Behind the Scenes: The EFL Rainbow Ball Animation Process
At the start of 2025, the English Football League (EFL) approached us to design a high-impact animation to introduce their new Rainbow match ball, which serves as a reminder that football is for everyone, everywhere. The animation needed to be adaptable for all 72 EFL clubs, and stand as a symbol of the EFL’s unwavering commitment to the LGBTQ+ community.
Our challenge was to produce something that felt disruptive, defiant, and celebratory all at once, driving awareness across the football community. Here’s how we brought the animation to life.
Step 1: Explore Creative Routes
We began by developing three creative directions, each with a unique tone and visual concept. The goal was to find the right balance between disruptive and playful, while still feeling true to the EFL brand.
After presenting our concepts, the EFL chose the route that shows the ball as a driver of change. Here, we treat the ball as a constant in a world full of contrasting cultures and lifestyles, symbolising its role as a unifying force and a celebration of diversity.
Step 2: Illustrate the Video
After the direction was confirmed, we began illustrating the animation’s visual styling. We opted for a traditional hand drawn frame-by-frame animation to give it that raw, energetic style. This approach meant each frame would require a completely new sketch to ensure that the execution felt authentic.
Rather than telling a linear story, we focused on bringing keywords and phrases to life around the ball that celebrate the LGBTQ+ community’s place in football. We worked closely with a leading LGBTQIA+ organisation and with three of the premier league clubs to test the designs with various audiences, ensuring the messaging felt positive and inclusive.
To capture a real-world look and motion, we photographed the ball from multiple angles in action, giving us plenty of options to work with and positioning the ball as a powerful force.
Step 3: Style and Sketches
Keeping the ball as the visual anchor, we then began mapping the ball’s motion and how it would trigger everything happening around it within each scene. The initial sketches were also digitally recoloured to fit the official EFL Rainbow Ball colours.
Step 4: Storyboard
With the core visual moments in place, we moved on to stitching the sequence together. Using our style frames, we filled in the gaps to build an engaging, balanced flow.
Step 5: Rough Cuts
Before producing the full animation, we animated several sections to test the motion aesthetic and find the optimal frame rate. These rough cuts help us make sure the concept is actually going to work!
Step 6: Develop the Final Video
With everything in place, we stitched together the final animation, layering an energetic track to accompany the video.
The final animation was received positively, playing a key role in driving awareness across the football community. We loved seeing it come to life across all 72 clubs, standing as a bold reminder that football is for everyone, everywhere.
