How to nail motion design on a multi-brand campaign

illustration of a smartwatch with a tick in it — (Image credit: Turbotax)

Brands rarely operate alone anymore. Campaigns, platforms, events and partnerships increasingly require multiple brands, sub-brands or business units to show up together.

Sometimes it’s a parent brand and its ecosystem of products. Other times, it’s distinct brands collaborating within a shared environment. In every case, this means bringing together well-defined and fiercely guarded identities.

Somewhere in the middle, those identities need to meet, and that intersection is where things get difficult. Too much restraint, and everything flattens into neutrality. Too much expression, and the result feels disjointed or competitive. Each brand is present, but the collective experience doesn’t actually land.

Finding the right balance, that Goldilocks moment in motion, doesn’t just happen by accident. It requires a thoughtful, strategic approach grounded in how brands actually behave when they come together.

Start with deep brand knowledge

Firstly, you can’t find the right balance without a deep understanding of how a certain brand is built. Its intentions, its architecture, how its systems are designed to operate together, and how motion behaves across the ecosystem.

We often describe it like fusion cooking. Combining cuisines successfully requires understanding of each one on its own terms. The ingredients, the culture, the history, the restraint.

Knowing what to emphasise and what to hold back. You can’t just blend everything together and hope for the best. Brand guidelines alone won’t get you there. The key is to tap into true working knowledge of a brand, whether that comes from internal teams or external partners. In our work with Google, this deep understanding comes from a long-standing partnership and familiarity with the brand.

Focus on the intersections

Once that understanding is in place, the work shifts to identifying where brands can meet. Shared behaviors. Compatible tempos. Moments where one brand leads and others support. Places where distinction matters, and places where cohesion matters more.

This came into focus for us during Google’s presence at NRF 2026. Google needed a physical booth experience built from multiple screens, inside a high-traffic, visually dense environment. The space needed to hold the Google core brand, alongside Google Cloud and Gemini, with multiple brand narratives and layers visible at once.

Each brand brought a different posture. Google Cloud carries a B2B sensibility but leaves room for expression. Gemini is product-driven and visually distinct, with a strong emphasis on radiance. Google’s core brand relies on optimism and simple forms.

The question wasn’t whether they could coexist, but how they could move together without competing or collapsing into sameness.

By leaning on deep familiarity with the brand, we identified the intersections. Where radiance could be calibrated. Where optimism could hold steady. Where motion behaviors could align without falling flat. Every decision was made in context. Each screen was designed in response to the others, not in isolation. Motion became the connective tissue, not the spotlight.

Balancing identities within a brand family

That same search for balance shows up differently inside long-standing families of brands. In our multi-year work with Intuit, we’ve partnered across the parent brand alongside identity work for both QuickBooks and TurboTax. While they sit within the same ecosystem, each brand has its own distinct identity, behaviours, and relationship with its audience.

Rather than treating them as a single expression, the work has focused on understanding how those differences should show up in motion. Where shared behaviours create cohesion, and where individuality needs to be preserved.

Across campaigns, product experiences, and system-level identity work, finding the Goldilocks moment is an ongoing conversation. One where emphasis shifts depending on context, but the brands still move together in harmony.

Test, iterate, and collaborate

There’s no formula for getting this balance right. While experience and intuition play a role, it’s equally about stress-testing ideas throughout the creative process. Motion needs to be seen in context, across screens, environments and brand combinations, to understand how it truly behaves.

This is where close collaboration matters. Not just between designers, but across brand, production and internal stakeholders. Iteration creates shared understanding. It reveals where things feel aligned and where they don’t. It allows the work to settle into something that feels natural rather than forced.

Ultimately, finding that Goldilocks moment comes down to asking the right question: what do you want to achieve with motion?

At NRF 2026, the goal was to engage and draw people into a space. Motion was used to create cohesion across multiple brands and narratives without flattening their individuality. When brands learn how to move together in this way, they unlock the full potential of motion identity.

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Andrew Vucko merges a lifelong interest in motion and design with a passion for brand building. As the founder of Vucko, he leads a global motion studio that transforms brands like Google, Meta, and Spotify through award-winning motion identities, systems, and guidelines.

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