We developed three creative concepts, proposing various illustration styles to help bring the script to life. Our first concept explored minimal and focused visuals that were bold, graphical and easy to follow. The second option explored a slightly different creative application, using saturated colours, rough textures, hand rendered typography and uneven shapes to represent the untamed side of the problem – and urgent need for intervention. And our final route used a structured and scientific approach, following an infographic-led approach using technical drawings.

We presented these to IVCC, and they chose the first route, which made use of block colours and silhouettes to make the graphics easy to follow. To achieve the highest brand recall, recognition and impact, we recommended a refined colour palette of the IVCC brand black and red, mixed with warm grey and neutral tones to help bring a contrast. This meant that our message and the visuals throughout the animation were distinctly linked back to IVCC.

The VERV process was difficult to understand so we needed to be very creative to make sure the content was engaging. There were several messages we needed to convey; firstly, we needed to explain that the $5.5m funding needed could save thousands of lives, and secondly we needed to illustrate the commercial benefit of VERV and how funding the pilot scheme would make the US more lucrative trade partners.

Throughout the animation storyboard, we depicted the human characters as small, whereas the mosquitoes appeared large and silhouetted to highlight the scale of the worldwide malaria problem that IVCC are tackling. Facts and figures were depicted in charts and percentages by diving the screen into representative proportions to help illustrate the data. We also copyedited the script for the client to make sure it was clear and engaging. We selected a voiceover in an American accent for the animation and applied captions written in US English to make it relevant to the audience.