The Power of the NEA
We had the opportunity to work with our friends over at Weber Shandwick to produce a series of videos for the National Education Association as part of their Strong Public Schools 2020 campaign. The objective of this campaign was to generate awareness and excitement among NEA members about their voting power and influence in the upcoming 2020 election.
“We are choosing more than the next president of the United States in the 2020 election,” said NEA President Lily Eskelsen García. “We are defining who we are as a country and determining the core values and principles that will guide this great nation moving forward. Educators plan to be front and center in this conversation. We will make our presence felt in this election and will play a major role in choosing the next president of the United States.”
In other words, we needed to demonstrate the power of the NEA. After all, they are the largest labor union in the United States.
When we got the call, we were super excited because:
A) we firmly support better working conditions and wages for our public school teachers and employees.
B) we had the chance to do some illustrative and character animation work.
C) this project was an opportunity for us to personally express our views on Betsey DeVos and the Trump Administration.
Weber provided us with a script, and we were responsible for all design, illustration, character animation, 2D and 3D animation, sound design and music.
We collaborated with the amazing cel animator (Reece Parker) to bring the main character to life. This technique is very specialized and takes a significant amount of time, but the end result was well worth it. Cel animation gives a certain organic feeling to characters that aren’t achievable with keyframes and After Effects.
As part of our inclusive design process, we intentionally featured people from with disabilities. It’s important that this underrepresented population be included, respected and empowered.
As a nod to authenticity, we enlisted Lily Eskelsen García, the acting President of the NEA, to read the voiceover. Her passion for empowering our teachers could not have been replicated by anyone else.
This campaign lets everyone know: if we’re serious about our children’s future, we need to elect a pro-public education candidate.
We’re on board with that.
BIEN is a motion design studio that creates video content for diverse audiences.
As a minority-owned studio, we practice inclusive design, which is a design methodology that enables and draws on the full range of human diversity. We’re interested in working with brands who want to expand the size of their addressable market through diversity, equity, and inclusion. You can view our latest work here - BIEN Motion Design Studio.
As a minority-owned studio, we practice inclusive design, which is a design methodology that enables and draws on the full range of human diversity. We’re interested in working with brands who want to expand the size of their addressable market through diversity, equity, and inclusion. You can view our latest work here - BIEN Motion Design Studio.
