The Future of Motion Design
Regardless of whether you’re sick of all the new A.I talk or you can’t get enough of it, our industry is changing quickly. When we first started Dash Studio back in 2015 the explainer video was king and a singular, signature piece was all a company needed to worry about. Now, with more generations in the workforce than ever before, folks are digesting content in completely different ways on a myriad of channels. That’s requiring businesses to be more thoughtful on what they are producing, where it lives, and maybe most importantly - how they can reuse that content in those different places to maximize investment.
With all this change, I thought it would be a great idea to get perspective on the Motion Design industry from folks with different professional vantage points on the ever evolving landscape. Here’s four quotes from our Executive Producer, Meryn Hayes, Art Director, John McGowan, staff Motion Designer, Stephanie Hallett, and myself around all this change and added context around their quote.
Let us know if you agree or disagree in the comments!
THOUGHTFUL STRATEGY
As an art director, I’ve never seen the motion design landscape move this fast. We’re living in a time of creative innovation, and it’s only accelerating. AI tools are evolving at a staggering pace. Generating something stunning now takes minutes instead of weeks. What once required full teams, big budgets, and years of hard work honing your craft can now happen with a single prompt. It’s surreal.
But as the tech gets better, the novelty wears off. When it’s easy to create work that looks pretty it also becomes expected, and it loses its impact. When everyone has access to the same tools, the difference comes down to ideas. The work that stands out won’t just look good, it’ll have substance, originality, and a point of view. Strategy, storytelling, and taste have always mattered, but now they’re the true differentiators.
It feels like our industry is on the verge of a pivotal moment. I believe the creatives who will thrive are those who harness AI while keeping the best parts of human creativity at the core: intuition, curiosity, and individuality. They will use these tools strategically, create work that goes beyond aesthetics, and strive for deeper meaning in every design decision.
John McGowan // Dash Studio Art Director
IMPORTANCE OF PEOPLE
I’ve been thinking about technology over the years and how every generation has been given new opportunities of technology, infrastructure, innovation. I’m trying to balance understanding them and the needs they serve, not just jumping on a bandwagon. What gives me hope for the future is that good people brainstorming and problem solving is critical to innovation because it comes with empathy, which AI cannot.
Meryn Hayes // Dash Studio Executive Producer
BRAND EXPERIENCE
What I mean by that is motion design used to be seen as the last step in the process, right? You’d get the brand assets, the styleframes, and your job was just to make them move. But now, more and more, brands are realizing that movement is part of their identity, it’s how their personality comes through. So studios are being brought in earlier to help define those motion systems and even influence the brand’s overall tone of voice.
And with AI and new tools taking on a lot of the repetitive or technical parts of production, it gives us more room to think conceptually, to focus on the why behind the motion instead of just the how. I think the future of motion design is really about intentionality, using animation to build emotional connection, to tell stories, to make brands feel alive in a way static design can’t.
So it’s less about perfect keyframes and more about crafting experiences, making people really feel something through movement.
Steph Hallett // Dash Studio Motion Designer
DESIGN THINKING
Design thinking is all about applying process to ambiguity and it’s why creatives are so well suited for a future of change. One of the things that I love about business and entrepreneurship so much is that there is no standard path, there isn’t a singular answer. Instead you have to be creative in how you forge an approach to new business, your product, your service, culture and the general operations of a company to find success.
The creative industry saw a massive change once before as traditional hand-crafted approaches became digitized. This new era of creativity is no different. The tools might change but the critical thinking and solution oriented approach that comes with design thinking will ensure the thinkers, makers, and tinkerers who are comfortable with experimentation and trying new approaches will thrive - especially as those folks apply their design thinking to more aspects of their industry. The ambiguity of the future will never go away, but the creative thinkers of the world will always make it attainable.
Mack Garrison // Co Founder Dash Studio