What is XSquash?

Art direction, Motion Design, Storyboard

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Last year, Philip and I (Cowbell) have been approached by Henix, a french company specialized in software quality control, to be involved in their new visual communication needs.

They were looking for a new way to present one of their tool in video, Xsquash, a plug-in designed for the agile teams that makes the link between two softwares : JIRA, a project manager software and Squash TM, their test manager software.

Client : Henix
Storyboard, direction and animation: François Cauderlier & Philip de Canaga
Voice Over : Cheryl Stauffer
Studio recording : Studio Pilon

— Still Frame :

Starting from scratch, and before any graphic researches, we had to assist Henix in the creation of a first viable script, helping them to add a little bit of storytelling and clarity in the message. Indeed, as Xsquash is a very specific tool, targeting a specific audience, the main challenge was to make the video interesting for both regular users and new potential clients, explaining a complex process and why Xsquash can be useful for them in the clearest way.

In keeping with that new message, a clear and playful graphic style was chosen, helping us to create some graphical shortcuts to visually show complex ideas. We also also followed and assisted Henix and Studio Pilon in the choice and the recording of the voice-over.

— Motion Kit :

In the context of their website and software interface re-design, we also provided a motion design introduction kit that let them create video-opening and youtube thumbnails easily, helping them to maintain a better graphical consistency in their video channel.