St James's Place

Approach to Investment Management

Visualising Expertise in Investment Management

St. James’s Place, the UK’s largest local Wealth Manager, wanted to create a distinctive visual story around the value they bring to clients’ financial journeys, from expert advice to tailored investments.

They asked us to produce an animation explaining their approach to investment management. This included highlighting why they partner with world-class fund managers, how they select, monitor and change these managers, and the role of their investment committee and consultants in safeguarding client outcomes.

The goal was to deliver a clear, engaging explanation that builds trust and showcases their commitment to helping clients meet their financial objectives.

 

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Blending Real Stories with Visual Clarity

We developed a hybrid animation for St. James’s Place, combining rotoscoped interview footage with branded infographics. Filming a subject matter expert and using rotoscoping techniques created a natural, documentary-style feel that brought authenticity to the narrative. Clear, simple infographics were layered in to visualise complex investment processes and reinforce key messages. The result is a human, engaging animation that makes it easier for clients to understand how St. James’s Place selects, monitors and manages their investment partners with care and expertise.

 

 

Audio Production and Lip Syncing

While filming our subject matter expert (Andy) on location provided valuable reference footage, it also introduced the risk of lower audio quality due to studio acoustics and background noise. To ensure flawless sound, we recorded Andy’s voiceover separately in a professional studio booth. During filming, the recorded audio was played back to help match the delivery timings naturally. Since the live footage was used purely as a guide for the animation, any minor discrepancies between the voiceover and lip-sync were carefully corrected during the animation process, resulting in a seamless and high-quality final output.

 

 

Three men recording in a professional sound booth, wearing headphones and giving thumbs up, surrounded by microphones, a table with glasses, and a red-walled studio background.

Filming

We built a lounge-style set within our studio to create a relaxed environment for filming. This informal setup helped put Andy at ease, allowing his performance on camera to feel more natural and conversational.

We rehearsed the script a few times, checking against the pacing of the studio-recorded audio to keep the timing consistent. Using two DSLR cameras gave us flexibility during production, providing multiple angles and head-to-camera shots that we could reference and select from when creating the final animation.

 

 

Man in a suit sitting on a red sofa holding a Rubik’s Cube, speaking with animated gestures, with a plant and black backdrop in a relaxed lounge-style setting.

Interview Animation

The interview sections of the animation were crafted using a careful blend of techniques. While traditional rotoscoping involves drawing directly over footage, it can sometimes result in movement that feels hollow or overly mechanical. To achieve a more organic and natural feel, we used the filmed footage as a loose guide rather than a strict template. Our animation team applied creative adjustments to enhance human gestures and refine the character’s movements, creating a final animation that feels lively, authentic and true to real human behaviour.

 

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2D and 3D Animation

We used a mix of 2D and 3D animation to visually differentiate St. James’s Place’s innovative processes from the more rigid systems of their competitors. 3D animation represented innovation, while 2D visuals illustrated outdated practices. To ensure a cohesive feel across the project, both styles were carefully blended with the filmed interview segments. Consistency was maintained through a unified colour palette, subtle grain textures and the use of angled lines. This approach helped create a distinct visual language that reflected the brand identity of St. James’s Place while clearly communicating their forward-thinking approach.

 

 

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