Teamworks Motion Design System
Project Overview
As Teamworks’ motion capabilities expanded and more work moved in-house, I led the creation of a centralized motion design system to establish clarity and consistency across projects. The goal was to capture what was already working, define shared principles and behaviors, and build a flexible framework that could scale as our team and motion needs continued to grow.
Approach
I approached the project as both a documentation effort and a design system build. Rather than reinventing motion from scratch, I studied our existing assets to identify patterns worth keeping and gaps that needed structure. From there, I translated brand values into practical motion principles, standardized easing and timing, and packaged everything into reusable templates and guidelines. The result is a system that balances expression with structure and makes motion production faster, cleaner, and more intentional.
Teamworks
Design System. Motion. Brand Design.
2025
Initial Audit & Discovery
Before defining any rules, I conducted a motion audit across Teamworks’ marketing and product assets. The goal was to identify how motion was being used, where it reinforced brand values, and where it fractured our visual rhythm.
This process revealed inconsistencies in pacing, easing, and tone, which became the foundation for our new motion system.
What was Audited
I began by conducting a full motion audit across Teamworks’ existing assets, spanning marketing videos, logo animations, advertising assets, typography treatments, and easing patterns. The goal was to understand how motion was being applied across contexts and where inconsistencies were weakening brand cohesion. I reviewed partner intros, sizzle reels, and product demos to evaluate pacing, branded elements usage, and transition logic; compared logo and title card reveals; analyzed typography pairings and timing; and studied easing curves directly in After Effects. This provided a baseline for identifying what worked, what didn’t, and where a unified motion language was needed.
The Findings
The audit revealed that while individual pieces of motion were strong, there was no shared structure connecting them. Motion lacked a cohesive rhythm and brand personality. These insights defined the focus for the next phase: building a unified motion system.
Defining Strategy
From the initial audit, I shifted focus from identifying inconsistencies to defining a foundation for how motion should behave, what it should communicate, and how it could scale.
Guided by Teamworks’ core values of Honesty, Humility, Hard Work, Commitment, Exceptionalism, and Innovation, I began shaping a set of motion principles that would turn those values into practical tools. Each value informed a specific quality of motion: honesty translated into clarity, innovation into momentum, and exceptionalism into polish.
These principles guided every design and production decision that followed. They became the foundation for building a cohesive motion language that could adapt across brand storytelling, UI motion, and product marketing while staying true to Teamworks’ voice.
Final Guidelines
Motion Principles
Our motion principles grow directly from Teamworks’ values of honesty, humility, hard work, commitment, exceptionalism, and innovation. They define how movement supports our products and brand. Motion is never decoration; it exists to clarify, guide, and create trust. At the same time, it carries the personality of Teamworks by adding polish, rhythm, and expression in the right moments. Consistency in timing, easing, and behavior ensures motion feels unified across every touchpoint of the Teamworks experience.
Purposeful
Motion should reinforce clarity, never distract. Every animation must have a reason to exist: guiding attention, supporting usability, or enhancing comprehension.
Structured
Motion should follow a consistent system of behavior. Patterns in behaviors, timing, and easing establish rhythm and trust across the Teamworks motion brand.
Empowered
Motion should feel responsive and intentional, driving momentum in brand storytelling. It should reflect the strength and ambition of the Teamworks brand.
Elevated
Motion is an extension of the Teamworks brand; confident, clean, and expressive. Used thoughtfully, it brings personality and polish to both product and story-driven moments.
Core Behaviors
Our six foundational motion behaviors create consistency across projects. These building blocks define how motion enters, exits, and transitions between moments, ensuring our motion system remains purposeful and expressive across touchpoints. Each behavior is modular, reusable, and easily adaptable.
Drop
Sweep
Scroll
Zoom
Easing & Timing
Easing Curves
Timing Principles
Our timing principles are rooted in our core Motion Principles. Defined ranges create rhythm, keeping motion responsive without feeling rushed and smooth without slowing the experience.
Snappy
1.5-2.5s
Standard
0.8-1.5s
Gentle
0.3-0.8s
Logo Animations
Primary Animation
Our primary logo animation is derived from the core behaviors and polished for long-form storytelling. It is best suited for intros and/or outros across all video content. This version provides a consistent, elevated way to introduce the Teamworks brand with clarity and impact.
Behavior Reveals
Behavior-based logo reveals are modular extensions of the system. Each one draws from our core behaviors, offering flexible options for introducing the Teamworks logo or creating shorter intro and outro slates. These reveals are designed for adaptability, ensuring brand consistency across a variety of formats and content types.
Typography
Animations
Animated type brings energy and emphasis to content, but should always remain clear and functional. Ou defined behaviors provide the core patterns for moving text, establishing rhythm without overwhelming the message. Type motion should support the story, never distract from it.
System in Application
The motion system came to life through a combination of principle-driven logic and technical precision. Using Flow, I refined the easing curves that define the brand’s rhythm, ensuring transitions feel deliberate, responsive, and cohesive across assets. In After Effects, these curves were built into a modular toolkit with editable parameters for duration, direction, and behavior. The same framework was mirrored in Jitter for quick motion tests and translated into .mogrt templates for video editors. Together, these tools formed a unified ecosystem that keeps motion consistent, flexible, and easy to scale across marketing, product, and storytelling touchpoints.
