BIEN Animates the Excitement that Paralympic Athletes Bring to Sports

Inclusive motion design studio, BIEN, is adding its creativity to the job of making the Paralympics stand out. The studio has produced an animation that highlights both the athletic prowess of the Paralympians and the thrill of watching them perform.

The Tokyo Paralympics begin on 24th August, in the wake of the Olympics that has dominated the news for weeks. The Paralympics is close to the heart of BIEN, whose mission is to champion inclusivity when working with Fortune 100 companies.

The work is part of the studio’s “Make it BIEN” internal project series. When the project came to fruition, the creators decided to pitch it to the Paralympics. The Paralympics was thrilled, and the organization shared it on their official social media channel.

“The goal with this project is to tell an authentic story with the kind of passion and creative excellence that communicates how heroic and powerful these Paralympic players truly are,” stated Ricardo Roberts, executive producer at BIEN.

“The inspiration for this animation came from our desire to give Paralympic sports the same polished treatment that mainstream sports enjoy. To achieve this, we went for a sleight-of-hand visual setup. We surprise viewers with a big reveal that shows wheelchair basketball players have the same energy, strength, and spirit as NBA players,” commented BIEN creative director, Hung Le.

To make sure that the animation was truly authentic, BIEN worked with disability consultant and sound designer, David Jeffers, at Quadriphonic. “We learned wheelchair basketball rules, researched the right kind of wheelchairs to depict, and showcased the various types of players with disabilities who play the sport. As a quadriplegic sound designer, David used an iPad Pro to create the soundscape, using sound effects and music to bring the visuals together and develop a sense of drama. He is very proud to be a voice for the community, and to have the Paralympics endorse the end product is a dream come true,” Le explained.

“This type of project is our passion and why we exist as a studio - advocating for diversity and inclusion at the grassroots level,” Roberts added.