Trust is a steaming cup of tea where troubles quietly dissolve.
This project is composed of eight short animated films created for the Wyoming Family Resource Centers Collective, all centered around a simple but powerful question: “Who has made a difference in your life?”
Each 20-second video gave visual form to the voice of a young adult sharing their personal story of gratitude and connection. From the very beginning, I was fascinated by the challenge. There were no brand guidelines to follow - only the freedom (and responsibility) to find a visual style that could fit such a short format while capturing very different moods and feelings.
My proposal, which the client embraced, was to create a series of animated portraits: three illustrations for each video. Each image needed to be rich in meaning - to convey, through minimal details, the essence of the relationship and the value of the person being celebrated.
To achieve this, I designed highly conceptual images, using a limited color palette (which included, of course, the logo’s colors) and playing with outlines, filled shapes, and empty spaces to build a visual rhythm that reflected the character and atmosphere of each story. I chose a hand-sketched style to give the animations a more intimate and personal look, enhancing the sincerity of each voice.
This approach allowed the stories to remain warm and genuine, while giving each piece its own visual identity within a cohesive overall aesthetic.
Client: Wyoming Family Resource Centers Collective
Production: Pendragwn Productions
Producers: Jon Michael Shink, Michael Skinner
Audio post production: Spinn Creative
My role: Direction, Illustration, Animation
You can find the full versions of the stories at the following links:
Wyoming Kids Matter - Father and Hero
Wyoming Kids Matter - People Who Make a Difference
Wyoming Kids Matter - This Person Made a Difference
Wyoming Kids Matter - People Who Are There for Me
Wyoming Kids Matter - This Person Showed Up for Me
Wyoming Kids Matter - I Believe in Myself
Wyoming Kids Matter - My Own Hero
Wyoming Kids Matter - My Most Important Person
I truly loved this project – it’s probably one of the few where I let so much of myself slip into the work, weaving small personal details into the stories. In the end, I couldn’t resist the temptation to answer the question myself – so this is my response.