Five 2024 identities given life through motion

Last year, I highlighted a few brand identities that used motion design to give life to their work. When RGD asked me to update this list for 2024, I did not hesitate to say yes! For this year’s edition, we’ll stay within Canada and focus and reflect on five identities created by homegrown agencies and studios.

Alberta Cancer Foundation Rebrand

DDB Canada | Edmonton

To kick things off, I’d like to highlight a project I had the chance to work on and am especially proud of. Back in the spring/summer of 2024, DDB Canada—which has since become TBWA\Canada—led a rebrand for the Alberta Cancer Foundation (ACF). To wrap it up, we created a brand launch video that brought to life the vision of ECD Eva Polis and Design Director Adnan Huseinovic RGD. The new look captures ACF’s commitment to Albertans facing cancer, focusing on a future filled with “more”: more moments, more discoveries, more cures, more hugs and more hope.

When I created the video, I focused on using music, pacing and seamless transitions to reflect this new direction. I also aimed to give ACF a motion language that wasn’t just visually engaging but also something they could carry forward in their materials and sub-brands. It was all about making something lasting and versatile.

A&W Brand Refresh

Rethink | Vancouver

As a kid, I remember going across the city to visit my aunt, who managed an A&W. Those trips always came with free Baby Burgers, which were a huge treat back then. So when Rethink’s brand refresh for A&W reintroduced the Burger Family and their mascot, Rooty, it hit me with nostalgia.

The refresh shifted the focus from A&W’s natural ingredients strategy to celebrating its roots as a go-to spot for comfort food. The focus on a vintage aesthetic with a modern twist comes to life in motion design through bold typography and dynamic iconography. The motion language adds to this energy with quick, snappy animations that keep things fresh and fun.

ComediHa! Rebrand

LG2 | Quebec City

LG2 has built a reputation for design-driven work, and their Silver win in the 2024 Strategy Design Agency of the Year Awards backs it up. For ComediHa!’s 25th anniversary, LG2 leaned into the brand’s playful, balloon-like origins with a fun and quirky refresh. The centrepiece? An inflated wordmark and a lively exclamation mark that’s been transformed into a mascot.

According to LG2, the mascot “giggles, chuckles and bursts out laughing,” capturing the full range of emotions experienced by audiences. They took it even further with a 3D-rendered version of the exclamation mark, leaning into its balloon-like qualities. On the motion side, the brand’s playful energy shines through in dynamic-type animations and clever micro-interactions, giving it an extra layer of personality.

Calgary Wild FC

Daughter Creative | Calgary

Making waves in Calgary’s sports scene is Daughter Creative’s bold brand identity for Calgary Wild FC. The identity revolves around a football-club-style shield featuring a fierce owl, with its piercing eyes stealing the spotlight. The eyes bring an intense, intimidating look to the logo that’s hard to ignore. Adding to the identity, variable typography gives the brand an even stronger and more dynamic presence in static and animated formats.

The brand’s energy carries through to its promotional materials. The hype video combines vintage film-style footage with fast, super-imposed graphics that nod to the greater brand system. This aesthetic also extends to social content, where film-inspired effects add texture and grit to player introduction videos, reinforcing the club’s bold identity.

Google: Next 2024

Vucko | Toronto

Conference identities are always a fun challenge, and I had a blast working on the DesignThinkers 2022 identity, where I experimented with motion. But when I saw what Vucko did for Google Cloud Next 2023, it felt like they took the fun to a new level. With endless screens to play with across Las Vegas—including the Sphere—the Vucko team worked with Google Cloud’s brand team to create a motion identity system and event touchpoints that seem like a motion designer’s dream.

In a LinkedIn post, Vucko shared that they built on the themes and motion behaviours from Next ‘23—Sharp, Responsive, Adaptive and Wabi-sabi—while introducing new ideas inspired by iterative design and work-in-progress concepts. These themes revolve around change, making the motion identity feel alive and constantly evolving.

At first glance, the identity doesn’t immediately scream “Google” but that seems intentional. Google’s brand team added fresh, dynamic design elements that gave Vucko plenty of creative freedom. The result was a series of lockups and treatments that perfectly captured Google’s vision of a future that’s always in motion.