Motion Design Trends: Insights from a Motion Design Agency
When it comes to branding, motion design and animation is far from a trend – it is here to stay, and in 2025 brands that move, win. However, like any element of design, there are popular styles within in it that explode in popularity and can help bring a brand to the forefront of the industry by joining utilising these styles that is currently resonating with audiences. As a Manchester motion design agency, we track the motion design trends shaping brand performance, and we’ve identified some of these styles below:
1. Vintage revival (nostalgia, grain, handmade warmth)
In a world where perfectly polished AI visuals are rapidly emerging, it appears that audiences are not ready to hand everything over for the ultra realistic to take over just yet. In fact quite the opposite is true as tactile, nostalgic cues are cutting through and remaining at peak demand. Grain, handmade warmth, imperfect textures are all elements that help to achieve this wonderfully nostalgic look, which is still very present. Why not check out our case study on (project name here)? to see how we have adopted this motion graphics trend’s elements to create a tastefully timeworn animation. Why it matters: Vintage textures create emotional salience at low cost.
2. Short-Form vertical motion for social reels (TikTok, Reels, Shorts)
Portrait first vertical animations are no fad, they are the language spoke within the feed, where a lot of time is spent by many. Vertical framing fills the screen, feels native, and earns attention in the first few. Bold kinetic type, caption-first storytelling, and creator credible voiceovers make messages understandable with sound off and shareable with peers. Importantly, vertical stories can drive behaviour change without preaching – this was the main driving force when opting to animate the 1.5 minute stories for (project name here)in their recent work for Another Chance, targeting young people on platforms like Instagram and TikTok with content optimised for these environments. Click here to see our case study and watch approach in action. Why it matters: Vertical reels meet audiences where they actually watch.
3. Kinetic typography in motion graphics
Kinetic type is the choreography of words – it relies on manipulating scale, weight, spacing and rhythm timed to meaning so the message is understood at a glance while improving storytelling, capturing attention and enhancing the users experience. It thrives in today’s feeds because most viewing is silent and mobile-first: type-led motion stays legible on small screens, lands a single idea quickly, and travels cleanly across Reels, Stories, and everywhere in between. It can effectively convey a brand personality and message instantly, in a world of lessening attention spans. You’ll see this approach in our Unlimited Potentials Elephants Trail piece where we relied heavily on kinetic typography to create a wonderfully engaging piece. Why it matters: Kinetic type delivers clear hierarchy when viewing is silent.
4. Interactive animation in product & brand UI (Rive/Lottie)
Interactive motion isn’t just decoration, it’s integral to how many modern interfaces communicate. Formats like Lottie and Rive can be used to create crisp, responsive feedback, allowing buttons and loaders to not feel ornamental, but allows the user to become truly immersed within the interface, and a part of the branding. With results speaking for themselves: ET Money lifted home-screen CTR from ~2–3% to 8–9% (peaking 11%) after adopting Lottie, while Gojek’s switch to dotLottie cut animation weight by up to 89% and stabilised memory by 99.6%.Check out Dropbox’s brand guidelines, built with Rive + Webflow, show how to codify motion as living components, not PDFs. We are pleased to announce this service will be coming to Carbon Creative very soon, so keep your eyes peeled and watch this space for interactive animation arriving imminently. Why it matters: Interactive animation improves clarity without page-weight bloat.
5. Motion accessibility by default (WCAG 2.2, prefers-reduced-motion)
Not such a trend, more of a duty – just like websites and online documents, accessibility and inclusiveness within motion is becoming increasingly crucial. Although this is a little more difficult to implement than on a website or within a document, precautions can definitely be taken to allow for an animation to be as inclusive as possible. Ensuring on screen text is readable with high contrast and on screen for enough time for viewers to read, avoiding aggressive camera sweeps, heavy parallax and rapid zooms, limiting flashing and flickering and clear pacing for kinetic type all contribute to an animation being accessible. This was a request for GMFRS HSFA, where all of the above were carefully considered to allow us to deliver accessible motion design for this project. Why it matters: Accessible motion widens reach and reduces risk.
If you’re exploring animated branding Manchester, our team can help you apply these motion design trends 2025 to real campaigns.
