International Group of P&I Clubs

Brief

The International Group of P&I Clubs (IGP&I) asked us to create an animation on the topic of Enclosed Space Entry on board ships. 

IGP&I is made up of 13 individual Clubs, who together provide liability cover for 90% of the world’s merchant fleet. 

Enclosed space injuries and fatalities have been a troubling issue for some time in the maritime industry, despite a wealth of industry standards, crew training and reference materials.

To approach the issue from a new angle, IGP&I asked us to create an animation that focused on the ‘human element’, to shine a light on the behaviours and reactions that lead crew members to act against their training and knowledge in emergency situations. 

Approach

Our first task was to work with IGP&I’s Committee to get an understanding of the behaviours and reactions that lead to enclosed space casualties, and to identify the best way to highlight these in a way that would resonate with crew members of all levels.

In order to address a number of different behaviours, in a variety of pressure situations, we decided to create an animation that told the story of a series of events leading up to an incident. We decided to create each event so that it would also work as a standalone animation in it’s own right, in order to provide additional collateral to the client that would be especially suited to social media sharing.

It was immediately clear that a realistic cast of characters, and accuracy in the depiction of scenes on board ship would be essential in order to connect with crew members. We worked from the imagery and resources provided by the client at every stage of the graphic design and animation process to ensure that we hit the mark throughout.

So that we could convey thoughts and emotions throughout the narrative, as well as the words that would be spoken between crew members, we decided that the action would play out entirely on screen, with text appearing in thought bubbles and speech bubbles. At the end of each stage of the story, a short takeaway message would then be delivered by voice over, with the repeated key message of: Stop. Think. Stay Alive.

Result

The end result was a suite of 6 animations – 1 full story, and 5 short scenarios – that are engaging and emotive, and which have proved really popular across the industry. So much so, that following the initial launch, the client asked us to translate the full set of videos into Mandarin.