Why motion belongs in a brand system
Type, colour and logo are only half a brand. The other half is how it moves — and it deserves the same rules.
Most brand guidelines stop at the logo sheet. Then the website gets built, every developer picks their own easing curve, and the brand that looked so calm in the PDF starts twitching on screen.
Motion is a brand asset
A brand has a voice. Motion is the tempo of that voice. A luxury label eases slowly out of the way; a gaming platform snaps. Both can be correct — what is never correct is having five different answers on the same page.
Write the rules down
Three numbers are enough to start:
- Duration — how long the default transition lasts (e.g. 0.6 s for entrances, 0.2 s for hovers).
- Easing — one curve for entering, one for leaving.
- Distance — how far elements travel. Small and confident beats large and floaty.
Respect the people who can't watch it
Anyone can switch on reduce motion in their system settings. A brand that ignores that setting is not premium, it is careless. Every animation on this site checks it and falls back to a clean fade.
Test it on a real device
A laptop plugged into power renders anything. The honest test is a mid-range phone on battery. If the page stutters there, the animation is decoration, not craft.
Updated · 17 September 2026