Road to Retirement GFX package

A national retirement plan provider brought me in to create the graphics for a financial education campaign aimed at the participants of a Fortune 500 client's retirement plan. The goal: help employees make confident decisions about their savings, with a visual system that could carry the whole campaign.

The challenge

Plan participants face a series of decisions that feel technical and high-stakes: saving before-tax or after-tax, choosing between stocks and bonds, picking a target-date fund or managing their own investments. Each topic had to be explained clearly, in very little time, and approved by both the plan provider and their client before anyone saw it.

The approach

We chose animation for two reasons. It delivers targeted information in less time than live action, and short videos earn the most completions and the strongest follow-through on calls to action. It also made the visuals reusable.

From the start, I designed the graphics as a system rather than a one-off: a minimalist flat line icon style, with a library of icons, colors and motion that could be recombined for each new topic. That planning paid off. The same package has since been used for multiple “decision” videos across the campaign, and each new video came together faster than the last.

Working through review

The scripts were written by subject matter experts, and I was part of the approval process. A plan manager from my client and a representative from the end client reviewed every stage, from scripts and storyboards through each round of animation. I ran those rounds in Vimeo's review tools, so feedback was time-stamped, kept in one place and easy to act on, which kept a multi-stakeholder approval process moving.

Voice and production

Once the script was approved, I reviewed voice talent from a provider and recommended voices suited to the plan's audience, then worked with the chosen talent through review. I built the storyboards in Illustrator, reused those frames as the foundation for the final graphics, and animated in After Effects with Battle Axe plugins.

The result

The finished videos were hosted on the participant web portal, included in enrollment packages and sent in numerous email campaigns. Follow-up conversations with my client confirmed strong audience engagement and follow-through.

Roles: Motion Graphics Designer, Storyboard Artist, Illustrator, Animator, Editor