A documented motion system for your brand — so every team and agency applies it consistently, without briefing you from scratch every time.
A motion guidelines document is the animation equivalent of your brand guidelines PDF. It defines how your brand behaves when it moves — and gives everyone who works with it a clear, consistent reference to follow.
Without it, every agency, editor and designer working with your brand interprets the motion differently. The logo animates a different way on the website than in the presentation. The typography feels different in the social ad than in the broadcast spot. The brand erodes — not through bad work, but through inconsistency.
Motion guidelines solve this. One document, one source of truth — covering how your brand transitions, how text moves, how your logo animates and how your visual identity behaves across every format.
When we deliver a brand film, we've already made all the decisions — the timing, the easing, the logo animation, the transition style. Formalising that into a guidelines document is the natural next step, and the most efficient point to do it.
"We've already defined how your brand moves. Now we document it so anyone can apply it — consistently, forever."
— Apola ExpressThe definitive animated logo — timing, easing, hold duration and usage rules across all contexts and formats.
Documented timing curves and motion principles — the feel of how your brand moves, defined and replicable.
How the brand cuts, wipes, dissolves or morphs between scenes — rules that create consistent rhythm across all content.
How text enters, exits and holds — typeface, timing, direction and hierarchy in motion across all formats.
Reusable After Effects templates and Lottie/JSON files — ready for your in-house team and agency partners to use directly.
A clear, designed PDF document — the reference guide that travels with your brand and onboards any new creative partner instantly.
A brand-compliant motion design project for Fitch Ratings — upholding their visual guidelines while using creativity and imagination to maintain consistency between client-supplied icons and the wider animation. A clean, non-populated design language with thin lines and smooth animation was defined and applied throughout.
Option A — Recommended
The most efficient route. When we deliver your brand film, the motion language is already defined — we formalise it into a guidelines document as part of the same engagement. The thinking is done. We just document it properly.
Best for: Companies commissioning a brand film who want to lock in the motion language for future use
Option B
We audit your existing brand assets and motion work, define a motion language from scratch or from your current visual identity, and produce the full guidelines document independently of any film project.
Best for: Established brands that have motion work in market but no documented system behind it
Everything clients typically ask before commissioning a set of corporate motion guidelines.
A motion guidelines document defines how your brand moves — timing and easing curves, transition behaviour, typographic animation rules, logo motion, colour usage in motion and the overall personality of your brand's kinetic language. It's a practical reference that any studio or internal team can apply to produce consistent on-brand motion.
Any organisation that produces motion content across multiple teams, agencies or channels. Without guidelines, every studio interprets the brand differently — resulting in inconsistent motion across your website, social, presentations and campaigns. Guidelines solve that problem once and apply permanently.
Brand guidelines typically cover static identity — logo, colour, typography, photography. Motion guidelines extend that system into time. They answer the question your brand guidelines don't: how does this brand move? What does a transition feel like? How does our logo animate? What's our timing personality?
A focused motion guidelines document — covering core principles, timing system, logo animation and typographic rules — takes 4–6 weeks. A comprehensive system including multiple component demonstrations and a full After Effects template suite runs 8–12 weeks.
No. Motion guidelines can be built on top of any existing brand identity. We study your static guidelines, audit your existing motion output and build a motion system that extends what you already have — rather than replacing it.
We deliver the guidelines as a PDF document alongside demonstration files — After Effects templates, motion reference clips and timing presets — so anyone producing motion content can apply the system immediately. We can also run a briefing session with your teams or agency roster to introduce the guidelines directly.
Tell us where you are — whether you have a brand film already or are starting from scratch. We'll tell you the right approach.