We don’t know of any other best-of-year lists that recognize explainer videos but Stash has a definite soft spot for designers and animators with the skill set and patience required to distill complex ideas into engaging content.

These seven films all merge confident writing, inventive design, and expressive animation to not only make the client’s message digestible but also demonstrate just how important a more thoughtful narrative can be in a brand’s story.

All films were published in The Stash Permanent Collection during 2023 and are listed here in chronological order by their issue of publication.
 
 

“THE TRANSATLANTIC SLAVE TRADE” (Above)
Issue: Stash 157

Chris Carboni, director at Reunion in Brooklyn, NY: “We partnered with The Equal Justice Initiative to create a film series about the history of slavery and racial injustice in America, featured in the inaugural exhibition of the Legacy Museum in Montgomery, Alabama. This film, narrated by Don Cheadle, is one of the films from this series.

“We were provided with a script, but beyond that, the brief was completely open. We pitched the idea of having each film in the series feature a completely different art style and approach to animation, which they were on board with.”
 
 
 

NIVEA “SHADOW JUMPER”
Issue: Stash 158

Paris-based Jungler director Vincent Gibaud turns his talent for rendering powerful narratives in expressive 2D animation to a tender tale of a child’s tender skin in this film for German body care brand Nivea.

Jungler EP Amandine Bruneau: “This is the kind of story you can’t ignore. Charlotte is four years old and has a skin condition called EPP – erythropoietic protoporphyria, a very rare genetic condition that makes her skin sensitive to blue light which means she can’t stay in the sun.”
 
 
 

WHO “THE POWER OF LIVED EXPERIENCE TO ENHANCE HEALTH”
Issue: Stash 158

Pedro Semeano and Susana Diniz, directors/Illustrators at Adamastor Studio in Lisbon, Portugal: “The idea behind this project was to use animation as a friendly and approachable vehicle to engage people living with noncommunicable diseases (such as cancer, diabetes, respiratory and heart diseases, and mental health conditions) from different circumstances across the entire world.

“It was essential to have an equal demonstration of diversity and real people, through representatives of communities with different incomes and ethnic backgrounds and even physically debilitating diseases.”
 
 
 

“MEZMO BRAND FILM”
Issue: Stash 158

LA motion designer (and former monk) Champ Panupong Techawongthawon and his animation team set out to dazzle viewers with this blast of geometry and intricate transitions for the cloud-based observability platform Mezmo.

Champ: “Mezmo, a tech company specializing in coding and AI, reached out to me to help out on their hero rebrand video piece. What they wanted was an abstract style look and feel that still speaks to what and who they are as a brand.”
 
 
 

GOOGLE “DEEPMIND: MUZERO”
Issue: Stash 161

Evie Garner, producer at Art&Graft in London: “The brief was to create a film which communicated how Google Deepmind’s AI tool, MuZero has developed from winning at games to helping solve real-world problems such as video compression, helping data centers become more energy efficient and smoother streaming.

“We were tasked with designing the visual narrative and motion language to help distill the essence of the tool itself. The main creative challenge was defining and designing MuZero’s look and feel as an invisible entity in a way that felt as unique as the technology itself.”
 
 
 

“FRONTIFY”
Issue: Stash 162

The design and motion team at weareseventeen in London takes on the mission of elevating and expanding the often dry and rigid world of brand management with an ambitious and energetic film for the Frontify platform.

From weareseventeen: “With Frontify, brand guidelines are no longer a flat, two-dimensional, and lifeless experience. Our film leans into this idea, capturing the enhanced user experience with a compelling, 3D, tactile visual feast.”
 
 
Watch all the Best of Stash 2023 Collections.