Behind the scenes of the new Rocketmakers animation with Shy Guys Studios
Earlier this year we decided to create an animation to help bring the Rocketmakers mission to life. In 2020 we amplified our ambition to focus on building software for companies that are having a positive impact in the world (whether social or environmental). We were also hearing feedback from companies locally who told us 'I love the Rocketmakers brand and the team but what exactly do you do?'
So we set about finding a company that would be happy to build on our existing design aesthetic and the wealth of amazing illustrations drawn by Lydia Cockroft to share our core messages in 90 seconds or less. After many conversations and a particularly competitive process with fantastic contributions from Skylark Media and Votion, we settled on the team from Shy Guys Studios.
The process was hugely collaborative, from the script to the voiceover recording and much more between. Using the Shy Guys team’s initial draft, we worked with a team from across Rocketmakers to craft the final script and simultaneously the team mapped the existing illustrations to the storyline.
After a few minor revisions, we settled quickly on a game plan and left the Shy Guys team to work their magic. I think that they managed to bring the static, complex animations to life and tell a story that highlights all that is unique about Rocketmakers - but you'll have to judge for yourself:
Our only real challenge in the whole process was in finding a voiceover artist that reflected our epic, NASA, space-race style ambitions for the animation whilst also being female. So many of the female voices felt more suited to a tissues advert than a tech one (what does that say about the industry and bias?) I strongly feel that there are too many male voices in the tech world and this was an opportunity to subtly highlight our commitment to diversity - and in doing so perhaps encourage more epic-style female voiceover artists out into the wild.
The Shy Guys team handled this challenge like real pros, taking time to understand our feedback and to prepare new voiceover samples that reflected our goals, even embedding them in the video so we could consider them in context. All in all, they couldn't have made the process more enjoyable and straightforward, even when we threw in the odd curveball from time to time!
Once the voiceover was decided, the final video and associated assets were sent with everything that we need to share the video with the world, and that's what we're about to do so watch out and please share our video on social media when you see it.
And it seems that we weren’t the only ones to enjoy the process - Ryan Biercewicz, Co-Founder and Creative Director at Shy Guys Studios shared this lovely quote with us so you can hear about the experience from the other side of the table!
It was a real privilege to work with such a highly positive and aspirational company like Rocketmakers. Their intentions for the video were clear from the outset, they were passionate and exciting to work with and gave us both the guidance and the room to be creative. The team's feedback was always timely and helpful, and they weren't afraid to push boundaries and be a bit different! There were a couple of interesting challenges along the way, but with some great direction from Briony and the team, we were able to navigate these smoothly. It was a brilliant collaboration, and we hope to work with the Rocketmakers team again in the future. If we ever need help developing software, an app or a website, we know who we'd call!
At Rocketmakers we leverage our experience to build innovative software for companies of all sizes. If you have a vision for a project and you need a technical partner to help you design, develop and deploy it, get in touch: firstcontact@rocketmakers.com
