Freely’s brand celebrated its first birthday in 2025, and what better way to celebrate than with an event bringing together partners, talent and the Freely team at London’s Outernet. We were commissioned with the exciting task of branding the huge screens for the evening, developing a selection of bespoke motion elements to fill the room and visually bring the Freely brand to life in the space.
OWNING THE OUTERNET
The Outernet Now Trending space is comprised of two LED floor to ceiling walls measuring nearly 4m in height and a ceiling LED panel boasting almost 2 million pixels. The challenge was to completely immerse this space in the world of Freely, its brand, its content and its personality.
THE RINGMASTER
Every big event needs a showman, and for Freely who better to play that role than their very own mascot - The Freemoji.
To take ownership of the room we began with a simple premise of placing the Freemoji at the heart of the action, positioned centrally on the ceiling at all times throughout the night. This character could react and be expressive through all the different segments of the evening while a ring of Freemojis could circle around as if an extension of the audience following the Ringmaster’s lead.
BEHAVING LIKE FREELY
To complement the ebb and flow of the evening, we developed a series of motion behaviours for the Freemojis. Whether they were in a ring shape or in a row, the principles could easily be applied to suit different moments. For example, a gentle pulse effect for less distracting moments, a wave or bounce to introduce messages or logos, and the fuse for when the visuals really needed to be attention grabbing.
BLACK, WHITE AND PINK ALL OVER
With strong brand colours to play with and dynamic type animations throughout, the personality of the brand was ever present in the visuals, communicating a whole host of product messages, signposting and thank yous alongside the distinctive brand logo.
CELEBRATING GREAT BRITISH CONTENT
Freely brings the very best of British TV to audiences and the event was keen to showcase the huge range of shows and channels available. We developed a Tile Wall device for the brand to dynamically display all the best programming, while the ceiling ring adjusted to show all the channel brands on the platform at the same time.
ENTERTAINING THE CROWD
Later in the evening the visuals shifted to show a short 60-second film demonstrating the very best shows and features of Freely, ahead of a short Q&A with Freely CEO Jonathan Thompson.
AND THEN, TIME TO PARTY!
To round off the evening we created a sequence of Freemoji visualisations to accompany a DJ set by Laura Whitmore. Using a series of Freemoji patterns and snappy typography to set the tone, the sequences encapsulated the most expressive and dynamic part of the event, allowing Freely to show its true colours.
CREDITS
Client: Freely (Everyone TV)
Freely Team: Jessica Frost, Bea Larrington-Spencer
Creative Director: Sam Harvey
Art Director: Sonia Lamba-Tucker
Motion Design: Josh O’Leary, Matt Fowler, Leo Fernandes
Collaboration with Ratchet
Ratchet Team: Katherine Nathan, Pauline Russell, Gareth Thomas