Storyboarding just got a whole lot simpler with Boords

Tom and James have been scheming together since they were 11 years old. Their latest startup is set to simplify a creative process that has a tendency to be a real pain in the bum.

Boords started as a conversation over a burger between Tom Judd and James Chambers, the co-founders of award-winning London animation studio, Animade. Tom, complaining about the laborious and time-consuming process of storyboarding and James quietly taking it all on board… and then, the lightbulb moment occurred.

A year on, James and the digital team at Animade have answered Tom’s – and it seems the wider creative industry’s – cries of desperation by creating a tool that truly makes storyboarding simple: Boords – a web-based storyboarding tool, which makes it easy to add, remove, reorder and replace content to make the perfect storyboard quickly and easily.

Animade have decided it’s time to get Boords out to as many talented folk in the creative industry as possible – so everyone can avoid those hours of fiddly formatting, saving time for better things. “For us, 2017 is all about continuing to make this the best and most flexible storyboarding tool out there, listening to the incredible people who populate the creative landscape and ensuring, quite simply, that Boords helps to give them more time for the fun stuff.”

“The excitement among early testers and users has given us the drive and amazing support to keep improving Boords,” explains Tom. With the addition of an in-app drawing tool and the ability to collaborate with teammates using the new Team plan, the app is continually evolving. What’s more, the Animade team use it every day for their own work, so the developers have a first-hand understanding of what is really needed – and what works for the people who use it.

Boords users are set for an exciting year of continued updates – and storyboarding bliss – as Boords becomes the go-to tool for storyboarders everywhere.

So what is it?

Boords is a web-based storyboarding tool, which makes it easy to add, remove, reorder and replace content to make the perfect storyboard quickly and easily. When you’re ready to share your storyboard, you can easily export it as a tailored PDF, or via a private link – a speedy way to show progress to your clients or teammates, whilst keeping it confidential. Support is available via the Intercom feature on boords.com, so you can talk directly to its team of creators and producers, who are always ready to take on feedback and answer any queries.

The new Team plan lets you collaborate with other people on the same storyboard – your creative companions, clients, producers and whoever else wants to get involved. You can add as many people as you like to your Team. With a Pro or Team account, the drawing tool lets you sketch directly into frames. Perfect for quick scamps, or when you’re starting an idea from scratch.

Who’s it for?

Boords is for any creative teams or individuals who need to make storyboards. “We are learning so much about our incredible customers. We originally built Boords for animators and filmmakers and we’ve been blown away by the wonderful range of industries who’ve been interested,” says CEO Jen Judd. From advertisers to UX designers, documentary-makers to teachers, writers to space companies – whose work literally takes them out of this world… Boords is catering to a whole world of storytellers and it’s just the beginning.