A recurring question for any freelancer or emerging artist. Where is the best place to showcase your skills in order to land those contracts and find new job opportunities?
Should you invest in your online presence? But on which platform? Should you better spend your time visiting events? Connecting with people face-to- face?
When resources are limited, what is the best strategy and surest investment?
Just some of the things we will explore in this panel hosted by Motion Hatch.
Hayley Akins will be joined by Koto‘s Santiago Avila, Kieran Argo from ScreenSkills and Binkink‘s Bart Yates as they share their views on where creative work is coming from in 2026.
Santiago Avila is a Motion Creative Director at Koto London. A 2D/3D animation generalist trained as a graphic designer in Buenos Aires, now overseeing the growth of our Motion team. For 15+ years he has done work for film and TV broadcast, digital campaigns and live visuals for the music industry. He now focuses on building the motion languages for Koto’s brands and campaigns. Balancing art and technical direction, he has worked for clients like Microsoft, Google and Deezer among many others. He has a big interest in mentoring to make the motion design industry a more inclusive one.
Kieran Argo is the Animation Production Liaison Executive at ScreenSkills. He works with the Animation Skills Council and the wider animation industry to identify and address skills shortages in the UK animation industry, having worked for awards ceremonies, festivals and events. With a keen eye for talent and a passion for fostering connections, Kieran continues to play a pivotal role in shaping the landscape of UK animation production and talent development.
Bart Yates is the Founder & Executive Producer of Blinkink, a London-based studio that specialises in innovative mixed-media filmmaking and animation. They bring unusual stories to life in innovative ways across TV, commercials, music videos, and video games.Blink’s output spans original TV series for Netflix, Disney, HBO and Channel 4, alongside commercials for brands including Nike, Prada, John Lewis, Arsenal, and BBC, as well as music videos for Iron Maiden, Dua Lipa, Coldplay, Gorillaz and Elton John.
Bart has presented at festivals and conferences internationally, including the BFI Future Film Festival, D&AD, Cannes Lions, SXSW, and Whext Sao Paulo.
Motion Hatch is an online learning hub for freelance motion graphic designers and animators. We offer training materials, resources, a community forum and a bi-weekly podcast discussing the ins and outs of the business side of motion design. It was founded by Hayley Akins as a resource to help motion designers and animators get advice and support with the things that sometimes seem hard and boring – like knowing what to charge clients, how to protect your business with contracts and much more.
