A motion and design system that gave McKinsey's Wave platform a scalable visual identity.
Client
McKinsey & Company
Year
2024
Scope
Branding
Campaign
Illustration
Motion Design
Technology
The Ask
How do you give a digital transformation platform a visual identity that feels as ambitious as the work it does? Wave is McKinsey's platform for large-scale transformation, and they needed motion and design content that could translate complex data narratives into clear, abstract visuals. It had to work as a cohesive motion language across presentations, product UIs, and executive communications, scale without every new asset becoming a reinvention, and stay unmistakably on-brand with McKinsey's understated DNA.
Challenge
Wave is a platform built to support large scale transformation through clarity and momentum. The creative direction needed to match that energy without relying on literal product representation. The focus was on coherence, rhythm, and continuity, building a visual system that could communicate purpose and impact while feeling like a living ecosystem rather than a flat animation.
Motion Architecture
A layered system where each element operates on its own rhythm. Data points pulse at one rate, environments drift at another, and narrative beats land with weight. The result feels like peering into a living ecosystem, not watching a flat animation.
Role & Leadership
I defined the overarching creative vision and motion principles, assembled and guided a multidisciplinary team, and provided strategic and quality oversight throughout the project lifecycle. This included shaping direction at the concept stage, aligning contributors around a shared motion framework, and ensuring consistency, clarity, and brand integrity through delivery.
Creative Direction
Established Wave as a core structural device, informing transitions, pacing, and continuity across the piece while avoiding illustrative or decorative animation. The Wave sphere motif drives composition and hierarchy, connecting data to narrative and the abstract to the specific.
Set timing and flow principles to create a composed, intentional progression that supports narrative clarity and sustained engagement. A three-act structure mirrors McKinsey's transformation methodology: vast data environments establish scale, connections then form, and solutions crystallize, before the view opens to panoramic possibility.
Visual hierarchy in action
The brightest element in any frame is always the most important idea. Light and glow are the primary tools for emphasis. The primary narrative holds center stage while supporting data orbits the periphery. This principle allows the system to work at any scale, from full-screen presentations to small product embeds.
Flow, not flash
Every animation follows a natural arc: ease-in, sustain, ease-out. No hard cuts, no bounce effects. Movement should feel like water, not machinery.
Light as language
Glow and luminance are the primary tools for emphasis. The brightest element in any composition is the most important. Light reveals; shadow provides context.
Scalability & governance
Designed to extend far beyond a single film. Every component, the wave grid, the orb, the floating data modules, works as a standalone asset that teams across McKinsey can deploy in decks, product UIs, and internal comms. Shared motion principles and color language keep everything consistent without centralized approval for every new piece.
Layer and breathe
Compositions are built in depth layers that move at different speeds. This parallax creates a sense of scale and intelligence; the viewer peers into a system, not at a surface.
The result
The motion system gives Wave a cohesive visual identity that communicates purpose and impact without relying on literal product representation. It creates a scalable brand foundation that teams across McKinsey can extend across future assets without creative drift or loss of quality. A unified motion language now runs across presentations, digital experiences, and marketing collateral, with shared principles and guardrails that keep everything consistent without needing centralized approval for every new piece.
Contributors & Credits
Creative Director:
Dane Warren Reid
Design:
Luis Jesus Duarte
Illustrator:
Gisella Castro
Animators:
Luis Jesus Duarte, Marco Rojas, Dane Warren Reid
Producer:
Dane Warren Reid