Design Directors Sharon Lock and Ian Spendloff led the team in creating a revived look and feel for the Beano in its freshly launched digital formats, drawing on the comic’s impressive heritage whilst making sure to appeal to a new and extended online audience. Looking to a slightly older demographic, and rolling parent and adult appeal into the mix, the work needed to uphold the classic traits of Beano: big, bold and bonkers.

The Design Studio’s artists used the recognisable Beano ‘ball of violence’ as a touchpoint to the comic’s heritage, writing and storyboarding various iterations before whittling down to a set of key animations. The motif worked well, lending infinite possibilities to the design and direction of the idents, which pack serious punch in a matter of seconds. More than anything, the animations needed to demonstrate the madcap sense of energy that Beano has brimmed with for almost 80 years.

Designing for online usage meant keeping the idents short, snappy and iconic, both with and without audio. Set to be used across the board, with potentially more applications yet to come, the work is evidence of a truly AWESOME collaboration between Beano and Framestore’s Design Studio.