The Future is Animated (and We’re Really Excited)

Picture this.

You’re staring at the beautiful view of the Grand Canyon. You scan over the huge crack in the earth, taking in every piece in your line of sight. Something suddenly flies up from below, distracting you from your view.

A BIRD.

You still see it as it flies off into the distance, unable to truly forget it after it interrupted the serene stillness of the Grand Canyon.

If you take a look at the any of your social media platforms or visit current websites, you will notice a lot more movement than there used to be. This isn’t a deep metaphor for anything; I’m talking about the literal motion of objects on the screen. It could be the way an interface animates when you interact with it, or the inclusion of animation or video on the page.

One of my personal favorite social media platforms taking advantage of movement and animation is Instagram. Okay, okay, I know they technically jumped on the bandwagon when they started allowing users to post videos, and then they may have taken it a step further when they nearly duplicated Snapchat’s “story” feature, but it’s hard to argue with a platform that has more than 400 million users.

Now, you can call me a grouchy old man stuck in the past, but I’m still a purist for the still photography. So when I scroll through my feed, the videos that I see from the friends, family and brands that I follow really stick out in my memory.

My brain says, “Hey, that’s moving, you should watch and see what it does.” I know I can’t be alone. Which got me thinking, this is a great way of using motion as a technique to capture an audience.

We keep watching, even if only for a few seconds, because we want to find out what is going to happen next.

At JP, our graphic designers have made it a priority to incorporate more movement into everything we produce. Because of the easy access to quality Internet connections and the rise of smartphones, we’re seeing more and more videos everywhere.

If a business wants to catch a customer’s attention, the element of motion needs to be embraced and integrated into marketing campaigns.

We’ve already jumped in to tell a deeper story for our clients. Are you in?

–Oliver Greenbarg, Graphic Designer