Movement has become a dimension of brand identity in its own right. Drawing on its expertise in web design, the Bonhomme agency believes that animation is not an ornament. It is a vector of meaning, as structural to identity as typography or the color palette.
1. What animation does cognitively
Movement captures attention before anything else. Animation aids comprehension, the brain prefers gradual change. It also produces emotions.
2. The Windows Phone case: when movement becomes a signature
The Windows Phone interface, launched in 2010, was built on a visual language entirely structured around movement. The "Metro" philosophy, inspired by the graphic design of information systems, signage, airports, transit, organized the interface into dynamic tiles that scrolled, flipped, and revealed themselves with animations of remarkable precision and consistency.
This moving language was a signature in its own right. It gave Windows Phone devices an immediately recognizable personality. Set against iOS and Android, whose animations were functional but generic, Windows Phone stood out visually from the very first interaction. It wasn't just an OS, it was a point of view on what digital interaction could be.
This example illustrates a fundamental conviction at Bonhomme: movement can be an identity. Not a stylistic effect, a coherent, systematic stance that defines how a brand behaves in the digital space.
3. The four types of animation that build premium perception
1. Feedback animations. In premium, subtle and precise.
2. Transition animations. In luxury, deliberately slower.
3. Narrative animations. Must simultaneously inform and move.
4. State micro-animations. Among the most impactful for perceived quality.
4. The Bonhomme method: The Tone of Motion
An expert in web design, the Bonhomme agency develops The Tone of Motion, a system of movement rules that defines, for each brand, the animation parameters that belong uniquely to it.
Just as the tone of a voice says something before the meaning of the words does, the tone of movement says something about the brand before the content is even understood. The Tone of Motion defines four parameters: tempo, easing curves, amplitude and triggers.
5. Lacoste Heritage and Sonia by Sonia Rykiel: two languages in motion
Lacoste Heritage: motion design animations, 3D WebGL crocodile, vertical and horizontal scroll. Joanna F.: "Bonhomme showed real responsiveness and adaptability." 10 distinctions.
Sonia by Sonia Rykiel SS14 : a clean, zesty universe, light interactions echoing the house's identity. Site of the Day at the Awwwards, FWA of the Day.
6. Recurring mistakes
• Animating for the sake of animating.
• Animations that are too fast. In luxury, excessive speed communicates haste.
• The absence of feedback animations. An interface that doesn't react feels cold.
• Inconsistency between animations. It produces a fragmented experience.
7. The Bonhomme vision
Movement is the most underestimated dimension of digital identity.
"Movement is to the interface what tone is to the voice. The Tone of Motion is the way a brand chooses to move."
— Emmanuel Cruellas, co-founder & design director
"A brand that doesn't think through its animations has no voice in digital."
— Morgane Urbain, co-founder & creative director
