Case Study · Brand · Film · Ecommerce
Litigant
Plain English guides to the family court in England and Wales, for people who face it without a lawyer: researched, branded, filmed in claymation and sold through its own shop.
Read the film
Everything starts with the idea.
This one began in a storm: facing the family court alone.
We researched every step, and wrote it in plain English, every claim sourced and dated.
We built the brand, and gave it a voice: calm, warm and honest.
Then we cast it: a family of claymation characters, sets and scenes, made to feel human.
And a website that tailors itself to whoever arrives.
“Researched, plain English guides, written for the person holding the form.”
Search it in your own words.
“The hardest part was not knowing what to expect.”
“If court has not started yet, almost everything is still yours to decide.”
Choose a guide, check out, and download it the moment you buy.
Chaos, to clarity.
From an idea, to something real.
Litigant. From idea to reality, by AFD.
Got a what if of your own? Let’s make it real. AFD.
Replacing chaos with clarity for people facing the family court alone.
The brief
People who go through the family court without a lawyer face forms, hearings and language that assume legal training. They are often frightened, short of money and reading at night before a hearing. The idea was simple to say and hard to do well: give them researched, plain English guides they can trust, without ever pretending to be a solicitor or offering legal advice.
The creative response
Alexio led the work from the idea to the finished product: the research and the writing standard, the brand and its calm, warm, honest voice, a cast of claymation characters with their own sets and scenes, the explainer films and their voice-over, and a website that tailors itself to whoever arrives. Every claim in a guide names its source and the date it was checked, and crisis support stays visible on every page.
The build was carried out with AFD, the studio Alexio leads, as the project agency.
Client Litigant
Sector Legal guidance, England and Wales
Role Idea, creative direction and delivery
Project agency AFD
Connected Delivery
What the work brought together.
- Product idea and strategy
- Research and plain English copywriting
- Brand identity and brand voice
- Claymation characters, sets and scenes
- Explainer films and voice-over
- Website, search and personalisation
- Guide shop, checkout and PDF delivery
The work
How it looks in use.
Inside the product
Search, guides, checkout and the cast.
Technical overview
How Litigant was built, and the problems it solves.
A small, self contained product with the rules that protect its readers written into the build.
A shop with no framework to maintain
PHP and SQLite with no framework: guide pages, search, basket, checkout with Stripe and PayPal, instant PDF delivery and an admin area for orders, refunds and referrals, on ordinary hosting.
Search in the reader's own words
Readers type the question they actually have, such as a letter from Cafcass, and guides are suggested as they type, without needing legal vocabulary.
Tailored without tracking
A short first visit question shapes the guides, imagery and language to the reader's situation, and the answer stays on the reader's device.
Every claim sourced and dated
Each guide names its sources and the date they were last checked, so a frightened reader can see what the information rests on.
Guardrails in the build
England and Wales only, banned claim phrases, crisis support on every page, and an AI mentor pilot whose drafts are reviewed by a person before anything reaches a reader.
Films made to a style guide
The claymation explainers follow a written style guide for characters, sets, voice and pace, and close on an end card built from the real brand lockup.
Built with PHP and SQLite · Stripe and PayPal · Admin for orders, refunds and referrals · Claymation films and voice-over
The outcome
Litigant is live at litigant.guide, with its guide series, free resources and explainer films in one place. Readers meet a calm, clear product that explains what each form is asking and what each hearing is for, and signposts help whenever it is needed.
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