PharmCon Instructional Video
Client: PharmCon / freeCE
Date: May 2021
Medium: Video / Motion Graphics
Project brief
SUMMARY
Company description: PharmCon was acquired by KnowFully Learning Group in 2019. As KnowFully expanded its healthcare education offerings, all B2C products were organized under the PharmCon brand. This included PharmCon’s existing product, freeCE, along with new exam prep products, and Rx Consultant.
My role: With a larger audience in need of an introduction to the PharmCon and freeCE brands and the services they provide, the creative team was tasked with creating an instructional video about the company and explain how pharmacists can obtain their continuing education credits.
The 2-minute video was divided up into 3 sections with a different designer assigned an individual section. Our sections were later combined into one cohesive video. As one of the lead designers on this projects, my role was to help establish the creative direction of the video, develop vector assets for the creative team to use, design the motion graphics for my portion of the video, and mentor junior designers with the design process.
SPECS
Software used: Adobe After Effects, Adobe Premiere Pro, Adobe Illustrator
Skills: Video editing, motion graphics, key framing, project management, stock image sourcing, text animation, audio editing, client presentation
The process
PROBLEM SOLVING
The process began with an internal meeting with the PharmCon creative team and company stakeholders. As PharmCon recently merged with the companies freeCE and Rx Consultant, the new brands and their branding style guides had to be taken into consideration while creating the video. A main challenge was determining how to blend all the company brands together without confusing viewers.
SOLUTIONING
Myself and three other designers were tasked with the overall artistic direction, creating motion graphics, recording voice over audio, and editing the final video cut. During the initial stakeholder meeting meeting, requirements, goals, target audience, and overall vision for the video were discussed. An approachable, friendly, flat illustration style was determined the best way to conform with the newly-acquired companies’ branding styles.
I used a mix of motion graphics vector art and informative text to design and animate elements that enhanced the video's visual appeal and helped convey information in an interesting way.
In the example below, informative text in combination with motion graphics helps educate the viewer about specialty certificates. Adding subtle humanistic details—like a head tilt or an arm movement—adds an extra layer of visual interest and engagement.
The overall video structure included:
Storyboarding: Using the stakeholders’ vision and the collected assets, I made a rough storyboard to guide the editing process.
Rough cut with voice over: I cut the motion graphics in the order of the storyboard, aligning on-screen text timing with the voice over.
Audio enhancement: The audio from the voice actor was balanced with a background soundtrack.
Transitions and Effects: Transitions (e.g., cuts, dissolves) were applied to enhance the flow and visual appeal of the video.
PROJECT REFLECTION
This project was an invaluable educational experience as I learned new character animation tools in Adobe After Effects. Character animation is a specific area of motion graphics I did not use much before this project, so having a better understanding of how to create realistic and natural movements can be applied on future animation projects.