Little White Lie

A personal documentary about the legacy of family secrets, denial, and the power of telling the truth. 

The Film

Little White Lie is a powerful documentary. Compelling, honest, and very well made. We were brought in by Picture Motion to work on a social action campaign and overall brand refinement with the director Lacey Schwartz.

For the branding around the film, existing assets included a logo, film stills, social graphics, and Squarespace website. We started with what was working, refined the branding, and explored opportunities to bring out the core emotions in the film. The brushstroke concept added a sense of urgency and personalization to the brand and would help us link the various elements used in the campaign strategy.

For the film’s website, we refined the site architecture, established clear calls-to-action, and designed a more complete, long-scrolling homepage. 

The Game

For the social action campaign, Picture Motion conceived the Truth Circle Game, a multi-player card game with the goal of generating deep dialogue following screenings of the film. Think about the little white lie in your life, then play the game to break the cycle. With the Little White Lie brand refined, we had a foundation to move into branding for the game, design of the card deck, and the development of a web app for the game to be played online.

For the game, we explored several concepts and ended up on a design with bright colors and a gritty urgency. The circular logo represents people coming together to look inward and to try to form an understanding, each block moving in differently, at its own depth. The game deck had 14 cards, either fill-in-the-blank or discussion-based. 

The biggest piece of the project was the online version of the Truth Circle Game. We took the fill-in-the-blank cards and translated those into a simplified, individual user experience. Five cards in all, people are asked to describe their community growing up, what it means to stay true to yourself, and what their personal truth is.

We designed the site to be as simple as possible. It has its own unique design sense with the brushstrokes and typography being the strongest visual links to the Little White Lie brand. Developed by the meticulous Cody Peterson, the site is light, responsive, and meant to be shared. 

This project is Action Backed. A collaboration with Picture Motion and Truth Aid.

2015: Campaign, Brand, Web, Print

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