‘Take the Time’
NSW Education Department
We developed three key video resources for a recent children's mental health campaign. Hitting the right tone of approachable, engaging and informative for children (but also presentable to adults) was essential.
The campaign centred around ‘Bean’, a genderless entity who doesn’t speak, yet is always there to support children when anxiety strikes. How do you give a voice to an amorphous character like Bean?
We created a third-person narrator who could talk directly to Bean, breaking the fourth wall. The narrator and bean effectively become a ‘team’ working together to help the secondary characters in the story as well as providing some gentle humour throughout.
Style wise we used visual metaphors to ‘see’ emotions, The characters are designed with simple, rounded, and flowing forms, while subtle backgrounds keep the focus on the characters themselves.
Michelle Montgomery
Senior Project Officer
NSW Department of Education
“From the outset, Will took the time to deeply understand the nuances of the brief and the complexities of messaging for multiple audiences… and brought exactly the right warmth and humour needed to communicate sensitive messages in an approachable and reassuring manner. The result is a series of animations that delight child and adult viewers alike and will undoubtedly contribute to future engagement with the program.
Credits
Client – New South Wales Department of Education
Agency – JimJam Ideas
Design and illustration – Will Hunt
Bean Character Design - Portable
Animation – Will Hunt, Elena Dungoodie
Audio – Will Hunt
EP – Charlie Cook