The solution
Traditional captions tell Deaf and hard-of-hearing viewers what is said but not how it is said — emotion, tone, pacing and speaker identity are lost. FCB Chicago set out with the Chicago Hearing Society and Rakish Entertainment to give captioning a visual grammar for feeling.
The system was co-created with the community: for nearly a year, workshops tested prototypes on scenes from Pulp Fiction, Barbie and The Dark Knight, refining color, animation and variable typography until viewers could distinguish Bruce Wayne from Batman purely by type design.
Caption with Intention was released open source, free for content creators, studios, streaming platforms and broadcasters, removing cost and technology barriers to adoption and inviting the whole industry to adopt a richer captioning standard.
What it achieved
Give captions a visual grammar for feeling
Why it worked
Co-design with the Deaf community made the system fit real viewing needs.
Emotion and speaker identity are now visible, not just words.
Open-source licensing removed the economic barrier to industry adoption.
The film scenes used in testing proved the system on iconic, familiar work.
What can be applied
Accessibility is a creative brief, not a compliance box; when you co-design with the people the feature is for, the constraint becomes the craft.
Aftermath
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences gave Caption with Intention a scientific and technical merit award and will include it in Best Picture inclusion criteria. It swept Cannes Lions 2025 with three Grand Prix — Design, Digital Craft and Brand Experience & Activation — after appearing on the Titanium shortlist, and was widely covered as a new standard in cinematic accessibility.
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