Pepperversaries
Turning 10-Year Milestones Into Personalized Motion Stories
Roles
- Illustration
- Storyboarding
- Motion Design
Team
- Creative Direction – Melissa London
- Copywriters – Katie Burns, Kellie Elmerraji
- Designers – Cheryl Wang, Ashley Donatello, Julie Chea, Devin Emery, Colette Sybert, William Romanowski
A Decade Told Frame by Frame
Pepperversaries are custom videos created to celebrate 10-year employee milestones at Eleven Peppers, honoring each individual’s contributions, personality, and passions. Each video blends storytelling, illustration, and motion design to create a highly personal piece that reflects both the employee and the company’s culture.
The following is a showreel of some of the frames I've designed and/or animated for various Pepperversaries over the years.
Setting the Tone From the First Frame
I designed the opening frame that became the template for all Pepperversary intros, establishing the visual tone and structure for the entire series. The layout, typography, and motion style were intentionally defined early to create a consistent entry point across videos, giving each story a recognizable starting moment while allowing flexibility for personalization within the sequence.
Building the Narrative
Each Pepperversary begins as a collaborative storyboarding process, where designers work together to map out the narrative arc and define how individual moments connect. Special attention is given to transitions and visual segues, ensuring that each frame flows seamlessly into the next while maintaining a cohesive tone and pacing across the entire video.
Designing for Individuality Within a System
A key challenge is designing frames that feel deeply personal while still aligning with the Eleven Peppers brand. Each designer interprets an employee’s skills, hobbies, or personality traits in a unique way, avoiding repetition even when themes overlap, such as travel or food, resulting in a collection of distinct yet visually unified moments.
The company values frame is a constant across every Pepperversary, which creates an opportunity to reinterpret it creatively through each employee’s interests or strengths. I look for ways to merge values with personality, such as turning Innovation into collectible character pins revealed through a blind box animation or visualizing a value using an Excel-style bar chart for an employee known for their spreadsheet expertise. My goal is to always make the moment feel personal, playful, and timely while remaining on brand.
Motion as the Final Layer of Storytelling
In addition to contributing to the visual design, I bring these frames to life through motion design and animation in Adobe After Effects. Movement, timing, and transitions are carefully crafted to enhance storytelling, creating a final piece that feels dynamic, cohesive, and celebratory. Below are a sample of frames I helped animate.
