How to Request a Gif?

GIF is the acronym for Graphics Interchange Format and was introduced by CompuServe in 1987. Today, it is one of the most commonly used types of digital advertising, predominantly used for small animations and low-resolution videos that loop endlessly. They're ideal for mobile as well as desktop, mostly used in social media posts and ads, helping you catch the attention of your audience and increase brand awareness.

First of all, there are three imperative brand assets (design elements) that you need finalized and shared with your designer. You can upload them as attachments, share them as links, or even save and select them as your brand profile. 

✅ final logo (source file included)
✅ brand color palette
✅ brand fonts

GIFs are made up of a series of images (or frames), and if you already have a bunch of assets, graphics, content you’d like to turn into a GIF, please make sure you share it with your designer.

Does your design project require custom illustrations, icons, or other graphics made from scratch? If the answer is yes, don't forget to mention in the brief all details related, so that an illustrator along with a graphics designer can be assigned to your project right from the start, avoiding delays. 

In this guide, you will learn how to create the perfect GIF brief with ManyPixels! 👇🏻  

1. Define the purpose of the GIF.

This first section of the creative brief must contain all the necessary information to answer the most important question of all 👉🏻  What is the GIF about? Whether it is to promote a product or service, explain a process, attract potential customers, or increase your website traffic, the scope of it must be correctly defined.
Below are a few other questions that might help: 👇🏻

• What is it that you want to obtain through this GIF? 
• What is your target market? Who are your customers and what do they think about your brand?
• What feelings and associations do you want to evoke?
• What are the functional and emotional benefits your project will deliver to customers? What problem does it solve? 

2. Sizes and formats

GIFs come in different shapes and sizes. The only limitations are the requirements of the platforms you intend to use them on, so make sure you always mention the exact sizes and formats you need, in the brief, before submitting the task to your ManyPixels designer, as a way to avoiding delays and misunderstandings.
 
💡Tips & Tricks! Keep the size down for social sharing. For advertising purposes, no more than 6 seconds / GIFs are recommended. Avoid gradients. 

3. Content

Titles, sub-titles, CTA, you need to know exactly what you want to say. 👌🏻
Before you submit the brief to your designer you need to know what points you want to get across, what information you need to include, and what graphics or images you want to show. Once you have a solid plan for what each frame should contain, your designer can start thinking about the concept.

Pick a design software that allows your designer to create professional and clean concepts with ManyPixels. Here's what we can work with: 👇🏻

👉🏻 Photoshop is the main software used when it comes to creating basic GIFs. 

👉🏻 After Effects provides some extra tools to create more complex, powerful animations. 

4. Inspiration 

What are your aesthetic preferences or reference materials you are inspired by? Always provide a visual direction for your designer 👉🏻 What other similar concepts do you like and why? You can upload them as attachments, share them as links or even save them and select them as your brand profile. You can also upload a pre-existing GIF that you want us to redesign.

• upload similar graphics that you like or assets you already have and want to use;
• provide links to similar concepts that you like, on platforms such as Dribbble, Behance, Pinterest, ManyPixels Portfolio, etc., or any other inspirational source you might find convenient. 

☝🏻Where to find inspiration? Check our Ultimate Guide to creating efficient Mood Boards.

🙌🏻 After you've successfully completed all sections of the brief and submitted the project, your assigned designer will start working on it and will deliver the first draft on the next business day (sometimes 2 days, depending on the complexity of the task). 

💡Tips & Tricks! Your designer will provide daily updates until the project is completed. Here is a rough estimate of what you can expect to receive from your designer on a daily basis  👉🏻 daily output. If revisions are needed, no worries, you can easily communicate with your designer using the chat in the ManyPixels app.

Ready to submit your first GIF request? Subscribe to the Advanced plan here!

Didn't find what you were looking for? 👀 Check out our Scope of Service or contact us directly.