THE GUARDIAN + CORSODYL

Whipping up a tasty animated ad for Corsodyl

When the Guardian Labs team invited us to collaborate on an animated advert for Corsodyl, we couldn't say yes fast enough. Follow our cheerful characters on a 2d journey through the complicated world of oral hygiene.

Playfully intelligent design

To kick things off, Guardian Labs provided our team with an informative but lighthearted script exploring the complicated world of oral hygiene. Feeling inspired and with animation scenes in hand, we created a style to match, ensuring the characters and design slotted in with The Guardian Lab's signature playfully intelligent style.

Aware the opportunity to design a 2D tooth character was probably rare, we made the grown-up decision to design our hero character as an oversized tooth — to our surprise, our relatable tooth character got approved. Excellent.

“Lovely! I think it looks gorgeous. I love the colours - and the grain on that blue. And I think it's really fun.”

The Guardian Labs

Stylised shapes

Once the cast of characters was complete, the stylised universe quickly came together. Toothpaste, floss and stars were used as background elements, playfully pointing to oral hygiene, whilst graphic shapes and subtle texture pulled the frames together, giving them a more illustrated, editorial look.

Flowing forms

Phew! After all that design work, it was time to bring the toothsome characters to life. Focusing on flow, our animation team created movement to match the script and design. The smooth transitions move viewers from frame to frame, keeping up with the energetic voice-over, whilst animated expressions capture the character's qualities with just the right amount of humour and bounce to keep things light and playful but never childish.

Final flourishes

Finally, The Guardian put us in touch with the talented team at Sounds Like These, who sprinkled some sound and music magic into the mix. Talk about the cherry on top! With animation polished, the final video was featured on The Guardian website and across social as part of a wider advertising campaign for Corsodyl.