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The RSA Shorts Series wins at the Webbys!

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The RSA Shorts Series wins at the Webbys!

Recently we heard the excellent news that RSA have won a Webby Award, described by the New York Times as as ‘the Internet’s highest honor’.

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Homeschooling Help: explainer animations to educate and entertain

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Homeschooling Help: explainer animations to educate and entertain

At Cognitive we’ve gone through the back-catalogue and found some animations that we hope help you to educate and entertain your new students.

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Explaining coronavirus through infographics and visual thinking

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Explaining coronavirus through infographics and visual thinking

Coronavirus has had an impact on every aspect of our lives, in a way unprecedented in modern memory. It’s a complex topic, subjected to frequent change and misinformation.

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260 Years of History in 11 Metres

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260 Years of History in 11 Metres

Condensing more than 260 years of history into one mural is no mean feat. In this post Cognitive founder and mural artist Andrew Park talks about the experience of creating it and the events he and RSA Historian Anton Howes have held.

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Sketchnote Diaries: Visual Thinking Superchargers

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Sketchnote Diaries: Visual Thinking Superchargers

To keep our team at the height of their visual thinking and storytelling abilities, we asked them to keep sketchnote diaries. These are an amazing way to practice the highly crafted elements that go into our whiteboard animations.

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What is Whiteboard Animation? The 9 techniques that make it work

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What is Whiteboard Animation? The 9 techniques that make it work

Whiteboard animation is able to create powerful, engaging, memorable and bespoke films. This blog post looks at the nine techniques that allow whiteboard animation to work so well.

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Why does whiteboard animation work so well?

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Why does whiteboard animation work so well?

Senior Creative Kayle McLeish talks about what makes Whiteboard Animation such an effective tool for creatives that make explainer films, comparing it to a Swiss Army Knife.

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The Power of Visual Language

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The Power of Visual Language

Often the very first books we encounter are picture books, our first introduction to the power of rich visual language. While our books change, the power of this language doesn’t. Senior Creative Dan Stirrup reflects on this visual language from picture books to explainer films and Whiteboard Animation.

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Visualising and explaining Prof. Stephen Hawking's Supertranslations theory

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Visualising and explaining Prof. Stephen Hawking's Supertranslations theory

Black Holes might not seem to be visually engaging at the outset. Ultimately there’s not a lot to work with when you think of a hole that swallows light so nothing can be seen. But for Cognitive this is exactly the sort of challenge we love. Hear from Andrew Park about how he and the team visually translated Prof Hawking’s final Black Hole theory of Supertranslations.

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Behind the scenes of our latest film for #ForestProud

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Behind the scenes of our latest film for #ForestProud

Continuing our series of animated explainer videos for the North American Forest Partnership, we explore ‘Wildfire’; the effects it has on the forest and what can be done by local communities to manage it.

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Creating appealing characters – Simplify and exaggerate!

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Creating appealing characters – Simplify and exaggerate!

A lot of the time, we use characters to help aid with our storytelling which is why, as an Illustrator, I often study figures in real life.

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Working with Project Everyone on #FactFriday for The Global Goals

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Working with Project Everyone on @The Global Goals we have helped them supercharge their social media by presenting their facts on project progress in visually interesting ways, driving up engagement and reach.

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Stages of Samatha - Visualisation and Metaphor

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Stages of Samatha - Visualisation and Metaphor

It is interesting to see how the fundamental tools we use everyday at Cognitive, such as mapping out a story arc or using a metaphor to simplify and explain a complex idea, can be used in the pursuit of mental and spiritual improvement.

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When pictures really are worth a thousand words

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When pictures really are worth a thousand words

At Cognitive we tell stories. If you want to remember a message then storytelling is the best vehicle to do this. Our brains are far more engaged by stories than lists of facts and figures.

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Character Development in Gaming

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Character Development in Gaming

Powerful storytelling in games is a key feature for creating a world that players can immerse themselves in. Broaching a variety of difficult subject matters, interactive software has increased it’s suitability and accessibility to a wider audience and it’s fair to say the gaming world has expanded its horizons exponentially, giving it’s creative fantasy world a fundamental core of all-too-real issues.

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Mapping out, drawing and animating history *Ahem* Herstory!

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Mapping out, drawing and animating history *Ahem* Herstory!

At Cognitive we love unpacking complex information and mapping it out in space and stories like ‘What the suffragettes did for us’ are a great opportunity to supercharge the narrative with emotive drawings and kinetic animation.

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Visual Synthesis - How Does It Work?

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Visual Synthesis - How Does It Work?

When working this way it is best to try and keep a balance between the logic of a piece and the stylistic realisation. We want it to be attractive and engaging but we also want it to make sense to the audience. The key for us is to try and build a map of relationships, a connected diagram to visualise the thought processes of the speaker.

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