Trust for Public Land Animated Explainer

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Trust for Public Land turned to LAI Video to help visualize a transformation most people never see.

Their Community Schoolyards initiative takes heat-soaked asphalt and turns it into vibrant green spaces. These areas cool neighborhoods, manage stormwater, and stay open to the public after hours. The process is proven but hard to explain quickly. So we created a 2D animated explainer that walks through every step with clarity and warmth, making the role of student co-design unmistakable.

Now the piece lives on TPL’s website as the go-to overview and travels easily with staff to panels, pitches, and community conversations.

Tags: Motion Graphics | Advocacy

Challenge

Trust for Public Land needed a simple way to explain a complex program. The Community Schoolyards initiative turns heat soaked asphalt into green, shared spaces that manage stormwater, cool neighborhoods, and serve communities after school.

The model is proven but the process is hard to picture in a pitch. They needed a short film that could teach the steps and still land emotionally. The piece would live on the Schoolyards program page and support broader storytelling.

Strategy

Our team focused on keeping the storytelling clear while making student co-design visible throughout the piece, so the community’s role in shaping the spaces always stayed front and center.

We built the distribution strategy around tpl.org first, creating a version that lived within the larger initiative context, then adapted the piece for YouTube to support partner sharing, presentations, and embeds.

Creative Solution

A concise explainer that walks through the phases of a schoolyard conversion using a warm, textured illustration style and kid-first visual cues.

With VO by April Stanford, the piece follows how ideas move from community conversations into the final design, showing the role students play in shaping spaces that reflect local needs.

Distribution

Embedded on TPL’s Schoolyards page as the default overview.
Mirrored on TPL’s YouTube channel for easy sharing by staff and partners.
Referenced in a companion Beyond the Blacktop story for article driven audiences.

Results and ROI

Immediate internal adoption: The client screened the video for staff and at a panel during Climate Week NYC at the end of September.
A portable pitch: Staff now open presentations and grant conversations with a two minute visual of the full process, then pivot to local funding and timeline. 
Issue framing with proof: The film sets up quantified benefits that TPL cites publicly, including stormwater capture and park access improvements across multiple cities.
 Longevity: Because the piece teaches a replicable process, it remains relevant as new projects launch.

Client feedback

“We loved collaborating with your team! This is officially one of the best videos in our roster.” “We’ve had great feedback on the Schoolyards video so far with a showing for staff as well as one recently at our panel at New York Climate Week. Kudos all around.”