Animations on colonial past for Municipality of Rotterdam
The question
In 2023, 150 years of the abolition of slavery and the history of slavery will be commemorated. In the hyper-diverse city of Rotterdam, one in eight residents has an enslaved ancestor. One in eight Rotterdammers also has family ties to Indonesia. The City of Rotterdam is reflecting on this past and shedding light on the impact it makes on the present.
Gemeente Rotterdam came to Flatland with a clear request to develop two animations. These animations had two clear assignments: to open up the conversation about Rotterdam’s colonial past in an accessible way and to make a link to the impact of this era on our current system. The aim was to create recognition, understanding and collective awareness of this painful past among the residents of Rotterdam.
What did the process look like?
Method and route
The method of Design Thinking calls for first stepping back and identifying who and why you actually want to design something for. We then focused on collecting all the ‘chapters’ for each animation. We then moved these back and forth on large sheets of brownpaper, just until the story emerged properly.
From there, we iteratively developed the concepts from the first phase in several sessions with each other. Throughout the process, there was a constant focus on both tone of voice and historical representation. It was important to get both right in order to reach the broad target group and do justice to the shared history.
Understanding by drawing
As always, during all sessions we work together visually, in co-creation with the client. By drawing everything, everyone’s ideas become visible. It gives insight into the differences as well as the similarities: is everyone on the same page? Or is the story being told in the right way? Extremely valuable, especially on sensitive subjects like colonialism.
Halfway through the process, a group of language ambassadors and tutors visited www.lezenenschrijven.nl. They provided critical input on the accessibility and approachability of the story. Together, we reflected on the use of words, the pitfalls of proverbs and interpretation. Here, it became clear again how impactful drawings are in communication about topics that are sensitive.
Review of the process
In this project, we were able to have very nice and open discussions with the project team of the municipality of Rotterdam, content experts Els Brasa and Liane van der Linden and animation agency Studio.Flatbush. Because we kept short lines and worked on the story together without judgement, there was room to share our own stories with each other as well.
At the end of the project, we met at the Flatland office for an official conclusion of the collaboration and to reflect on the journey with each other. The sensitivity of the topic, and everyone’s own involvement with it, made for great conversations in this final get-together as well. We hope that the animations may have this effect for many more people.
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