“30 endangered species, 30 pieces, one fragmented survival.”
Bryan James, a graphics and web designer, has used his talents to create In Pieces, an interactive website experience that informs audiences about 30 unconventional endangered species in a unique, fun, and emotionally and visually engaging way.
When you enter the website and load the page, it brings you to the first of 30 species to explore. Emotional piano music plays as you click and watch as the images of these 30 fragmented pieces deconstruct to form each animal on Bryan’s list. But more than just a pretty picture, each new creature also provides viewers with options to learn more about their story and struggle of survival. From threats, to habitats, to embedded videos of each animal, the website is highly informative and opens the door to new possibilities on how information about the threats to our environment is presented: through interactive stories.
Bryan uses flat vector graphics to tell the story of each individual animal and the struggle their species face in an effort to survive. Such graphics are often seen in print advertising, billboards, and posters, but less often do they make an appearance on a website to play the center role in a story such as this. The thing that stands apart the most is Bryan’s ingenious use of symbolism, using only thirty geometric pieces to construct and deconstruct each of the thirty endangered species.
It is so refreshing to see an experience on endangered species presented through interactive experience. Audiences are more familiar with viewing information about threatened species via televised documentaries, commercials or YouTube and Facebook videos that pull at your heartstrings and make you sympathetic. Even more traditionally, viewers have become accustomed to reading about the threats to our natural world via standard scroll style websites, books, or booklets and brochures. These traditional forms of providing people with information did work to some extent; they would introduce an issue and hope to educate those in contact with the work, but the info was often presented in a dense and dull way — something solved by Bryan’s interactive experience. Interaction, and diversity; not in the sense of species, but in medium. For the most part, traditional websites and commercials on endangered species only offered viewers a single platform in which to retain knowledge from. In this experience, In Pieces, viewers can interact to explore a vast range of information on the selected animal, from statistics to threats to videos embedded that offer another platform to deliver information, offering viewers the choice of how they would like to learn and absorb the information. The multitude of links and videos embedded also provides a unique benefit. Because Bryan created this educational and inspiring experience alone, he was able to use facts and footage from a plethora of sources. It is through these sources, viewers can explore and learn even more if they choose, since they have all been connected in this interactive website.
All of the elements come together beautifully; the sober emotional music, the meaningful and stunning thirty piece drawings, the perfect amount of information — not too much and not too little — all form a wonderfully immersive interactive experience, that grabs hold of your heart and sparks your interest.
The sight of the colourful, vibrant and cute graphic animals is enough to rope in your attention at first; watching them come together is a kind of magic on its own, but the reality of the message behind the art is just as captivating, and it is most likely the eye-catching art itself that makes this project so successful. If thirty pieces were not used to assemble and reassemble thirty endangered species, if it was instead still photographs or even video footage used in place of the graphics, I believe this experience would not have the same effect or impact. The pieces work to highlight the fragile existence of the species and their struggle living fragmented precarious lives. It was all masterfully planned, the medium, delivery and message all aligned, in my opinion, perfectly.
Conventional forms of relaying data and facts cannot always be best, especially when it is on such a precious subject, and those lives directly effected are at risk of slipping away each and every single day. If you want to capture the attention of your audience, it would appear that both emotion and unique symbolism are key, and of course, the right kind of music and colour can go a long way.
