Making motion matter in traditional sectors

As creatives, we understand the power of motion in design. Even used lightly, it can lift a visual and guide attention. It can help a brand feel more alive and reflect how people experience the world today. 

Yet many clients, particularly in traditional sectors such as finance or professional services, still hesitate when it comes to motion-led design. Often the concern is cost, or the assumption that motion is simply a decorative add-on.

Done well, [motion] strengthens the message rather than competing with it.

The challenge for designers is to help those organisations see that motion is more than that. Used properly, it can help a brand stand out and make it easier for potential customers to understand what it does and why they should choose it.

So how do we help clients look beyond the cost and understand the value it can bring? 

It means moving away from talking about motion as a craft tool, and instead explaining what it does for the business.

It is important to move away from talking about motion as a craft tool, and instead explain what it does for the business.

Go deeper than the brief

To make the case for motion, start by stepping back from the brief. When you do, it becomes clear that a static execution alone won’t deliver what the business is trying to achieve or help it stand out.

In many traditional sectors, differentiation is difficult. The core values they want to communicate are often “trust”, “scale” or “expertise”. While those qualities matter, they are rarely unique, and so they are often expressed through the same visual language: city skylines, boardrooms, abstract metaphors for growth.

The lesson is to frame motion as a way to help audiences understand the business more clearly and make decisions more quickly.

Diving deeper into what the business’s strategic ambitions are leads to the point where motion stops being a ‘nice to have’ and becomes useful. Motion allows the brand to express what makes it different in a way people can grasp quickly.

To help clients understand how this will work, it’s important to build a driving creative idea. When you find that idea, it gives both designers and clients a benchmark. It shapes how the brand behaves visually, including how and where movement should appear, to deliver on its strategic ambition.

Motion beyond movement

A good example of this came in our work for Corinthia, a private credit business. The initial brief was to build a website, but it quickly became clear the real challenge was how the brand presented itself. Like many in the sector, it relied on familiar signals of trust and authority, but it didn’t give potential clients a clear sense of how the business worked or what set it apart.

The idea we developed – Kinetic Intelligence – gave us a way to express that. It reflected how the business operates: agile and responsive but also considered. Rather than relying on static imagery, movement became part of how those qualities were communicated. Colour, gradients and shapes introduced a sense of flow, helping potential clients understand those characteristics more quickly.

The lesson is to use motion where it adds clarity or focus, and hold back where it doesn’t. 

Importantly, this wasn’t about adding animation just for effect. The movement was subtle and controlled, so the brand still conveyed the credibility and trust expected in the sector. The result was a clearer, more distinctive presence. One that made it easier for potential clients to grasp how the business operates.

For designers, the lesson is to frame motion as a way to help audiences understand the business more clearly and make decisions more quickly.

Showing how movement appears across real touchpoints helps shift the conversation away from abstract concerns about cost.

Be purposeful

In some cases, the challenge is finding the right balance. Brands in sectors such as finance or professional services still need to convey trust and credibility, and too much movement can quickly become distracting. Motion only works when it has a clear purpose. It should support the idea behind the brand rather than appearing for its own sake.

Often, it’s the smaller moments that make the difference: a shift in colour, a transition between elements, or the way typography moves across a screen.

That means showing where and when movement helps people understand something more quickly or clearly. Clients want to know what it does for the business: does it help people engage faster or follow information more easily?

You can see this in platforms like Notion, where subtle motion is used to guide users through complex tools, or in fintech brands like Stripe, where movement helps make services easier to understand and act on.

The lesson is to use motion where it adds clarity or focus, and hold back where it doesn’t. Done well, it strengthens the message rather than competing with it.