GIFs encapsulate many of the emotions we feel every day as well as a lot of the things we love, from timeless movie scenes to entrancing shapes and color shifting forms on a loop. Unlike our emotions and the things we love, however, GIFs remain trapped in our computers, unable to escape to the real world. Until Gifpop! was created, that is.
Gifpop! is a GIF printing project by New York-based data visualizers Rachel Binx and Sha Hwang. Using lenticular printing, a technology that’s been around since the 1940s (to print those hologram cards we loved as kids, remember?), Gifpop! will print around 10 frames of animation onto small cards. “We love making tools on the internet that turn into physical things you can hold,” Binx and Hwang write on their Kickstarter page. By combining low-tech GIFs and low-tech printing, Binx and Hwang are allowing us to hold once-intangible pieces of the internet in our hands. “We think that gifs and lenticular printing are two simple, lo-fi technologies that were made for each other,” the pair writes.
After testing their printing method, pairing up with a custom-print lenticular manufacturer and building a website where users can order GIFs for printing, Binx and Hwang launched a Kickstarter campaign to gather an initial bulk order. It appears GIF printing is high in demand – the project reached its fundraising goal in less than a day, according to Businessweek. By the end of its campaign Gifpop! had raised over seven times its goal, reaching a number of stretch goals for Vine and Instagram video support and business card printing.
Once the Gifpop! site launches, you’ll be able to upload GIFs of your choice and select the frames you’d like to see on your card. You’ll also be able to select frames from Vines and Instagram videos!
Gifpop! is also partnering with GIF artists to increase exposure of their work and help fund their efforts. Participating artists include 89-A, Mr. Div and lulinternet. Prints of these and other artists’ GIFs were available as Kickstarter rewards, as seen below.
Binx and Hwang have collaborated before to start up the custom jewelry company Meshu, which allowed people to create jewelry based on places they’ve been.
Learn more about Gifpop! in the video below or on the project’s Kickstarter page.
Which GIFs would you like to print?
