Once upon a time, Brafton’s design, video and animation teams existed as separate departments. Naturally collaborative, but separate. That’s pretty standard, after all — the design team handles graphics, video produces video and animation animates.
We worked really well that way for more than a decade. But when Ken Boostrom, Brafton’s former design and UX director, retired in 2025, it presented an opportunity to re-strategize and restructure. And thus, the Visual Media Studio was born — a cohort of visual artists, headed up by another tenured Braftonite, AJ Muffett, who’s been promoted to Brafton’s Vice President of Visual Media. Sam Oxley, a senior graphic designer turned design manager, has also stepped into a leadership role to support the department.
More than an effort to fill a Ken-sized cavity in Brafton’s leadership pool (a true impossibility), this strategic reorganization puts each team — design, video and animation — in an exceptional position to share knowledge, learn new, transferable skills and collaborate more effectively across client projects.
I recently chatted with AJ to learn more about our new Visual Media Studio, his vision for the team as it matures and how its formation is already helping our talented design and video team members grow beyond their traditional roles.
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Combining Teams & Sharing Leadership
The new studio places greater emphasis on cross-departmental cohesion and project clarity. Designers, videographers and animators are interacting daily, sharing ideas and working more closely than ever toward common goals.
“With one person now overseeing both departments — where there was already a lot of crossover in terms of brand guidelines, design elements, text treatments — it’s a lot easier for me to see projects across both paths and bring them into alignment,” AJ said.
Even with a few workflow adjustments, the most significant — and valuable — change so far, AJ says, has been Sam’s promotion to design manager. In her new position, she provides mentorship, upskilling and training to her new direct reports.
“She has a pivotal role in the success of the Visual Media Studio,” said AJ. “Sam now oversees other designers and provides daily feedback and mentoring, whereas before, her colleagues might’ve only gleaned ideas from her completed client work. That’s been a massive benefit.”
With the larger team and dual leadership comes fuller calendars. To accommodate, AJ has also established an internal resource production coordinator role. Rodrigo Luques, senior animator at Brafton, now splits his time between animation and production coordination to assist with scheduling, resourcing and workflow communications to keep creative projects on track and deadlines intact.
Closing the Gap & Creating More Opportunities To Collaborate
The old structure — before the Visual Media Studio — was still collaborative between departments; it just required a bit more intention and legwork. AJ aims to keep closing those gaps to create an increasingly collaborative environment with more regular team meetings focused on knowledge sharing and cultivating creative inspiration.
That’s something each team has always practiced independently, AJ noted, but now that everyone’s working under the same roof, it’s all about creating cohesion.
“Just because it’s a different medium or art form doesn’t mean others can’t take something from it,” said AJ. “Even if it’s how you approach the creative process, tools, execution — there is a lot of crossover from that perspective.”
That could mean sharing completed work that team members are proud of, or projects they’re actively working on but feel stuck. The new structure gives everyone a chance to bounce ideas around, showcase outstanding projects and push past any creative blockages they might encounter.
That approach also introduces far more opportunities for professional growth and development, which is another key focus for this new team.
“There’s a lot more expectation to be able to do more as an individual,” AJ said.
It’s AJ’s hope and goal that creating more cross-creative engagement and streamlined communications helps everyone on the team strengthen existing skills and even develop new ones.
Exploring AI & How It Can Support the Studio
Artificial intelligence is an area of interest and exploration for the Visual Media Studio. AJ’s investigating how it can support — but not replace — the team’s creative work.
One use case that’s proved especially valuable so far has been generating supporting imagery and footage that feels more intentional and relevant to a project’s context than traditional stock assets.
“For design and video, we have opportunities to generate different images that don’t feel completely like stock and are a bit more bespoke,” AJ said. “Rather than settling for something that feels just ‘OK’ because it’s the closest viable option within a stock library, we can now create something that feels more purposeful.”
AI also plays a role in AJ’s overarching goal of closing knowledge gaps across the department. From static graphics to animations, AI enables creatives in either specialty to more easily dip their toes into the other with low stakes, experiment and explore ideas.
“It’s become a solid resource within the team for ideating and concepting,” AJ noted. “It offers the ability for others to see how certain things work. That knowledge gap is closing and I’m seeing a lot more collaboration.”
AJ’s Ultimate Vision for the Studio
The Visual Media Studio is already a tighter-knit crew. It’s AJ’s ultimate mission to continue uniting the group around their common visual crafts and client goals, while providing as many opportunities as possible to develop new and versatile creative skills.
“That’s my honest goal,” he said, “to bring the teams together even more; to have more collaborative meetings, lessen the definition of each specific role and really present opportunities for the team to upskill and be a force within the Visual Media Studio versus just a designer, an animator or a videographer.”
Fluidity. Adaptability. Collaboration. A studio where specialists still flex their strengths, but also teach, learn and evolve together — tackling complex creative challenges to deliver standout design and video work. That’s the vision. And it’s only gaining momentum!
