For the past few months, I’ve been working with the team at WP-Engine Labs on a huge public art project called GIF the Halls. The project asked 7 artists, including myself, to create short animated greeting card designs. Users can then go to GIFtheHalls.com to pick a design and add a message, then we will project their card in downtown San Francisco and send them a video/GIF of their card in action. It’s awesome, we basically are sending them a gif of a gif.
The installation went live on Saturday night and runs until the 24th, so you should stop doing whatever it is you are doing and go make your free card.
This whole experience has been amazing too. I drove a scissor lift… I get to share my work on a big ass wall in downtown SF… and I learned so much in the process. The gif I made is an animated fireplace created with a beta version of the amazing Hexels app (with much additional tweaking in Photoshop), but I also got to help Tomas with a heavy portion of the planning including creating the silly name, designing the user-flow and wire-frames for the site, creating the mock ups (like the animated gif up top), organizing the artists, working on the social media, and even creating the little interstitial images that play between each of the holiday cards.
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If you are around on Monday night, you should come by and see the installation in progress. We actually have two locations along Market St, but we’ll be having a little artist’s reception at our installation in Yerba Buena Lane (right next to the Coffee Bean at 685 Market) December 22nd, from 5:30 to 7:30.
I’ve learned so much on this project and think it’s proven to be a once in a lifetime opportunity. I just want to say thanks again to Tomas and the WP Engine team, Gray Area, and 10up for all of their work and support.
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