Ad agency JWT London recently held an exhibition titled ‘Loop’ which featured framed stills of animated GIFs created by various artists.
The exhibition was organized by JWT creative Yoni Alter, and aimed to showcase the myriad creative and sophisticated designs that could be produced within the medium’s limitations.
Visitors could bring the images to life by viewing them through their smartphones with an augmented reality app called Blippar.
Illustrator and animator Robin Davey, one of the four featured artists invited to speak at the opening, said “My career parallels that of the GIF format. Unbeloved for many years, plugging away, facing obsolescence only to be rejuvenated by emerging platforms and applications”, as he introduced his work for Wired Italia.
Along with Davey, Matthew Powell, Matthew Lucas and James Curran each ran through their creations on Tumblr, revealing some insight into what kind of GIFs were most popular. GIFs centered around fast food, sex, and superheroes fared especially well.
The animators also had some words of advice for creating good GIFs. Powell advised to start small and not to overcomplicate things, Curran recommended sticking to no more than two characters at a time, and Lucas said great results could be achieved using just Photoshop.
Check out some of the GIFs below and head over to the JWT GIF Gallery for more.
Animated GIF for Wired Italia by Robin Davey
Animated GIF for Wired Italia by Robin Davey
Animated GIF for Wired Italia by Robin Davey
Burger by Robin Davey
Popsicle by Robin Davey
Superhero GIF by Robin Davey
Reflection by Matthew Powell
Implode by Matthew Powell
Topography by Matthew Powell
Flip Flop by Matthew Powell
Superhero GIF by James Curran
Animated GIF by James Curran
Populate by Matthew Lucas
Pizza by Matthew Lucas
Burger by Matthew Lucas
Hotdog by Matthew Lucas
Citrus by Matthew Powell
Citrus by Matthew Powell
Citrus by Matthew Powell
Piratetheses by James Curran
[via Creative Review, GIFs via Robin Davey, Matthew Powell, Matthew Lucas and James Curran]