Depending where I’m coming from and where I’m going to, I might pass a newly renovated plaza in town named “Merrimack 360”. This is apparently a member of the Settler’s Green network of shopping centers and outlet malls that we have here in New Hampshire. For the longest time this plaza was a derelict, but in the past few years we’ve been experiencing a boom in construction, especially in mixed-use construction, which is an initiative I wholeheartedly support. This particular plaza has been a real boon to the town, and I am hoping that it’s a sign of good things to come.

The logo is pretty retro, comprised of orange, white, brown, and yellow colors and a straightforward geometric design. The logo in the animation is actually modeled after the physical sign that sits at the entrance, and is not the design that Settler’s Green uses in promotional materials, which consists of just the orange circle and text. I wanted to have the brown support in the animation because it had an interesting break to what was basically a “circle with text”.

Relevant Websites

I had to do a Google search for “Merrimack 360” to get the colors as close as I could. I also pulled the background illustration from the plaza’s leasing section of the Settler’s Green website as linked above.

Relevant Resources

Nothing special here. The “merrimack” font is Acumin Pro and the “360” font is Lato. I paid more attention to the numbers because the original “360” has a straight-back, slanted arm on the “6”, and while the original “0” is almost perfectly round, I couldn’t find a font that had the straight-backed “6” and a perfectly round “0”.

Technical Details

I wish I could say that this was worth explaining, but it’s really pretty simple.

I started with the circle and applied a Radial Wipe effect at -90°, wiping counterclockwise. The brown bar is just a Scale change over time, but the key is that the anchor is located at the very top of the shape. Otherwise, when the scale changes, both the top and bottom stretch up and down if you leave the anchor in the center of the shape. The “merrimack” text is a Position change. The “360” text has a “Straight in By Character” effect applied so each number moves in on it’s own. The background has a Gaussian Blur applied quickly at the start, and all motion layers have Motion Blur turned on. Pretty much every motion keyframe has Easy Ease set as well.

Note: This work is unaffiliated with Merrimack 360, Settler’s Green, or the town of Merrimack. It’s only provided as an exercise in animation and is not endorsed or approved by any of the above.