Finding the Story in a Single Frame
Growing up around a cartoonist, Casey Sattler learned early how much a single image can hold — how composition, timing, and expression can communicate an idea instantly.
Cartoonists learn quickly: every line matters. A single drawing has to carry the idea.
Animation builds on the same instinct — understand the idea first, then show it.
From science to story.
Working with Baker & Hill, StorySquad helped develop animated segments for The Gene, the Ken Burns documentary on genetics.
The audience included younger viewers, so the material had to be accurate, clear, and engaging. Writers and animators worked as one team — shaping ideas and bringing them to life in the same moment.
Working alongside a content expert, the goal was simple: understand the science, then find the most effective way to show it.
PBS — Ken Burns, The Gene, Good Genes Gone Bad
Fannie Mae - Truth Collective, Credit Score
Sometimes the world changes. The story still needs to be told.
A Fannie Mae campaign was originally planned as a live-action production. When COVID halted filming, Truth Collective turned to StorySquad to rethink the approach.
Animation allowed the work to move forward — and simplified the message.
The series translated the complexities of home-buying into clear visual stories for broadcast and digital.
What began as a production shift became an opportunity to make the ideas easier to understand.
For National Geographic Kids’ Weird But True, StorySquad created short animated pieces for a global audience.
Dialogue was removed so the stories could work across languages. Inspired by silent comedy, the pieces relied on timing, movement, and visual gags instead of explanation.
Minimal title cards guided the structure, but the animation carried the story.
Across more than eighty pieces, the discipline stayed the same: take complex ideas and make them instantly clear through action.
Some stories travel farther without language.
National Geographic Kids — Weird But True, Series
The medium changes. The instinct doesn’t.
The work begins the same way — understand the idea, then find the clearest way to show it.