How does Ollie Catton approach motion as an extension of design?

The Brand Identity: Motion thinking has made Ollie Catton a better designer, and strong design foundations have sharpened his motion work. The UK-based designer arrived at this interdependence through years of self-directed learning – staying late in the office during his early career to teach himself After Effects through trial and error. That same commitment to experimentation shaped The Type Animation Presets, a collaboration with us that pushed Catton into unfamiliar territory. The project became its own experimental piece, generating learnings he now pulls into client work. Catton’s philosophy is refreshingly direct.

Presets and plugins are efficiency tools, not shortcuts – he believes designers should understand the manual process before reaching for automation. Failure, meanwhile, is where the deepest learning happens. When renders break or motion feels off, deconstructing the logic reveals what success alone cannot teach. TBI Hey Ollie! How are you? OC I’m good, thank you! TBI How did you first get into design, and then motion design? OC I suppose the journey naturally led me there. Growing up, I was forever exploring some kind of creative outlet, whether that was drawing and painting or making family holiday edits.

I was always outside building ‘contraptions’ from whatever materials I could find lying around, too. I always knew I wanted to create for a living, even if I didn’t quite know what that would look like. For a good portion of my teens, I actually wanted to be an architect! It wasn’t until the second year of my degree that something inside me just clicked. While working on a branding project, I realised that the design side of things was speaking to me more. It felt like the perfect intersection of the logic and creativity I had always enjoyed. Motion then entered the frame during the first few years of my career.

I was living away during the week at the time, which gave me quiet evenings to myself. I’d often stay behind for a couple of hours in the office, teaching myself After Effects. I always found learning easier through trial and error than sitting through YouTube tutorials. To me, motion has always felt like a natural extension of my design work, just set on a timeline. Both are intrinsically linked in my practice now.

Motion thinking has made me a better designer, just as strong design foundations always improve my motion work. Motion thinking has made me a better designer. Motion thinking has made me a better designer. TBI You spent nearly eight years at Punch Communications, progressing from freelance through to Senior Digital Designer – what did that period teach you about building a creative career? OC Blimey, what a question. Eight years is a long time, but if I had to distil it down, it would be these two things. Adaptability is certain.

Now more than ever, the rate of change is rocketing and I’m incredibly grateful that Punch gave me the platform to experiment. Whether it was my motion, on-set art direction, AR or 3D, I learned to be ‘platform agnostic,’ going where the work or the idea took me. Then being able to take aspects of all of them and bringing those forward with me in my practice has been so beneficial. Accountability and resilience. This was about learning to roll with the inevitable highs and lows of agency life. It taught me how to show up consistently and apply my best self to every project.

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Ollie Catton's insights on motion design as an extension of traditional design offer valuable perspectives for brand strategy professionals, making it relevant and somewhat novel in the context of design practices.