Do you have a stack of old cellphones or old laptops you’re not sure what to do with? If you do, you’re not alone. Getting rid of these things is fraught with uncertainty. For example, does wiped really mean your data is completely erased? What happens to the waste? Do these things emit forever chemicals when they are destroyed? Who takes them anyway?
Hi, I’m Anna, a graphic designer at Herzog & Schindler and I recently made an explainer animation for Xscindo, an H&S partner with big ideas for the future of e-waste.
A quick overview of this project: E-waste is basically trashed technology (i.e., laptops, cell phones, microwaves, TVs, iPods – anything you plug into an external power source). All these electronic items are made from metals, alloys, and plastics. The metal elements contain data on everything the gadget ever did and the plastic is a petroleum-based scaffolding that holds it all together. To destroy the data in the gadget, you burn, shred or bury the plastic, which releases extremely dangerous chemicals. If you do nothing and just toss old tech out, the remaining data could get stolen, and the plastic will still end up in a landfill.
Xscindo developed a better, more secure and healthier way to get rid of e-waste that completely destroys the data while preventing the release of detrimental chemicals from the structural plastic.
With me so far? The project brief was to introduce and explain that process (and why it matters) to a wide range of audiences, people who might not completely understand the current state of e-waste disposal. It had to be easy to understand and simple to grasp. It couldn't reveal the patented process, but it had to frame the problem and the solution.
The animation I developed uses a classic comparative narrative to show how Xscindo creates a different journey for e-waste. One journey is bad, and one is good. While the team created the script, I focused on the visuals.
As a motion graphics designer, I always start with the brand’s strategy, message, and goals and then break those inputs down into frames. Here, our main focus was to show how Xscindo’s process improves upon existing e-waste solutions – keeping it positive but real.
I start by sketching some ideas on my iPad and then bring the illustrations into Adobe Illustrator to vectorize and clean up the lines. Storyboarding is the literal process of turning the vision in your mind into something that will exist in reality – which I find kind of magical.
The next step is to bring all the ideas together by introducing them to the world of Adobe After Effects. I figure out how I want the scene to move and transition, while refining color, visual aesthetics, line weight, and type treatments – to ensure the animation effectively illustrates a story that resonates.
Through this process we all learned an enormous amount about the growing e-waste problem. More importantly, the team and I can feel good about illustrating a different kind of future that’s possible, for a company I believe will change the e-waste world.
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