Motion Design for Social Justice - MODE Summit
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Theoretical Framework
This series also prompted me to reflect on how I can subvert traditional
advertising practices to better communicate messaging. In addition to
Motion Design for Social Justice documenting my creative journey, this paper explores how rhetorical devices
in motion design effectively capture the attention of viewers. In her text
Advertising as Communication, Gillian Dyer defines rhetoric as “…the effective
or artful use of speech and writing, … used to clarify or add strength and
Austin Shaw impact to persuasive oratory” (Dyer 1982, 127).
Western Washington University, United States
I have worked for nearly 20 years as a motion designer for advertising clients.
My practice has taught me to craft communication in both design and motion.
ABSTRACT This short paper documents a personal exploration of Motion I have worked as a full-time professor for over 10 years and taught students
Design as a medium to spread messages of anti-racism and social justice. these same practices—creative problem-solving methods and design tech-
The series utilizes kinetic typography through an integration of analog and niques centering on engaging viewer attention. Dyer built upon the work
digital production processes including scanography and key-framed based of Jacques Durrant to identify the extensive use of rhetoric in advertising as
animation. Gillian Dyer’s work Advertising as Communication serves as the reiterated in the following:
primary source on how rhetorical devices used in advertising can enhance
communication design on social media platforms. Since advertisers are in the business of persuasion and have devel-
oped a vast array of devices for their purposes, advertising is the most
Keywords: motion, design, social justice, rhetoric, social media, obvious place we might expect to find the practice of rhetoric today. In
kinetic typography the first place, advertisers deliberately set out to attract and retain the
attention of listeners, readers and viewers. In the second place it is
Introduction obvious that every element in an ad has been carefully placed for
In the spring of 2020, I started working on a series of protest animations against maximum effect. (Dyer 1982, 127)
racism. George Floyd’s murder deeply disturbed me on a visceral level. My Black
students’ raw and honest posts on social media motivated me into action. One Over the last decade, my professional practice has transitioned from delivering
post in particular struck a chord—“silence is violence.” I felt that I could no motion design for HD broadcast to multi-platform social media channels.
longer be silent. I needed to contribute my voice in the fight against oppression For the 2nd edition of my textbook Design for Motion: Fundamentals and
and show my Black students, friends, and community that I stand with them. Techniques of Motion Design, I researched a new chapter for motion design
This series began with an intuitive approach to working with kinetic typography on social and mobile platforms. Contemporary advertising best practices
expressing short confrontational statements against injustice. include capturing attention quickly, short-form storytelling, kinetic typography
in “sound-off” environments, and looping animations (Shaw 2019). These
As a white male in a position of privilege, I wanted to be sure that I was not conventions serve to maximize viewer engagement in an environment rich
over-shadowing Black voices. I reached out to my Black students and alumni with glance media.
for their critique and feedback. The same student who posted “silence is
violence” told me they would rather their white friends and white professors say I used the same advertising best practices utilized for clients in my protest
something than not say anything. Both BIPOC and white students have asked if animations; however, without the constraint of fulfilling a client brief. The work
they can re-post the animations to their social media spaces. I have agreed and represents my personal beliefs and expresses my struggle to make sense of the
encouraged them to do so. I hope organic sharing of these animations can help persistent cruelty, suffering, and injustice of systemic racism. Although clear
reach a wider audience and contribute to the movement towards social justice. messages are communicated in each animation, the forms often start asemic
and fight their way toward semantic meaning. Dyer expanded on Roland Barthes
work on semiotics as she examined the dynamic between the spatial and
temporal frameworks and their relation to meaning:
48 MODE 2021 Edited Conference Proceedings
Figure 1: “Silence is Violence” Animation. Source: Shaw 2020.
An advertisement could be said to be ‘semiotically thick’: it comprises justice, know peace” (Figure 2). I found this phrase repeating in my mind and
a heterogeneity of signals and is characterized by its spatial as well as could picture the words flipping in a loop. Dyer describes this rhetorical device
temporal dimensions. Each image or frame operates spatially, whilst as substitution (143). This animation substitutes elements that are both similar
linguistic messages and the unfolding of the text/message is temporal. and different. The words “no” and “know” sound the same but have oppositional
Movement, however, is both spatial and temporal. (Dyer 1982, 108) meanings in this context, which is also a rhetorical device of double meaning
(133). Like Martin Luther King’s quote, this animation uses chiasmus, where
Additional layers of instability are created by spatial and temporal tension. At words are repeated in a reversed order (146).
times, the animations read as stills or very subtle living holds, then transition to
sequences depicting dramatic change in short amounts of time. The ambiguity The second animation in this series utilizes a similar rhetorical device of
created by juxtapositions in meaning and form become a stylistic device that substitution, although in this case only specific letterforms move to transform
unifies the entire series. the word “racist” into “resist” (Figure 3). In both examples, the viewer is
confronted with semiotic cues that alternate in meaning to create tension.
The Work The use of timing, fast cuts and transitions serve to enhance visual interest.
These animations are created using a variety of applications including Adobe
Illustrator to layout typography, Adobe Photoshop to color correct and prepare
files for motion, and Adobe After Effects for animation and compositing. Addi-
tional photographic and cinematic elements are combined with scanography
and virtual camera movements for a cinemagraphic style.
The first animation I made was a play on Martin Luther King’s rhetorical state-
ment “There can be no peace in the world unless there’s justice, and there can
be no justice without peace” (Mulhall 2014, 101). In recent times, a shortened
version of this sentiment has been expressed as “no justice, no peace—know Figure 2: “No Justice, No Peace, Know Justice, Know Peace” Animation Source: Shaw 2020.
Motion Design for Social Justice 49
Figure 3: “Racist Resist” Animation. Source: Shaw 2020.
Figure 4: “Fuck Racism” Animation. Source: Shaw 2020.
Figure 5: “I Can’t Breathe” Animation. Source: Shaw 2020.
Figure 6: “Right to Protest” Animation. Source: Shaw 2020.
Figure 7: “Enough is Enough” Animation. Source: Shaw 2020.
[3]
Analog & Digital
In the piece “Fuck Racism” (Figure 4), I began to experiment with scanography—
physically moving a printed image across a scanner. This process creates
unpredictable distortions of the scanned imagery. However, intentionally
moving images at faster or slower rates creates gradations in the intensity
of the displacement effect. A series of scans of the same printed image can
be sequenced together in a similar manner to stop-motion or traditional
frame-by-frame animation. Gradual changes in sequenced scanography
[4] creates the effect of easing in motion.
Using vulgarity like “Fuck” captures viewers’ attention while also communicating
raw emotion. The addition of post-processing such as film grain, damaged film
clips, and composited paper textures adds to the distressed organic qualities of
the piece.
The choreography and timing of Figure 5 represents the statement “I can’t
breathe.” The cadence of the animation synchronizes with the pace of a person
[5] saying the words. The distortion of the letterforms feels like a struggle to find
air. Just as we heard George Floyd say this phrase repeatedly as he was killed,
the animation loops over and over. Repetition of the entire phrase confronts the
viewer with the horror of literal suffocation and persistent oppression.
I began to experiment with additive figures of rhetoric in the piece “Right to
Protest” (Figure 6). Repetition is a classical device that uses the same word
or phrase repeatedly (182). For this piece, I printed the same words “RIGHT”
and “TO” at a variety of font weights and utilized scanography to create motion
sequences. The diversity of weights from light to heavy represents the diversity
[6]
of voices joining in protest. I introduced very brief moments of composited flash
frames from digitized film. These accents of highly saturated color add emotion-
al intensity as well as helping to instantly capture the viewer’s attention.
I continued working with repetition in the piece “Enough is Enough” (Figure 7)
while also experimenting with stop-motion of physically distressed typography.
The words “ENOUGH” and “IS” were printed and scanned repeatedly. However,
with each successive scan, I crumpled the paper more and more. Each round
of crumpling caused the letterforms to deconstruct and breakdown. The
[7] distressed visual qualities represent the grinding feelings of oppression.
50 MODE 2021 Edited Conference Proceedings
Figure 8: “Listen” Animation. Source: Shaw 2020. Figure 9: “All Rights Reserved” Animation. Source: Shaw 2021.
Cinematic Progression
As the series continued, I began to incorporate more cinematic techniques. The animation “All Rights Reserved” (Figure 9) utilizes a more sophisticated
The earliest animations used primarily fixed camera distances. Drawing from cinematic language as the message is revealed through a succession of fast
my professional practice, I added a variety of camera positions and editing tech- cuts at different camera distances. Scanography creates tactile formations of
niques to create a more dynamic vi sual story—extreme close-ups, hard cuts, the word forms and the pacing of the edit mirrors saying the phrase aloud. This
and dramatic camera moves communicated in the language of advertising animation was created in collaboration with a former student, Jordan Lyle who
but delivering messages of equality and protest. I used these conventions of now owns a brand called For the Culture Club. The brand focuses on promoting
cinema and graphics to speak the language of social media users and viewers. design and products from a Black perspective. The phrase is one of the corner-
Dyer identified how content creators have been delivering messages through stone statements of his brand. It was an honor to collaborate with him on such
cinematic “techniques” in the quote below: a meaningful project. During a discussion about the entire animation series,
Lyle stated:
We derive meanings from kinds of shots and other filmic techniques
because we have learned the codes and conventions of TV and film They feel like a rally call / battle cry for Black students / people where
practice. (…) The fact that a certain shot conveys a meaning depends static posts and words do not really have as much energy behind them.
not only on our ability to relate it to other potential shots in a paradigm You are using your voice in motion and design to amplify but not circum-
of shots but also to actual shots that precede or follow it in the vent Black voices. I feel like because it is intended for social and sharing
syntagmatic discourse. (Dyer 1982, 102) it lives in that amplification space. And it definitely is confronting to not
only racist people but to people who have some implicit biases that they
The animation “Listen” uses repetition and a figure of suppression, where did not know they had. Seeing a visual with the kind of energy that the
elements are removed (138). The word “LISTEN” fills the screen at the start, animations have could feel LOUD to people that need to listen—which
bordering on being illegible. The camera pulls back to reveal the word coming is good. (Lyle 2021)
into legibility as random distortions change the typeface to a lighter font weight.
When the camera reaches its widest position in space, the repetition of words
rapidly cut off screen leaving a single iteration of the word in the center of the
frame. The performance of this animation represents a multitude of loud voices,
all shouting and overlapping each other, that gradually quiet until we are able
to listen.
Motion Design for Social Justice 51
Figure 10 (top): “Spotify + Pharrell Williams” Out-of-Home Campaign—NYC Times Square Figure 12 (top): “Racism is a Virus” Animation. Source: Shaw 2021.
and Penn Plaza.
Figure 11 (bottom): “Spotify + Pharrell Williams” Social Media Campaign. Figure 13 (bottom): Figure 13: “Stop Putting Kids in Cages” Animation. Source: Shaw 2021.
Conclusion
During the summer of 2020, I was contacted by the creative team at Spotify to Posting these animations to my social media channels has been an exercise in
help with an advertising campaign to promote Pharrell Williams new song free speech, an acknowledgment of support to my Students of Color and the
“Entrepreneur.” They had seen my protest animations on my Instagram account Black community, and a way for me to publicly join the protest against racism.
and thought the tone and creative direction were a good fit for the project. I After many years of refining my talent and skills for advertising, this series has
utilized similar stylistic and rhetorical devices to produce a multi-platform cam- afforded an opportunity to use those skills to fight for causes I support. The
paign across social media and out-of-home platforms. Repetition of the chorus work re-connected my creative passion while fulfilling a fundamental need to
“Black Man” was particularly effective in the placement of a vertical building in promote equity and positive change. I plan to continue developing this practice
New York City’s Times Square, directly behind an NYPD precinct. of creating motion design content for social justice. Recent protest animations
include speaking against AAPI hate and inhumane immigration policies.
Although the protest animations I have posted to my personal Instagram and
Facebook accounts have reached up to 1,500 viewers per post, my animations
created in collaboration with Spotify and Pharrel have reached upwards of
100,000 views per post. The Times Square image was also posted by the popu-
lar Instagram account “Complex” with over 8 million followers and the post was
viewed nearly 150,000 times.
52 MODE 2021 Edited Conference Proceedings
WORKS CITED
Advertising as Communication, by Gillian Dyer, Routledge, 1982.
Design for Motion: Fundamentals and Techniques of Motion Design 2nd Edition,
by Austin Shaw, Routledge, 2019.
A Lasting Prophetic Legacy: Martin Luther King Jr., the World Council of
Churches, and the Global Crusade against Racism and War, by
Thomas A. Mulhall and Lewis V. Baldwin, Wipf & Stock, 2014, p. 101.
Lyle, Jordan. Personal interview. 12 March 2021.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
Austin Shaw is the author of the genre defining textbook Design for Motion:
Fundamentals and Techniques of Motion Design. For nearly 20 years Austin
Shaw has worked as a Motion Designer for clients including Target, Ferrari,
Fedex, Spotify, Ralph Lauren, and VH1. Austin is an Assistant Professor of
Design at Western Washington University. He has also taught at the Savannah
College of Art and Design and the School of Visual Arts in New York City. Austin
embraces the combination of traditional analog practices with contemporary
digital media production to create work with a distinctive hybrid sensibility.
He is a generalist with strengths in illustration, photo-collage, typography, 2d
animation, 3D animation, compositing, and creative editing. He teaches a range
of courses from introductory through advanced. With a life-long passion for
learning, Austin enjoys mentoring students and helping them to achieve their
creative goals.
Motion Design for Social Justice 53
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