Back in January, I wrote about the latest marketing ventures involving GIFs. The corporate GIF is trending, and it’s easy to make. So easy, in fact, that according to design firm InVision’s “7 Tips for Designing Awesome Animated GIFs,” all you need is expensive editing software. Just pop a video into a program like ScreenFlow, and it’ll spit out a GIF.
Sample line: “Here at InVision, GIFs aren’t just for goofing around — they play a powerful part in our marketing and education.”
As if there’s just two reasons for making a GIF; either you’re doing it for the lulz or for “marketing and education.” There should be other reasons to create, other than raising the humor level or expanding the knowledge of your product.
How’d I get around to reading about InVision? Tom Moody, who mentioned InVision’s “vision” for vid-based GIFs on his blog—and offering his own seven tips on how to make anti-fleek, GIFs that have nothing to do with marketing. Those tips, reprinted below.
Tom Moody’s Seven Tips on Breaking Animated GIFs
1. Choose your targets wisely. Would this look more funny/stupid if broken?
2. Find an online image editor. Start messing around with the settings.
3. Does your broken GIF look too much like “glitch art” or “datamoshing”? Back to the drawing board. Avoid “art” cliches.
4. What is your purpose behind breaking the GIF? Are you making a philosophical point about entropy or is this just for “lulz”?
5. Who is your intended audience? Is it an art audience or a “funny junk” bulletin board? (Related to No. 4 above.)
6. Does the GIF really look broken or just badly made? (Think about that, too.)
7. Always pad listicles out to odd numbers.
(Above GIF by You Are Mean Computer; pretty sure it both makes a “philosophical point about entropy,” and lulz.)
Comments on this entry are closed.