Are My Characters White Just Because They're Drawn in Black and White?

Since 2014, under the name Benoît Dessine (Ben in Motion), I’ve created over 300 animated videos in a minimalist whiteboard style. With more than 4,000 drawings under my belt, one question often comes up:

If my characters are drawn in black and white, does that make them white by default?

My visual style is based on simplicity — clean lines, minimal detail, no color. It’s a deliberate artistic choice, but it raises important questions:

How can I represent diversity without falling into stereotypes or caricature?

A single character, depending on the name they’re given, may appear to belong to a different cultural or ethnic background. That’s the power — and sometimes the limitation — of symbolic, simplified design:
It invites the viewer to project meaning and identify freely.

Simple Drawings, Complex Questions

Representing without Stereotyping: Finding the Right Balance

Am I Jamel, Patrick or Carlos?

What if I were wearing construction gear or a swimsuit?

Every project is a collaboration. Every client has a different audience — and with that come specific needs around representation. Here are a few real-world examples:

Audience: Diverse population from many ethnic backgrounds.
👉 Solution: I chose to explicitly color the skin tones of the characters to clearly reflect that diversity.

🇫🇷 France Travail (France’s national employment agency)

🌏 CEVA Logistics (Health)

Audience: Broadly Asian, spanning several countries.
👉 Challenge: Create characters who look Asian without clearly representing one single nationality.
This required nuance — avoiding clichés while staying recognizable.

🇺🇸 Allies in Recovery (U.S. nonprofit)

Audience: Families dealing with addiction, often from Latino and Black communities.
👉 Characters needed to reflect these backgrounds without reinforcing stigma or oversimplifying reality.

When Diversity Makes Clients Uncomfortable

Sometimes, the storyboards I propose are rejected by clients — not because of technical issues, but because the characters “don’t fit”:

• Androgynous characters, people with non-traditional appearances, or unconventional gender expression

• Simply assigning a non-stereotypical gender to a specific job or role

Not feminine enough!

Hair too long!

Hair too short!

Hair too long

Not beautiful enough!

At Ben In Motion, diversity isn’t loud — but it’s always there. It’s woven into the drawings, suggested in the body language, expressed in the names, the roles, the relationships. And it’s always tailored to each client’s audience and message.

A Quiet but Committed Approach to Inclusion

🎬 My approach:

• Avoid stereotypes — but don’t erase difference

• Offer a range of body types, skin tones (when color is used), ages, and gender expressions

• And above all, create space for people to see themselves in the story

Conclusion: Inclusion Through Simplicity

Representation isn’t just about skin tone or hairstyle. It’s about intention, about the way we look at others, and about creating characters that invite identification — no matter how simply they’re drawn.

At Ben In Motion, every line tells a story. Even in black and white, every character can carry a voice, a perspective, and a unique identity.

🔁 What About You?

• Have you ever perceived a character differently just because of their name or the context?

• What role do you think animation and illustration play in building a more inclusive world?

👉 These moments reveal the limits of representation that still exist, even in projects that aim to be inclusive.
But they also reinforce why inclusion matters — and why Ben In Motion (Benoît Dessine) remains committed to bringing subtle, honest diversity into every project.