Looking Good in Motion - Showreel for a UK Design Agency

A Strategic Portfolio Showreel for a UK Design Agency

The UK Boutique Design agency Good Looking Design needed a portfolio piece that would click with small business clients who get the value of good design. In close collaboration with their founder, I directed and animated an engaging 60-second showreel that shows off their best work while telling the story of how they approach each project, from first conversations to final delivery.

The GLD brand is full of life and personality, which truly came to life using animation.

Before diving into Adobe After Effects, I spent time with the client figuring out what we had to work with. Anyone who's done client work knows the potential chaos of tracking down usable assets. In this instance, the client did and awesome job picking out projects that wouldn't need tons of rebuilding or dummy content, and in some content even supplied me with extra assets when needed. The meticulous attention to detail in the preproduction phase saved a lot of headaches down the line and kept the process moving smoothly.

Collecting assets was a critical part of the process that worked as a single source of truth for the project

For the animation style, I kept things clean and intentional. Each project flows naturally into the next, with some custom logo animations adding personality where it counts. Keeping it to one minute meant being pretty ruthless with pacing – if something wasn't adding to the story, it had to go.

A detailed storyboard helped aid the decision making and removed ambiguity around transitions.

The level of detail in the storyboard was then easy to translate into motion.

For the final piece I didn't strive to be fancy – just great work presented clearly, with enough motion to keep it interesting without getting in the way. It's the kind of showreel that helps potential clients quickly get what Good Looking Design is about and the value they bring to each project.