Creating Visuals That Relate to Audience

Language is more than words. A story begins with the foundation of language, a structure of written and spoken words. As a creative, I believe language is way more than that — it is a way of communicating a single idea, certain topic or issue to life not just in words but in visuals as well. It is said that the human brain processes images 60,000 times faster than text, and 90 percent of information transmitted to the brain is visual. When we are communicating a story or an idea, visual language may be one of the most important languages of them all.

Just like any conversation, creating design or animation is no different than conversing with people.

As a creative, I create visual language that has to resonate with the audience.

In this article, I will break down the thought process that I usually go through in designing for an animation campaign.

This is an important process early on in the creative process and it will be the anchor for the creative decisions ahead.

CREATING A PERSONA OF THE AUDIENCE

Before anything else, the first important thing is to know our audience. Creating a persona that represents most of the audience will help to gain clarity on the targeted audience.

This is a little exercise that I discovered to be an anchor, helping me stay on track in directing a spot.

I usually like to do a small exercise to define the ideal audience after knowing the objectives.

I like to think of it like an ‘avatar’ of my audience.

Creating an avatar means getting a clear idea of an ideal audience specifically in terms of the age, gender, occupations, the challenges he/she is facing and what his/her goals are.

This is a simple way to work out an avatar which will represent our main targeted group of audience.

Who is this person? It is always a good idea to create an ‘avatar’ of an audience in mind. Who is actually going to watch my animation? This is a quick example of the ‘avatar’ of my audience profile for the project. The avatar will represent most of the target audience:

NAME: Bryan
NATIONALITY: Singaporean
AGE: 35 Years Old
OCCUPATION: An engineer
ABOUT: A family man. He has 2 children. He is curious, detail oriented, he loves to read.
He is concerned about what’s ahead for his children. He is wondering if the government is supporting the development of his children.
OBJECTIVE (Bryan’s response after watching the animation): Awareness — He will be entertained, at the same time be informed/aware of what the government is doing for his children’s future.

NAME, GENDER, AGE
The audience name or gender will be the first step for me to visualise who this person is. Defining the name and gender will usually create a stronger understanding with my audience. For this project, our target audience could be both male and female. So, I decided to just create either one which is a male avatar for the audience.

NATIONALITY/GEOGRAPHIC LOCATION
A nationality or geographic location of the avatar will play an important role in this case to make sure what we create will be relatable to Bryan. Where he stays, where he grows up or works, etc. This is a piece of information that will be useful in creating the visuals that could relate to Bryan.

ABOUT: CHALLENGES AND GOALS
This is the scenario I create about Bryan based on the project requirements and objectives. The two things to highlight are Bryan’s challenges and goals. I usually ask myself what Bryan faces everyday despite the good job he has. What could be his motivation beyond his day job? He might be wondering if there is more for him to look forward to in the future, what the government is planning that will have a direct impact in his work and life.

I imagine Bryan to be a friend of mine who happened to be having a chat over a coffee. His concerns are voiced out to me and I will have to gather as much information to answer his doubts in the form of animation. This part of information is useful in the message and visuals that will be crafted in the animation.

VISUAL DECISIONS BASED ON THE PERSONA

Once I define an ideal avatar of my audience, I will then continue with the process of creation. Pretty visuals are just the tip of the iceberg. What we are doing now is to look below, into more depth of it. Our visuals must say something to them. When we were tasked, we were given an initial drawing from the advertising agency on how the overall set might look like. Our job was to look deeper and further beyond pretty visuals, the sketch and layout.

The sketch that was handed to our team from the brief

This image below was our first take on the education and jobs related visual. Nothing significant was done and it was mostly blocks without any significant or relatable visuals.

Early visual development in CGI

After doing such blocking in the visual, I would then think deeper in the lens of Bryan and myself conversing with him. What kind of environment did Bryan grow up with? What is he accustomed with?

When I was thinking of such details, this is when I also go back into my own experience and memories that I can relate with Bryan. Something that speaks to me and him. Things that will connect me and him on the same level when he sees certain visuals so he can relate. This is more like creating a connection with a new friend we have just met, finding something in common so we can enjoy our conversation ahead. The places you’ve been near to his workplace or his house, that nice coffee just across the library. For instance, part of it is playground area or library. So I went through my own memory lane throughout 14 years in Singapore and tried to recall everything I remembered about playgrounds and the libraries I have seen in Singapore. After remembering those, I then tried to integrate those images in my mind into the visual that was going to be created with some twists of colors.

The visual before (left) and after (right)

These are some examples to make a creative decision in creating visual language that communicates to our audience based on the background, environment and challenges that they are facing. I have seen these at some places that I am sure Bryan, as a Singaporean has seen them too. I decided on those objects of reference and added my own twist to them. The color, the way they are being arranged. Bryan will relate to the actual objects when he sees them, but he is now seeing them in a different flavor that could connect to his experiences.

This is how animation fills in the gap between challenges and goals of our audience. We can either create an awareness or challenge him in taking certain actions after watching it. I believe this applies to any form of communication we will be having with someone. How do you create your anchor when speaking to someone new?