back case study // title match
the long gamebranding · content · pipeline design

Good2Learn

An online learning platform for school-aged children who need a bit more support than the classroom alone can give them. I worked with Good2Learn from the very start, across three phases and roughly four years, helping take it from an idea on paper to a company running in schools across the country. Branding, content, and a production process built to scale.

rolecreative &
production lead
timeline20172021
phases03 core builds
team at peak16 across depts
the brief

an idea, and a big one

Good2Learn came to me with a clear aim: build an online education platform for school-aged children who might need a bit more support than the syllabus alone can offer. Something that sits alongside the lessons and helps the kids who find it tough.

They had the partnerships and the teaching know-how. What they needed was someone to turn that into a real product, and a way of making it that could grow without falling over. So I came on at the very start, and stayed for the long haul.

a quick note

I only have permission to show the earliest content from this project. The process flows on this page are mine though, built across the work, and honestly they tell the story better than any finished video could.

the workthree phases, four years
01phase one
round one · the core

building the thing itself

Phase one was all about the core of the product. I worked with them to put SEND guidance into practice from day one, since a lot of the kids we were building for are neurodiverse or find focus hard. That shaped everything: the look of the videos, the tone of the writing, the pace of a lesson.

I developed the concept animations, refined the aesthetic, and built out a production process that was replicable and simple to follow. Then, alongside another animator, I produced the first twenty videos as a proof of concept. I oversaw the whole thing: running the filming sessions, turning lesson plans into scripts that worked on camera, and filming, editing, and animating the content.

SEND guidanceconcept animationscriptwritingproduction processediting
phase one · on set The early Good2Learn studio: green screen, softboxes, a presenter, and a script open on a laptop
above: early production. lesson plan to script, live on the laptop.
phase one · in the room An early Good2Learn production meeting: five people around a room, laptops and tablets out, one sketching on a screen
above: an early production meeting, phase one. that's me on the right, tablet out, arguing for the process this page describes.
02phase two
round two · scaling up

more hands, more videos

Phase one made enough revenue and funding to greenlight phase two. This time I worked alongside an external filming company, which freed me up to focus where I am most useful: the animation and post production.

I grew the team too, adding a third animator and a project manager, and we produced the next slate of videos. A lot of this phase came down to the handoff. I sat in the middle of the production company, the team, and the client, keeping the footage flowing and the project moving forward.

team leadanimationpost productionclient liaison
early cuts · working with external footage
above: a few early cuts from the phase two slate. these came from the external footage, before the look was fully mine, but you can see the lessons taking shape.
03phase three
round three · the full picture

back in house, end to end

For phase three I came on directly, same team, and we took the whole process back under one roof. Filming and production came back in house, so I worked closely with them on pre-production, then handed the project over to the in-house team while I oversaw progress and managed the group.

Then I tagged back in for post: compositing, colour grading, keying, rotoscoping, and sourcing, producing and animating the assets to finish the job. By this point I knew every stage of the pipeline inside out, mostly because I had built it.

pre-productionteam managementcompositingcolour graderotoscopingasset production
behind the scenes A presenter in a Good2Learn shirt being filmed against a green screen, the shot framed on the camera's flip-out screen
above: on brand and on camera. a presenter mid-take, from the early shoots.
the pipelinethe part i am proudest of

a process built to last

By the end I had a tested, repeatable production process that could pass a suite of videos through a remote team of sixteen people, each siloed in their own department, with me as the go-between. These are the actual flows I built. They are what let a small idea run like a real studio.

Good2Learn video flow: initial scripting, storyboard created, lesson filmed, draft footage prepared, animation completed, final render, video complete
the video, top to bottom
The full Good2Learn 2021 draft video workflow diagram, split into initiation, project and handover phases, with branches for additional info, composition changes and major changes
the full workflow · initiation, project & handover phases
every step has an owner, a check and a reason to exist. deviations get noted, changes get scoped, nothing falls through the cracks. good2learn 2021 · draft video workflow

four years in their corner

Start to finish, this was a proper build: a brand, a body of content, and a production line that could carry it. We took Good2Learn from a pitch to a platform running in schools, and they now have well over a hundred videos to their name, every one produced by me and my team.

I also cut snippets and quick tips from every lesson into short, shareable pieces, which gave Good2Learn a steady stream of social media content and a reason to turn up in people's feeds as well as their classrooms.

03phases, start to finish
04 yrs2017 to 2021
16on the team at peak
100+videos, mine & my team's
from scratch

starting something from the ground up?