning offer for businesses.

The brief

A week before the Business Academy Live! launch event, the department needed a hero film. It had to open the event, loop on screens throughout the networking and lunch periods, and then live online as the Academy’s explainer. It had to work with the sound on and with it off, in strict alignment with the Business Growth Service brand.

The deadline was a week, from first conversation to signed-off file.

The approach

With a brief this tight, we didn’t wait for key frames to be signed off. We designed a frame for every line of the script, a complete storyboard from the start, so the department could see the whole film before a single frame moved.

The brand guidelines were clear and limited, which gave us a firm edge to work against. We took a varied approach to background colours and content to keep it moving, and overlapped imagery and iconography, as the guidelines themselves do, to add depth.

Superb work – you’ve created a film that is warm, slick and holds the attention throughout. I really like the sensitive sfx and the economical use of the photo assets.

Jacob Brookman, Head of Video & Photography, Department for Business and Trade

The design

IvyPresto throughout, because it’s distinctive and holds up on a screen across a room. Bold type and red lines pick out the key words, so the film reads on mute as well as it does with the sound on.

We added the department’s icons, but sparingly. It was easy to make the film feel like a slide deck, and we didn’t want that. The photographs and stock the department supplied do most of the work.

The sound

Music and sound effects carry the film. The effects are there to enhance the movement within the animation, giving every slide, swipe and transition a small physical lift without drawing attention to themselves.

One film, built to loop

The film opens and closes on the Business Growth Service title animation, so it loops without a seam on the event screens.

After the launch, we reformatted it to 9:16 for social, with everything sitting inside the safe zones for Meta and LinkedIn, and a voice-over added. We then made a shorter cut-down for the same platforms.

Thanks so much, really appreciate all your work on this, and at such pace!

Kirsty Horsfall, Brand and Production Manager, Department for Business and Trade

Credits

Client: Department for Business and Trade
Agency: APS Group
Design, animation, edit and sound: Blonde