Designing Motion for Attention: a Booth Video for Hamlet Student Accommodation
Attention is a container. That’s how I approach motion design—by asking where the viewer is and what they’re trying to do in that moment.
Recently, I collaborated with London-based creative director Dionysis Livanis on a motion piece for Hamlet, a student accommodation developer based in Greece. Our brief? To create a looping booth video for an international property expo in Manchester, where Hamlet was showcasing investment opportunities in purpose-built student housing.
Designing Motion for Real-World Attention
Exhibitions are noisy and crowded. The viewer is rarely sitting comfortably or wearing headphones. In this case, they’re most likely standing in a queue, glancing around while waiting their turn to speak with a rep. So our motion design process centred around two key questions:
- Where is the brand touchpoint encountered?
- What is the viewer trying to do when they see it?
These questions are essential when crafting motion graphics for physical spaces, especially for property exhibitions and event marketing.
Collaboration and Execution
Dionysis had already designed Hamlet’s brand and charming mascot, and came to this project with a fully storyboarded sequence, complete with layouts and messaging for the booth’s screen.
I took his static designs and brought them to life—animating the mascot, making kinetic typography, and animated transitions that supported sequential messaging. Everything had to flow clearly and loop smoothly, inviting passersby to pause and take in the story without relying on sound.
Motion Design for Queues
We designed with spatial context and attention span in mind. The animation needed to:
- 🎯 Catch the eye from a distance
- 📣 Communicate silently, with pleasant visual rhythm
- 💬 Mesmerise onlookers to spark conversations with the Hamlet reps
This kind of design is about knowing what the motion is for—in this case, supporting brand interaction in a crowded environment.
A Glimpse Behind the Scenes
For this blog post, I’ve re-animated a section of the video with a quicker pace and placed it into a 3D screen mockup. This gives you a sense of how it might feel on the expo floor.
Thanks as ever to Dionysis for another thoughtful collaboration—it’s always a pleasure.