Animation For Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion đź’ś
Storytelling is a powerful tool, with the ability to sell, educate, entertain, and sometimes all three at once.
In animation, stories help us to understand seemingly complex subjects. They bridge a knowledge gap that can speak to many audiences to help retain information, particularly for visual learners.
So when companies need to train employees on policy changes, new practices, or navigate vital workplace subjects such as DEI, we often see animation as a wonderful vehicle for approaching subjects with empathy and understanding.
Rachel Murray, Co-CEO of She+ Geeks Out on Animation for DEI
Rachel Murray, Co-CEO of She+ Geeks Out, explained this so succinctly on our podcast, Behind The Pixel.
Animation is a compliment to training materials that allows the audience to dive deeper into a particular topic.
So, if you’re considering animation as a tool for training your employees on DEI, here are three things to remember when designing your animation project.
1. Be Mindful When Utilizing Characters
When talking about representing the diversity of a team, thoughts and perspectives, or specific groups, we have one piece of advice:
Characters should always be created with an intentional purpose.
When characters are included into a video, it’s vital to be mindful about your goals and the design or illustrations themselves.
You can think about incorporating characters in specific instances that are appropriate:
When you’re sharing someone’s personal story about their lived experience
When you’re speaking to a particular moment in time or history in relation to the problems
When you’re accurately representing the makeup of your community
If characters are added just for the sake of wanting to “show diversity”, then the content is missing the meaning behind the work that needs to be done in the first place.
2. Utilize Abstract Imagery to Symbolize Topics
There are many forms of storytelling where utilizing characters can be inappropriate for a piece, as it may not represent your diverse teams authentically.
So abstraction is a tool to symbolize your message clearly and get to the heart of the information you’re delivering.
In one project, we represented diversity in the workplace using a variety of pens and pencils. They not only symbolize diverse perspectives, but allowed the creation of workplace scenarios that are often very common in meetings and day to day conversations where those objects would typically be present (shoutout to all the notetakers of the world!).
3. Recognize The Balance From Visual To Text
Equity Vs Equality - ©2017 Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
Sometimes a picture can speak a thousand words. As you’re sharing a story, visual imagery can go a long way towards understanding its significance.
In the case of DEI, when coursework requires an understanding of definitions, from ableism to microaggressions, sometimes it’s best to reinforce the meaning of terms on screen with text.
Explaining these concepts is a balance between imagery and text that requires collaboration
between all groups involved in the creation process.
The result is a content-filled, thoughtful video that allows for engagement and education that lasts a lifetime.
These are just a few of the many ways you can create meaningful, educational content with the medium of animation.
If you or your team is looking for additional educational resources on DEI for your workplace, we always support the efforts of the team at She+ Geeks Out.
Thank you for reading and for keeping DEI in the conversation.