Motion Talks: Santiago Avila.

Welcome to the very first edition of Motion Talks, our new interview series spotlighting the voices shaping contemporary motion design.

To kick things off, we’re joined by Santiago Avila, Creative Director for Motion at Studio Koto. From stumbling into After Effects at university in Buenos Aires to leading motion within one of the world’s most respected branding studios, Santiago’s journey is rooted in curiosity, craft, and a deep respect for fundamentals.

In this conversation, Santiago reflects on the influence of early web animation, music culture, and film title sequences, how motion has evolved from a showreel flex into an integral part of brand systems, and why restraint is just as powerful as spectacle. We explore his approach to experimentation, the importance of timing and intention, the realities of industry trends, and what he looks for in the next generation of motion designers.

Whether you’re just starting out or deep into your career, this is a thoughtful deep dive into what it really means to design in motion today.

Great to have you here Santiago. For anybody that may not know, you've already helped out with Shillington's Motion for Graphic designers course on a few occasions already. Our students have been so lucky to hear from experienced Motion Designers, doing it every single day in the industry!

Let's get started, what first pulled you into the world of motion design?

Absolute chance! I was studying graphic design at the University of Buenos Aires, and my brother had a film and TV production company. He needed someone who could do posters and animated titles so I started learning After Effects to help him. It was very fruitful to practice using the tools whilst I was learning how to build a graphic system at uni. But it's important to understand that knowing AE and knowing how to animate are different skills. I learned it the hard way!

Were there early influences or moments that steered your creative direction?

Like most children I grew up watching cartoons, but it was the 00's Flash web animation era that really piqued my interest. I remember sites like Newgrounds, where animators and game designers were exploring vector-based approaches to be shared at very small file sizes. This constrained the style to be more flat and graphic, integrating 2D with simple 3D animation. I remember being fascinated by this Beatles video, which naturally feels limited to today's standards but has some 3D and frame-by-frame moments that still hold up quite well.

Live gigs really taught me about the interdependence between sound and visuals. Seeing Daft Punk live in Buenos Aires in 2006 was an eye-opening experience—you could see the conceptual thread across the show, but each song had a distinct visual motif that developed from verse, to chorus, to middle eights and back to chorus. It was an audiovisual story unfolding.

When did motion shift from an interest to a clear career path?

At the moment in time when I started learning and working in motion, it was clear it could be both. In the 2000's and 2010's motion design was the big new thing. You could see it in movies, in famous title sequences like Se7en's or Enter The Void's. But it was even present in the movie, like on MK12's infographics for Stranger than Fiction. Then in music, video clips like Michel Gondry's Star Guitar or Justice's D.A.N.C.E or DVNO really defined the style of the era whilst pushing the bar of what motion design could be at the time.

Everyone was asking for motion design, sometimes without knowing what it was or if it was even useful to them. It was about trying to achieve something at least a fraction as good as those references above.

We're clearly in a different state of motion design, where it is now much more integrated with other disciplines and intertwined within brand systems. So the approach is very different, but definitely as exciting—it's about balancing the wow factor with functionality, finding those nuances.

How has your background outside of motion shaped the way you work?

Studying and training in graphic design at uni was helpful to understand broad principles like hierarchy, harmony/contrast, balance/tension as well as color theory.

But I'd say getting interested in disciplines that have time as a raw material is even more important. Music, comedy, editing… A well-timed punchline or musical climax has all to do with how to build anticipation and release in an animation. Using pauses and silence just as you would animation and full sound. I'm not an expert in any of those disciplines (I'm mostly a consumer) but seeing how they can translate to your practice will always bring a different perspective.

How has your creative process evolved as the industry has changed?

If I had to try and summarise it, I think it's been a zoom in and zoom back out process. As I learned motion I wanted everything to move all the time. To show off my skills. I think you necessarily have to become a bit tunnel visioned for a while, make sure you try every style, every output and don't leave any stones unturned.

Then, with time, you start to understand the broader context. Where your asset will live, who it is aimed at. That helps you find moments where motion needs to take a supporting role. More and more, my feedback to my team is “a bit less motion”, which would've been mad a few years back. Making sure to find the right moments where motion can shine fully, and not adding to the constant noise we're bombarded with.

What part of the process do you always gravitate towards?

I'm all for research and development. References are always necessary and useful to mediate a vision with a broader team and/or a client, but doing the exercise of translating a written idea into visual variables to experiment with is where the novel approaches really come from. Work from concepts and adjectives, not images—how does “sleek” animate? And “brittle"? “Luminous”? You get the point. At that point we don't worry about design, you can apply these tests to a square to convey those motion ideas. Try different software, apply strange effects. Make sure there's an initial moment where there's no wrong answers.

This is at the core of how motion works at Koto: we start from a brand idea, a one-line summary of who our clients are, what they do and what/where they want to be, into motion principles. These are the core attributes, qualities of the brand's motion, which should be used as a north star in any motion touchpoint the brand needs to build. This is the foundation of our motion system development.

How do you keep experimentation alive while juggling deadlines?

Every project is a crossroads: budgets, schedules, a specific team working on it, a specific market the client is in, etc. Some projects will allow for more leftfield approaches, some won't. It's about making sure both ends of that spectrum feel intentional and meaningful. Making a simple headline fade in elegantly can take many forms so it's important to research, test and iterate on it as much as you'd do a 3D Houdini simulation, to find the right solution for the right brief.

Every project is technically an experiment, even if you're using components that have been seen many times before. Most times what will make a project unique is a little twist or a wink on a known formula, and that takes arguably more research time.

What principles or techniques do you find yourself returning to?

People who know me will appreciate I repeat this to exhaustion, but it's the animation fundamentals! We take them for granted, but it's still rare to see them executed properly. The principles of animation you've seen a million times in tutorials and books.

It's about asking the right questions about your designs, to give them a character when they move. Is this headline heavy and blocky? Or is it lightweight and floating? What's good about this approach is that it will only imply small tweaks to your existing motion curves, it's about adding intention rather than piling up effects and technical changes.

Where are you looking for inspiration at the moment? Any designers or studios you follow closely?

Are.na is a must for bite sized references, but I'd say it's important to also deep dive into the projects design and motion studios publish. Making sure you can analyse the motion grammar and syntax, rather than a 1-second reference of just one “word”, however nicely written, or animated in this case.

Some big names to follow for motion-first agencies are hands down Vucko and Dumbar. Then I'd say Buff or Illo.tv are great at projects that have a lot of animation preciosity and expressiveness. And, logically, Koto. ;)

What trends feel genuinely exciting to you, and what feels like noise?

I think there's a bigger appetite for warmth and realism. Grit and texture, off-center layouts, detailed closeups and nostalgic color grading are coming back, probably as a reaction to AI's centered layouts and hyperreal artifice. Uncommon's takes on British Airways or Depop, or From Form's approach to design and motion feel imperfect and human.

I can envision a duality between some studios and designers going full on into AI, training their own models and using tools like Weavy to build frameworks, whilst other studios will embrace the opposite view and keep the imperfection at the core of their work.

What’s one challenge in the industry that deserves more attention?

Fostering talent. In this volatile economic landscape, it's important for studios to be counter-cyclical and make a bet on bringing interns and juniors in. Not taking those risks will make companies become more and more diamond-shaped, missing out on the benefits fresh points of view at the base will bring.

How do you see motion design evolving over the next few years?

The interdependence between motion, brand and digital experiences will be closer and closer. The main challenge is to create branded experiences across apps, websites and socials as well as activations and live spaces. All of these fields rife for motion design.

What’s one project that changed the way you think about motion?

It was definitely Deezer. It's a brand that would not exist without its motion behaviours. The visual language itself is quite structured and minimal, with its oblong shapes repeated in an array, each genre and mood is represented by those arrays’ reactions to music.

If you could shape your dream motion brief, what would it look like?

I think it would be branding a movie and its campaign. Title sequences, posters and key art, plus a bespoke campaign that involves digital and IRL activations.

What keeps you excited about motion at this stage in your career?

It's how often the motion industry proves me wrong. Daily even. The moment you think you're old and jaded and that you've seen it all, a new project, trend or approach appears. Even trends that you think are done to death like kinetic type can surprise you with a fresh, well-executed approach!

And finally, what advice would you give someone stepping into the industry today?

Boring to reiterate it I know, but motion fundamentals! That's what I look for the most when going through prospective interns or juniors’ folios. I'd rather they knew how to make an excellent ball bounce than how to build five vibe coded generative tools. You'll have time to R&D those, and we definitely focus on giving juniors that space at Koto. But knowing how to make a flat geometric shape move with grace will be a transferable knowledge across software and styles.

Balance out idea making with craft, but focus on the latter. Most studios and agencies will give interns and juniors craft-heavy tasks first, as that's usually the best growth experience. Make sure there's a conceptual backing but don't overdo it at this point in your career.

Finally, a strategic tip would be to tailor your portfolio to who you'll be sending it to. If you're interested in 3D, make sure any relevant explores or projects are at the top of your portfolio. People will have very short attention spans, so be slightly obvious! Put your best work forward.

Santiago’s perspective reminds us that great motion design isn’t driven by tools alone. It’s built on fundamentals, intention, timing, and a deep understanding of how design lives in time.

If this conversation has sparked your curiosity or reinforced your desire to sharpen your motion skills, our Motion for Graphic Designers course at Shillington is designed to help you do exactly that.

You’ll learn the core principles of animation, motion systems, and digital storytelling. All through real-world projects built for modern designers.

Explore the course here!