Ten 2D animation styles (with examples) and why they work

If you're starting an animation project, the first decision is almost always style. Hand-drawn character work? Bold motion graphics? Kinetic typography? Each one tells a different kind of story, and the wrong choice can flatten a brilliant brief.

Here are ten 2D animation styles we use most often, why each one works, and the kind of brief it's best suited to.

1. Kinetic typography

Bold message, low budget, big impact. Kinetic typography animates the words themselves, choreographing the message instead of the characters delivering it. When you've got something short and quotable to say and the brand is strong enough to carry it, this style does the heavy lifting.

It's easily tailored to brand guidelines because it leans on your typography and colour system rather than a custom-illustrated world. We used it for Veeqo to bring their core messaging to life in a way the static brand couldn't.

Why it works:

- Makes messaging up to 80% more memorable than text alone
- 95% of marketers say video improves brand awareness
- Sits naturally inside an existing brand system

2. Vibrant nostalgia

This style has been growing steadily over the last few years, especially for brands with real history to tell. It layers archival imagery, newspaper cuttings and kinetic typography into a cohesive look that feels designed but lived-in.

It's particularly effective for storytelling because, well, you're already working in the language of stories. We used it for Renold to walk through how far the company has come since the early 1800s.

3. Motion graphics

You've probably heard the term before and wondered how it differs from animation generally. Honest answer: there's overlap. Motion graphics lean into typography, shapes, transitions and timing rather than characters or hand-drawn scenes. Most modern explainer work has motion graphics in the mix somewhere, even if it isn't the dominant style.

Used well, motion graphics make a punchy message land fast. Limestone Grey leaned on their existing brand identity and we built movement around it.

Worth knowing: the first motion graphics work was made in the 1940s. Oskar Fischinger and Norman McLaren were experimenting with abstract movement long before the technology made it accessible to the rest of us.

4. Monochrome

Bold and brave. Monochrome animation uses black and white, or variations on a single colour, to produce something that stands out by stripping things away. Shadow and lighting do most of the work, so the craft has to be sharp.

Good for brands that:

- Want to build awareness and memorability fast
- Want a calmer, more considered tone
- Have the brand confidence to commit to one colour

We used it for Love Nursing when their original palette was almost entirely purple. (They later expanded the palette and we recoloured the same animation, which is one of the upsides of working in a tight system.)

5. Character animation

Most of the styles above can include characters, but character animation is when those characters carry the whole thing. We're talking hand-drawn personalities with weight, emotion and timing. Our lead animator Gareth lives for this work, especially when it involves animals.

Character animators are sometimes described as "actors with a pencil". Every frame is a performance choice.

We made this piece with Oscar Kilo, where the hand-drawn characters carry difficult emotional content in a way live action would have struggled to.

6. Explainer animation

When you're launching new software, a complex service or a product nobody's seen before, static marketing struggles to do the work. The audience needs to see how it fits together. That's the slot animated explainers fill.

The trick is to avoid the lazy version of this. Whiteboard animations are the obvious example: cheap to produce, instantly recognisable, and exactly what your competitors are also doing. We don't make them. The point of an explainer is to stand out, not blend in.

We did one for Cegedim, walking through their pharmacy management software. It worked because we built the visual world from their brand, not from a template.

7. Isometric animation

Isometric is a 2D animation style that gives the impression of 3D depth, drawn at clean 30-degree angles. It's particularly good when you need to show multiple things happening at once, or a system with several connected parts.

We used it for Lumin to showcase three different accountancy services in one frame, and again for NEST Wales to show how multiple support pathways come together around children and young people.

A few tips if you're commissioning this style:

- Research and build a moodboard before you brief
- Start with simple shapes and stack complexity
- Think in layers from the start

8. Pixel art animation

Like vibrant nostalgia, pixel art trades on emotional recognition. It's instantly recognisable from early video game culture, and it's been having a quiet comeback through indie games that kept the style alive.

What's interesting is the brands picking it up now. McDonald's ran a bus-stop campaign in pixel art to show how recognisable their menu items are. The constraint of the style becomes the message.

We used it for Web Marketer when they were launching a campaign with a gladiator theme. Pixel art lets us lean into the playfulness without it feeling cheap.

9. Vector animation

Vector graphics are built from geometric shapes (usually in Adobe Illustrator) rather than being hand-drawn. They're easier to edit and re-version, which makes them well-suited to animation work that needs to scale or change quickly.

We don't use stock vectors. Every animation here is custom-built. But the technique itself produces a clean, crisp, modern feel that suits brands with complicated messages to land. We used it for Cambrian Alliance when the message had a lot of moving parts and the visual had to stay calm enough to follow.

10. Mix and match

The most-used "style" in the studio is actually a combination. Vector for backgrounds and structural elements. Hand-drawn for the characters and the details that need emotional weight. The Bumblebee Conservation Trust animation is the clearest example: vector-built scenes with detailed hand-drawn bumblebees, balanced to fit the brief and the budget.

Most of our work ends up in this category. The style is a tool, not a religion. Whatever serves the story wins.

Which one is right for your brief?

There's rarely a single right answer. The brief, the audience, the brand and the budget all shape the call. The best way to start is a short conversation about what you're trying to say and who you're trying to say it to.