Motion design is used almost everywhere - especially for branding and marketing. You will see motion design on social media posts, email marketing and even logos.
What exactly is motion design? Simply put, it is graphic design elements that are made to “move”. You can also refer to it as a form of animation.
Motion design is so popular because of its effectiveness, especially when used for brands - they get the message through quicker and are generally more eye-catching for consumers. This has even brought the demand for motion designers to rise as well. Dribbble has revealed that motion designers are among the top five in-demand designers, according to their Design Industry Trends Report.
But where can you get inspiration to create motion design? Well, from great works of motion, of course. So, here are 10 motion designers to follow and get inspired by.
1. Ben Marriot
A motion designer based in Sydney, Ben Marriot’s motion design includes fun transitions and morphing animation. For those who are starting out with motion design, you’ll learn plenty from his animation tutorials on YouTube, as well as get inspired by his Instagram that shares many designs, and quick tips.
2. Deekay Kwon
A scroll through Deekay’s Instagram feed and you’ll feel instantly inspired by his motion design portfolio. With adorable character animations, his designs come to life in a world that also evokes nostalgia, especially with his Super Mario designs.
You can also check out his designs on his personal website and on Twitter.
3. Emanuele Colombo
Adorable, clean, and eye-catching are three words that can describe Emanuele Colombo’s motion design work. Using simple shapes such as ovals and squares, his work uses bright, contrasting colors to create motion design that attracts attention.
You can view his work on Instagram and on his personal website.
4. Saimen Lee
Malaysia-based motion designer, Saimen Lee, is seemingly a master of character motion design. Animating characters from hearts dancing together, to a Star Wars inspired design, you'll get plenty of inspiration from his Instagram feed.
5. Ordinary Folk
As a motion design studio, Ordinary Folk showcases their motion design talent across various types of animation - they have done mesmerizing intro animations, character story animations, to animation with text.
6. Tony Babel
Describing his Instagram profile as “creating vintage loops”, Tony Babel serves us nostalgia with his motion design pieces. With motion designs that are reminiscent of cartoons from the 80s and 90s era, each piece is detailed perfectly to bring that vintage feel.
7. Kubism Neue
With the use of lighter, neutral, and calming colors, Kubism Neue takes us on a therapeutic trip with motion design. With work that reimagines Apple’s digital elements and unique movements using mesmerizing particles, you’ll find yourself caught up watching the motions on repeat.
Check out Kubism Neue’s work on Instagram.
8. Pol Cuenk
You’ll be captivated by Pol Cuenk’s motion designs that are seemingly experiments of some sort. From animation that imagines a vaccine cure, to cooking pandemic-inspired pancakes, it takes a unique spin on motion design that many of us would have never thought of - truly an Instagram feed that exercises the mind.
9. Alfie Bogush
Bright and fun are two words to describe Alfie Bogush’s work. With a consistent color palette of pinks, purples, yellows and blue, he has created a bright world that even has alien species; a true treat for the imagination.
Check out his work on Instagram, Twitter, Dribbble, and on his personal website.
10. Mathias Lynge
Mathias Lynge creates various motion designs from animated cartoon-like ones and effects on real-life pictures, to animation that uses an isometric grid. He also creates quick tips on Instagram for avid animators looking to create such motion designs.
You can check out his work on Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, and on his personal website.
Get more inspiration from these motion graphic designer accounts
If you’ve stumbled upon a designer’s block, or need more push to start making your own animations, here are some additional accounts to follow.
@motiondesigners
This account compiles work from various motion designers. You can grab inspiration from real-life style animations to mesmerizing shapes and figures.
@motiongraphicmedia
You will find a tonne of inspiration here for cute animation that will work great for many animation projects, as it reposts work from various designers.
@motiongraphics_collective
This is also a collective (like its name states), that gathers unique motion designer work from various designers. You can definitely find more motion designers to follow on here as well.
Motion design tips to get started
How do you get started with motion design? Here are some motion design tips on how you can begin your journey.
- Fill up on knowledge: Of course, without basic knowledge of motion design, you’ll get nowhere. Luckily, there are plenty of free resources online to get started. As a beginner, we recommend you start learning common software required for animation such as Adobe After Effects and Adobe Illustrator. Following that, you can learn the basics of motion design. Get started by checking out the LottieFiles education section.
- Keep up with the trends: Understanding the current trends in motion design means looking at what type of animations are out there, and what is popular. If you have a company in mind that you’re looking to work at, lurking on their social media profiles could be beneficial as you’ll understand the type of designs they value. Additionally, keeping up to date with the trends in motion design can give you an edge, especially in interviews. (Psst: check out the LottieFiles Instagram or Twitter for tips, tricks and motion design trends!)
- Build your portfolio: A designer is initially judged by the portfolio they have. Having a design portfolio is crucial. However, you don’t need to only include work that you have done for brands in the past - this can also be a compilation of your personal work. So, make sure to curate your portfolio to showcase your abilities, and with different variations of motion design work. If you are stuck on what to add to your portfolio, don’t worry, you’ll surely get inspiration from the 10 accounts we’re about to share.
Showcase your work on LottieFiles
As a motion designer, where can you share your animations? You can publish your animations publicly on LottieFiles to gain visibility as a motion designer. But if you’d rather keep your animations private, no worries – with the LottieFiles platform, you can upload your work privately, test these animations, collaborate with your team, implement them and more.
Looking for more inspiration? Lottiefiles offers free customizable animations that you can scour for plenty of inspiration. On top of that, if you need animated assets to supplement your work, you can browse through our library to find lightweight, scalable animations for everything including website, apps, social media, documents and even your pitch decks.
These Lottie animations work on both web and mobile platforms. You can also customize these animations to fit your projects by adjusting their speed, playback behavior, colors and more.
