Parents and Pathways

Delivering a Simple and Approachable Message

Parents & Pathways is a program run by Country Universities Centre Western Riverina to help 6th grade students from rural families get a head start at tertiary education and be the first in their family to achieve in tertiary education. The first iteration of the program was to run in 2024, and Country University Centre engaged my services to help get their message across.

The Parents & Pathways program is a crucial tool to open doors and highlight opportunities for young people as they begin planning for their future career, but explaining the benefits of the program to the right people was a challenge. To reach the intended audience; parents and carers, especially those from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, we created a 2D explainer video with a concise message and approachable visuals.

Following my process, we started with the goals of the video, explored the methods to achieve them, and identified a clear plan of action. In my illustration and design work, I built around a theme of flowing lines to convey the easy-to-understand information and wide range of opportunities highlighted throughout the program. As the video was to feature people, I designed the assets to represent diverse faces engaging in family discussions and working in exciting future careers.

From a script that really clearly walks through the program goals and delivers a strong, concise message of support, I set to animating the designs. The flowing lines were animated to represent pathways into the future, multiple languages are featured to offer an open invitation to a wider audience, and I used the simple icons to support the message without distracting from it. With the audio, including voiceover from local artist Elijah Ingram, the explainer video was complete.

Using their explainer video to appeal to students and their families, the CUC’s Parents & Pathways program was a success, and set a precedent to reach the next generations of students in the following years. Since my animation is designed to work with the CUC’s branding and with such a simple, direct message, the client was able to easily re-use their video for their 2025 program.