What is the shape of creative play? Circles roll, triangles climb and blocks stack. But tubes? Tubes can do so much more!

The amazing creative team at Ogilvy Chicago developed vibrant new branding for The National Children’s Museum in DC and we were thrilled when they asked us to bring it to life in motion. One of the elements they graphically represented in their branding was a tube shape. Echoing an actual design element at the museum, the tube was a natural choice. It also inspired our playful motion graphics.

Knowing that NCM is all about expanding curious minds and opening children to unexpected possibilities, we used the tube to explore these ideas.

Bendy, twisty and shoot-the-chute fun, we created all kinds of tube magic. In one spot a tube is a vacuum, pulling balls, blocks and triangles up and out in a spray of confetti. In another, tubes roll and twist like macaroni in a playground of shapes.  “What if,” we thought, “we popped something down the tube and it came out transformed into something completely different?”

Our animations made it happen: Some shapes went in flat and came out 3D, others morphed into new shapes entirely. Unexpected, fun, and full of “How dids?” and “What ifs?” we look forward to making many more of these animations for the National Children’s Museum, to inspire kids’ creative thinking.