Simon Knowles
· Dynamic Identity
Contact
You’ve defined how your brand looks.
Dynamic identity defines how it behaves,
once, and for everything that follows.
Motion design communicates who you are, directly accessing the subconscious before you say a word.
We’re wired to pay attention to things that move, but that attention is only worth having if what moves is recognisably yours.
A consistent dynamic identity builds trust, in the same way inconsistent things don’t.
A small, edited selection. The full archive is available on request.
Every dynamic identity I build rests on four principles, so your teams and agencies can use it with or without me.
Motion that works in five years, not five months.
Every frame considered, nothing left to chance.
If it moves, it has a reason.
Behaviour obeys mass, inertia and gravity.
Engineered: metrics, not vague adjectives and opinions. How long, how fast, and in what order. Done properly, so done for the last time, from a £5,000 Motion Audit to a full system build.
Who's behind it ↓I started out in 1996 as a technical illustrator and spent my first ten years making complicated things easy to follow: instruction manuals, component libraries, and 3D and vector artwork. I worked directly for brands including Microsoft, Time Magazine and M&S Home.
For the last twenty years I've led motion design across broadcast, digital out-of-home and online, for London and European advertising, PR and brand agencies.
What I build ↓Each starts in the same place: finding out whether your brand's motion is a system or a string of decisions.
An assessment of how your brand moves today on every screen. You find out where motion is working, where it's drifting, and what to fix first.
Everything in the Audit, plus the identity itself: principles, motion language, rules for what can and can't vary, and how it's governed.
Everything in the Dynamic Identity, plus a production-ready toolkit: templates, presets, component animations, and handover to your team or agency.
Let's talk first. No pitch deck.
Tell me what your brand is launching next and where the motion is letting it down. I'll reply within two working days. If there's a fit, I'll outline what an engagement would look like.
