Product Day: From brand books to Mogrts

This wasn’t a demo reel; it was a conversation about feel. We started with a simple prompt—how do you make motion part of the brand, not an afterthought—and followed it all the way down to the numbers. I showed how I’ll record a real‑world gesture (in this case, a paper flick) and translate that timing into curves, so the animation carries the same tactile snap.

From there we got practical: extracting the exact velocity values with the Flow plugin and writing those cubic‑Bézier (and AE) numbers into the brand guide so anyone can re‑create the move without guessing. That sparked a good debate—how much detail belongs in a guideline, and when is it okay to “extend” a curve so the brand evolves without breaking? We walked through both sides.

We then built a real toolkit together—intros, lower thirds, transitions—and pushed it into Premiere as Motion Graphics Templates so editors could swap names, dates, and images without touching a single keyframe. The deeper thread was about scale and trust: giving non‑animators quality motion they can’t accidentally break, and giving teams a faster, more consistent start on every project (including setting an AE template as your “new project” default).

BeMore: Land That Design Gig

This talk leaned into the messy, honest part of job‑hunting—the part where you decide what you’re actually about. We workshopped personal mission statements live using a simple frame (persona, audience, promise), because if you can’t say it in one line, your portfolio won’t say it for you. The back‑and‑forth here was deep: who you serve, what changes because of you, and how to make that believable on the page.

Then we translated that clarity into artifacts. We focused on portfolios that lead with “what you did, problems you solved, and process,” added a tiny “production breakdown” button for people who want to dive deeper, and talked about the small things that reduce hiring friction—like putting your location up top and labeling your exact role on each project (yes, a lesson hard‑earned in interviews).

We closed with presentation tactics and habits: build a tight, swappable deck around two or three relevant projects, follow the “six P’s” (prior planning prevents… you know the rest), and send a short pre‑read so the interview starts as a real conversation, not a cold open. The throughline was simple: prep creates depth—give people proof early, and let them meet the best version of your work.