Cultural Oceans
A collaboration between The University of Sheffield and The British Council, this massive online open course helped hundreds of thousands of users around the world prepare for entering the workplace and learn about workplace culture.
In 2016 The University of Sheffield Careers Service and The British Council teamed up to create a free online course ‘How to Succeed In: The Global Workplace’. The course offered advice for people starting work, either for the first time or taking up a job in a foreign country. It focused on the culture of the workplace and how to adapt to new environments.
The course used several animations – including this one – which compares culture to oceans. Playing on this theme, I decided to create a nautical workplace to visualise how communication, appearance and attitudes vary widely between different cultures, and how much of a culture is actually hidden beneath the surface.
Using this theme meant it was possible to play with the visual metaphor more, and made for a fun – and at times humorous – animation that still communicated the main message.
