‘I Connect, We Connect’ Animation

Watch the 2020 campaign video and discover how it was made.

The MS Connections campaign challenges social barriers that can leave people affected by MS feeling lonely and isolated. We asked people from around the world to share their experiences of MS, loneliness and connection. Hear from Seetharam, Eva, Georges, Eliana and Soo. The video is available with English, Spanish, Arabic, French and Portuguese subtitles.

The making of the animation

The ‘I Connect, We connect’ animation was created in partnership with the global MS community. It was incredibly important to create a video that was authentic to the lives of people with MS around the world. In October 2019, we asked people living with MS to share an audio recording about their experience of loneliness and connection. Participants were encouraged to share their story in their native tongue to keep the recordings global and authentic.

We are so grateful for the honest and moving accounts we received. We had stories come in from Argentina, Australia, Colombia, Czech Republic, France, Iceland, India, Italy, Lebanon, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Russia, Sweden, Tunisia and the United Kingdom. These first-hand accounts of loneliness and MS were filled with moments of heart-break, hope and connection.

We needed a skilled animation team to help bring these stories to life. ARC-studio are gifted in capturing human experience in their expressive and beautiful animations, so we got them on board!

The five stories featured in the ‘I Connect, We connect’ video, create a lovely narrative despite being taken from such different locations. Seetharam lives in India, Eva is from Sweden, Georges from Lebanon, Eliana from Colombia and Soo lives in the United Kingdom. Each of the animated characters were drawn from real-life photos of the five contributors. We tried to capture details in their lives throughout the animation, such as details like Seetharam’s treasured moments with his family and Eva’s morning walks with her beloved dogs by the sea.

A key phase in creating the animation was getting feedback from people living with MS across the world. Their input helped us to strike the right tone, despite a difficult subject matter. Members of MS International Federation’s World MS Day working group played key roles in supporting the project from start to finish. Their expertise contributed to the quality and universal nature of the animation.

Eva, one of the animation stars on the final video, said:

The World MS Day team is incredibly grateful to everyone who played a part in making this project happen. Special thanks to the MS Society of India, Neuroförbundet (Sweden), Amis Libanais des Sclérosés En Plaques (Lebanon), Asociación de Lucha Contra la Esclerosis Múltiple (Colombia) and the UK MS Society for putting us in touch with Seetharam, Eva, Georges, Eliana and Soo.

Visit ARC Studio’s website to see more of their fantastic work: http://www.arcstudio.co/