New characters, a new animation and even a new song – but the message is still the same as it has always been.
Hands up if you’ve ever been called ‘weird’ *raises both hands and tries to raise feet at the same time, but our core muscles aren’t quite what they used to be*. Right, so pretty much all of us. The word ‘weird’ has all kinds of meanings to it, but for us, it’s probably the best compliment you could ever get. Being weird means you’re different from the norm – you’re like a surprise chunk of cookie dough in a sea of vanilla ice cream or a yellow raincoat in a crowd of black umbrellas. In other words, you’re all the good stuff.
This idea was the inspiration behind one of our brand values ‘Be Your Weird Self’ which was then the inspiration behind a really exciting project that we’ve been working on over the last few months. You see, up until now, we’ve been painting our brand values all over the walls of our studio, but we sorta-kinda ran out of space to do the rest of them. Always up for a challenging brief here at Casa MadeBrave, we had to come up with a new way to bring ‘Be Your Weird Self’ to life.
Being Weird
The thing about being ‘weird’ is that no-one is weird in the same way (which we love). With this in mind, our Graphic Designer and Illustrator, Michelle created characters that highlight lots of different weird traits.
“One of our core values is that instead of trying to be like everyone else, we bring our weird selves to work every day. So for this project, we wanted to create little characters. They all represent everybody past and present from MadeBrave, and the little oddities that each of them had.” — Michelle
From there, we brought on our pals Nuria Boj and James Grant from Sweet Wave Audio to get these characters moving and grooving; and as an Animator (Nuria) and Composer (James) – that’s exactly what they did. Inspired by our characters and their oddities, James created a song for us, featuring singer Hannah Jarrett-Scott, that we now can’t get out of our heads and don’t think we ever will.
“When I saw the animation of the little characters, straight away I was having ideas in my head. My favourite character is definitely the little person that farts in the bath. I never thought I’d be sitting at my computer going through various fart effects to find the right fart for a project, but I did find the right fart.” — James
Then, Nuria put her animation skills to work to make them dance. The result? Our shiny, new ‘Be Your Weird Self’ animation!
So, what’s the point in all this?
We’re glad you asked! To some, it might seem like we’re just creating a silly video, but there’s a whole reason behind it. First of all, it gave us a way to really get our noggins into one of our core brand values, open up conversations, and give us a platform to talk about deeper issues. When people feel comfortable, they’re more confident, and when they’re more confident, they’re more likely to take part in things, shout out that weird-but-totally-brilliant creative idea in their head, and in general, feel happy! That’s what we’re going for with this video.
“To really be a great team, you need a team made up with lots of different people, and for those people to bring their whole selves to work every day – even the weird bits. That’s the reason behind ‘Be Your Weird Self’.
The video and the song might seem silly – and they are – but we’ve been able to use it as a platform to talk about deeper issues. That also goes for anyone bringing up troubles they may be having at home or perhaps in their own head. Everyone has experienced challenging times in their lives or at home, and work should be a safe place where you can always be open and talk about whatever you’re facing. If you’re surrounded by people who support you, suddenly problems may not seem quite so bad.
I want people to know that they can always be open here at MadeBrave, because it’s the type of place I want MadeBrave to be. Whether it’s written on a wall, or brought to life through little animated characters – we’re putting the message out there so it’s clear for everyone to see.” — Andrew, Our Founder
So there you have it, fellow weirdos. We’re putting out the bat signal to let you know that you’re always welcome here. A big, mahoosive thanks to Nuria, James, Hannah, and of course, our Michelle for our new animation!
Psssst… We’re giving away ‘Be Your Weird Self’ goodies this week. Keep eyes on our social channels!
So, which weird character are you? Tweet us!
