Fossil | Timeless Reel
Animation, Illustration
*Procreate Animation
The Fossil brand has always been one of my favorites. Their watches are gorgeously designed, their wallets have great room, and their purses and handbags are phenomenal. Fun fact, with the probably-too-large amount of shopping I do, I actually haven’t bought a non-fossil purse in years now. And I rarely buy purses because the four or so Fossil ones I have now always do just fine. They’re just a brand that I trust and always return to.
Fossil has been around since the 80s, and you can always tell one of their products by looking at them. They do have a timeless quality to them, and their products are things that can become everyday staples in your collection. This Fossil animation is a tribute to that absolutely timeless quality the brand has. That’s the word I think of when I think about their products, timeless. Good quality items that you can rely and depend on. That’s the major message that I wanted to portray in this animation.
A desert landscape, an ethereal glow, bags and watches that are so integral to the land and time that they seem to grow right out of it, and imagery that loops on and on forever. This playful and bright animation portrays these steady, staple products just as they are for so many people.
Scroll on down to see more on the creative background and ideation that went into this project.
The Creative Process
To start off this animation, I did a little research on the client. I looked into their background, some of their competitors, their general customer base, and their overall mission statement. “When timeless design meets the power of innovation, anything is possible.” This is their mantra, taken from their website. Fossil clearly sees their products as the dependable pieces they are, and knows the value their customers see in their brand. This statement solidified going after the “timeless” message in this final piece. I made the overall decision that the animation would feature engaging imagery and design that will bring customers to their social media channels, primarily instagram. Since reels are so prevalent on just about every social platform these days, I thought reel-sized would be perfect for this animation.
Next I started brainstorming. I started with words that came to mind and the ideas grew from there. Words like leather, desert, sand, time, and sunrise turned into mirage, old west, and hourglass. I started to get an idea for the vibe and story behind this animation. As things started solidifying in my mind, I started concepting story ideas. Along with an idea for a scene coming to life on a purse and an animation idea with an alien twist, an idea of a scene inside an hourglass came to the forefront. The idea would be a desert scene in the top of the hourglass with bags and watches appearing, and then the sand trickling down and filling in the Fossil logo. The idea incorporating the hourglass—a measurement of time—and a kind of otherworldly desert environment, tied the whole message together in my mind. Fossil is timeless, not just of the current moment, and is a brand that will never go away and has products with the staying power to persist on. And with the animation being reel-sized, I thought the vertical hourglass would work perfectly in the space provided.
Next I drew out a rough storyboard of what I thought the animation would generally look like, with some notes describing the scenes. And last I put together a moodboard, gathering bag examples, colors, desert scenes, and illustration styles that I thought might incorporate well into the whole piece.
Next I opened my procreate app and started creating a rough animation. I started with the scene of the purses, watches, and sun over the dunes, and then started animating frame by frame backwards. Once that first half of the animation was set, I moved forward with creating the second half where the sand moves into the lower part of the hourglass and animates in the Fossil logo. I adjusted the rough animation a few times, and once it was in a good spot, I used it as a guide to create my smoother, illustrated animation.
For the illustration style itself, I wanted something bright yet hazy. The bags and watches look like Fossil products, but they’re styled in a bold, sophisticated way. The colors are very saturated but toned down at the same time. With an airbrush selected, I went in and added some grain and haziness to the sand, products, sun, and hourglass to give it a rough but stylized feel, going along with how a warm desert in a dream might seem. And as the sun rose, I wanted to be sure that the products, cacti, and sand got covered in an ethereal glow.
All in all, a dreamy and timeless look come together for the final piece.