UNIQUE VOICES | CUMBERLAND YOUTH VOICE
Format: Short Film
Client: Cumberland Youth Voice / Cumberland Council
Release: May 2025
At the start of 2025, we were super excited to have been asked by an incredible group of young people from ‘Unique Voices’ to help them create an animated short film that represents the issues faced by neurodivergent people, and people who need additional support with learning and living.
Not only was this project close to our own hearts, but it posed an exciting challenge to create something a little different from what we had done before.
Click the video to see a quick preview.
The story itself was inspired by a real life encounter one of the group members experienced whilst trying to order their favourite drink from their local coffee shop. When the coffee shop had ran out of the ingredients needed to create their favourite drink, and they were met with a very rude Barista and other impatient customers around them, what may seem like a mild inconvenience to some, turned into an overwhelming and traumatic experience for the young person who eventually left the coffee shop upset and empty handed.
THE STYLE
The challenge was, “How do we create a character driven short film that is not only cost effective and quick to make, but still delivers an impactful story with emotive characters that resonate with our audiences?”
Our solution was to develop a super nostalgic, fun animation style that the young people of Unique Voices loved (as did our animation team!)
The pixel art / 8-bit game style also lent itself to a common phrase that being neurodivergent is like “living life on hard mode”.
So we took that, and made it literal, and for the first part of the film you see our character experiencing the coffee shop incident on “hard mode”, before then replaying the same scenario on a lower difficulty level.
THE CHARACTER
Our lead is a representation of everyone in the Unique Voices group who contributed to the video. They named them Safen (a name created from the first letter of all of the young people’s own names.)
Not only does Safen navigate the world in ways that the young people relate to, but their environment is littered with props and decoration to represent each of their personalities, hobbies and interest.
Carlisle is not only home to the Unique Voices group, but also to our very own studio! So we made sure to keep the designs routed in our city, featuring prominent Carlisle skylines such as Carlisle Castle, and Bitts Park at key points of the film. There is also a Carlisle United shirt, and poster featured in Safen’s bedroom design.
