Maryland529: Big Dreams

Client: Maryland529
Agency: Hatcher Group 
Creative Direction: Marzia Motta & Reece Quiñones
Design: Daniela Aguero
Sound Design: Shaun Rosa

Background

Hatcher Group and I had previously collaborated on a handful of explainer videos for Maryland529 that helped families understand how to get the most of out of their investment accounts. This led to the opportunity to produce a 30 second TV spot.

Production

The client emphasized that they wanted to get aware from the “paper cutout” style that we had used in previous animations. Daniela built out boards with a new illustrative style that had a larger focus on characters than we had done previously. From there I started rigging up joysticks for each of the children’s faces. Even though they wouldn’t be on screen very long, I knew they needed to be dynamic and expressive to really sell the animation. A lot of the texture that Daniela had built out, I ended up having to recreate from scratch in After Effects to give it that subtle noise effect and indicate motion.

Awards

2024 Davey Awards - Silver Medal

2024 DotComm - Platinum Award

2024 PRSA Best in Maryland - Award of Excellence

2025 GDUSA Digital Winner