Making Of

Sharing The Story Of We Free Women - A Case Study

Sharing The Story Of We Free Women - A Case Study

Every explainer animation we create is a collaboration between us and our clients. Guided by each client’s essence, goals and message, we create scripted and visual storytelling that is informative, engaging, memorable and relatable. The result is a carefully crafted and bespoke explainer animation.

We Free Women: Creating Space For Women To Reset

We Free Women: Creating Space For Women To Reset

Life is far from easy for many women across the UK. In a world recovering from the damage wrought by covid and the added of struggles created by the oppressive cost of living, the opportunities for many women to get a break from these and the other factors impacting their life are small.

Professor Ray Laurence: Animation, History and University Research

Professor Ray Laurence: Animation, History and University Research

Professor Ray Laurence talks about the ways translating his research into explainer videos with Cognitive has dramatically increased the reach of his work and triggered debate among people across the world.

Microplastics in UK Rivers: the small particles pointing to a big problem

Microplastics in UK Rivers: the small particles pointing to a big problem

The University of Manchester’s findings linked microplastics to another big problem, sewage discharges into rivers. Their findings had far reaching implications, what we shared through whiteboard animation.

The Charivari Returns And The New Strange Cargo Animation Launches!

The Charivari Returns And The New Strange Cargo Animation Launches!

The Charivari is returning and our whiteboard animation for Strange Cargo, celebrating them, way they work with communities and telling their story.

A Future For Us All: The Threads That Weave A Future

A Future For Us All: The Threads That Weave A Future

Nothing lives in isolation, and Sir Ken draws on several connected threads as he explains the scale of opportunity and reset this moment gives us. We’ve unpicked these threads in this blog as we think about the gantlet Sir Ken leaves us with, to seize the opportunity and create a new sort of normal.

A Future For Us All: The Easter Eggs

A Future For Us All: The Easter Eggs

In this blog, Andrew and Dan take us through some of their most meaningful and memorable moments during the making of Sir Ken Robinson’s ‘A Future For Us All’.

12 Years Of Whiteboard Animation

12 Years Of Whiteboard Animation

In this blog, Andrew reflects on the origins of whiteboard animation, the RSA Animates and the journey that led to the creation of this new series, Talk To The Hand.

Our Favourite Whiteboard Animation Voiceovers, Part 1

Our Favourite Whiteboard Animation Voiceovers, Part 1

While we work with clients to carefully select the ideal voiceover artist for each whiteboard animation, we must confess to having a few favourites!

The Matthew Taylor RSA Minimate: The Making Of

The Matthew Taylor RSA Minimate: The Making Of

We've been wanting to make one of these for quite a while and it gives us the opportunity to go behind the scenes, and explore the creative process of creating the latest RSA whiteboard video.

The Power Of Impactful Research: Sharing The Story Of CIRAD

The Power Of Impactful Research: Sharing The Story Of CIRAD

Read about our Senior Creative Sarah Verrall’s experience of bringing the vision and mission of CIRAD to life in our whiteboard animation for them.

Ideas, Animation and Society

Ideas, Animation and Society

This year the RSA have won in the Webby Awards’ animation category for their RSA Shorts series. To celebrate this achievement, we asked the RSA’s Mairi Ryan and Abi Stephenson about the series and sharing ideas more broadly.

Whiteboard Animations by Cognitive, Staff Favourites Part 1

Whiteboard Animations by Cognitive, Staff Favourites Part 1

It’s hard to work on so many whiteboard animations and not develop a few personal favourites. We put some of our team on the spot to get theirs.

260 Years of History in 11 Metres

260 Years of History in 11 Metres

Condensing more than 260 years of history into one mural is no mean feat. In this post Cognitive founder and mural artist Andrew Park talks about the experience of creating it and the events he and RSA Historian Anton Howes have held.

Professor Ray Laurence: Animation, History and University Research

Professor Ray Laurence: Animation, History and University Research

Professor Ray Laurence talks about the ways translating his research into explainer videos with Cognitive has dramatically increased the reach of his work and triggered debate among people across the world.

Visualising and explaining Prof. Stephen Hawking's Supertranslations theory

Visualising and explaining Prof. Stephen Hawking's Supertranslations theory

Black Holes might not seem to be visually engaging at the outset. Ultimately there’s not a lot to work with when you think of a hole that swallows light so nothing can be seen. But for Cognitive this is exactly the sort of challenge we love. Hear from Andrew Park about how he and the team visually translated Prof Hawking’s final Black Hole theory of Supertranslations.

Visualising Attachment - Our latest film for Cynthia Hall AND the Karyn Purvis Institute

Visualising Attachment - Our latest film for Cynthia Hall AND the Karyn Purvis Institute

Read about the new whiteboard animation film we made for Cynthia Hall Productions for the Karyn Purvis Institute of Child Development and how we applied our visual thinking to explain attachment theory and the technique of TBRI (Trust Based Relational Intervention)

Behind the scenes of our latest film for #ForestProud

Behind the scenes of our latest film for #ForestProud

Continuing our series of animated explainer videos for the North American Forest Partnership, we explore ‘Wildfire’; the effects it has on the forest and what can be done by local communities to manage it.

When One Returns To Something There Is A Tendency To Look Back Over What Went Before, In Order To Move Forward

When One Returns To Something There Is A Tendency To Look Back Over What Went Before, In Order To Move Forward

I have over the past few weeks been doing just that - looking back at the catalogue of work we have made for the RSA Animate series to get a sense of the here and now.