Tell us about your organization. How big is your team? Where are you based? What is your organization’s specialty in the film and video space?
Studio 3AM is an independent studio based in Sydney. Our work sits across brand, design, motion and digital, with a particular focus on 2D and 3D animation for brands. We like working on projects where motion is more than decoration and can become a meaningful part of how a brand communicates. While we’re based in Sydney, we’ve worked with clients and collaborators across Australia and internationally.
Why do you do what you do? Was there a transformative moment that solidified your career choice, your org’s success, or your commitment to storytelling?
I’ve always loved creative direction and the process of taking a brief, finding the idea within it and turning that into something people can connect with.
A big part of what keeps me interested is getting to work with talented people across different disciplines, from animation and sound to design, writing, illustration and film. Every project becomes a different mix of people and skills.
Studio 3AM has really grown through a series of projects where we’ve cared deeply about the outcome and tried to make work that is useful for the client but also contributes creatively.
We’re always thinking about how the work will live beyond the immediate campaign and what kind of cultural impact it can have.
Tell us about your Telly Award winning piece. What’s the story behind it?
The film was created for Eftsure, a payment security and fraud prevention platform. Christian Layugan, Creative Director and Designer at Eftsure, was in the middle of evolving the brand and had developed a visual territory around the idea of Trust in Layers. We worked closely with Christian to translate that graphic language into motion and build a story around something that is normally invisible.
Eftsure works in the background, verifying payment details and identifying potential threats before money changes hands. Our challenge was to make that process feel tangible. The film starts from a place of uncertainty, with corrupted information, shifting identities and digital distortion, before gradually moving towards confidence and clarity. At the centre of the film is Eftsure’s triangular logomark. We used it almost like a building block, with individual pieces connecting and accumulating to represent data, verification and the strength of the wider network. Eventually those forms come together as a protective shield.
That became the main visual metaphor for the film. Eftsure sees what others might miss and provides another layer of protection before a payment is made.
Can you share a behind the scenes story or fun fact about the making of your piece?
A lot of the film came out of exploring just how far we could push Eftsure’s existing brand language without losing what made it recognisable.
We spent a lot of time experimenting with the triangular forms, testing how they could behave as data, glitches, patterns, interfaces and eventually the shield itself. What looks quite resolved in the final film came from a lot of smaller motion tests and visual experiments.
What was your biggest challenge during production and how did you solve it?
Getting the tone right was probably the biggest challenge.
Fraud and payment security can easily become fear-based, but we didn’t want the film to feel alarming or overly dramatic. It needed to acknowledge the uncertainty and risk that finance teams deal with while ultimately leaving people with a feeling of confidence. We built the film around that transition.
The other challenge was finding a simple way to communicate something technically complex. Using the Eftsure triangles as pieces of information that connect, build a network and eventually form a protective shield gave us a visual idea that could carry the story without needing to explain every part of the technology.
What are you most proud of about this piece? What is the most memorable response you got from this work?
The film has since been used across a range of environments, including digital placements and large-scale industry events, so it has been great seeing something that started as a brand idea continue to work at different scales.
Having the work recognised through the Telly Awards was a really nice validation of that collaboration between our team and Eftsure.
You won a Telly Award for this piece. Why is recognition important for you, your team or your work?
Awards are never the reason we make the work, but it’s always meaningful when a project is recognised.
There are a lot of people behind each project and recognition acknowledges the thinking, experimentation and craft that goes into getting something to the final result. It’s also great for the client. The strongest work usually comes from a client trusting the creative process and being willing to push an idea further, so it’s nice for them to see that decision recognised as well.
For a small independent studio, it also helps put the work in front of a wider international audience.
Tell us what you’re up to! If there’s a new project, launch, or milestone you’d like us to celebrate with you, let us know, and we might share it with our community.
We recently launched a new Studio 3AM website, bringing together projects from across brand, design, motion and digital.
Alongside our client work, we’ve also introduced Play, a space for experiments, self initiated projects and ideas that might not otherwise have a home.
For us, it’s an important part of the studio. Not everything needs to start with a brief and some of those experiments often find their way back into the way we approach commercial work.
