In our daily lives, we often consume hundreds, if not thousands of pieces of content. You’ll see a friend’s child taking their first steps, the launch of a new product, your aunt’s seventh photo of a margarita while on vacation in Mexico—with so much content clogging our social feeds, it is a huge breath of fresh air to see something that truly wows you.
What excites me most is the execution of visual creativity that provokes the thought, “I have never seen this before.” We’re not talking about the typical influencer who is sharing a shot from their latest paid-for vacation, a large brand leveraging their multi-person media department, or even talented artists sharing photos of their physical work. We’re talking about digital content creators who put in hours of hard work behind every single post, prompting you to go back to look at it again weeks, if not months later.
All with unique styles of their own, here are the three content creators who never cease to amaze me.
Ari was my first memorable exposure to the world of highly-produced content, geared specifically for social media. He heads an LA-based video production company and his expertise has not gone unrecognized. Ari has worked with major brands such as Apple, Nike, Redbull and Adidas. I was first introduced to his content through his multi-year collaboration with the Coachella music festival.
Ari continually plays with your visual perception in his pieces, the majority of them crafted to loop perfectly. Fair warning, you will likely find yourself staring at them for many minutes trying to figure out how he did it. Here are a few of my favorite pieces:
This piece was done in collaboration with Adobe, and utilizes a camera trick known as the “dolly zoom” or “vertigo effect” pioneered by Alfred Hitchcock for his movie Vertigo.
This looping video was a project for Nike that showcases a play on the Boomerang effect we often see on Instagram.
Every year at Coachella, Ari is sure to have some fun with the ferris wheel. The rotation of the ride provides opportunity for some disorienting movement of the video frame, and the pieces always end up having a mesmerizing effect on consumers.
In a recent interview with Society6, it was revealed that Chris McDaniel spends his nights as a graveyard shift plumber for a Tampa Bay hotel chain, although I don’t think he’ll be doing that much longer. Chris churns out fascinating animations using the Plotagraph Pro tool, which adds motion to static images.
Working for a marketing agency , I’ve used Plotagraph quite a bit. Many people use it to add simple animation to a still image, such as movement of clouds or water, but Chris takes it to a whole new level. Much of the content he creates parallels that of other digital artists and elevates it, giving it an entire new life through the element of motion. With iHeartMedia, The Grammys, and Shaq, among his list of collaborators, I think his plumbing days will soon be over. Check out a few of my favorites:
This was the first piece I ever saw from Chris. The Plotagraph effect works incredibly well with the outer space visuals, and the motion truly brings the piece from @nicebleed to an intergalactic level.
This post displays a deeper dive into visual effects beyond just the Plotagraph tool. The addition of the eyelashes plays with your perception of scale and creates a more thought-provoking final piece.
This final piece takes a pastel drawing by @david_art and adds the Plotagraph effect, 3D movement and the perfect musical compliment with “Day One” by Hans Zimmer, from the Interstellar soundtrack. It’s very easy to get lost in this one.
I have to give some love to the static content creators as well, and Aditya Aryanto’s feed is constantly filled with great work. Aditya is a self-taught Indonesian visual artist who specializes in photo retouching, often utilizing animals and always creating content that plays with your perception of scale and environment.
As a content creator, I personally appreciate his series of album posts where he shows the raw images he used to create the final product, and Story posts where he provides a glimpse into his process. His Anicube and Aniball series are among the more playful pieces he creates, and you’ll see from his entire feed—Aditya lacks no creativity with his work. Among the many great posts to choose from, here are my highlights:
Animals…but cube shaped. These will never not be entertaining.
In this album, he shows the two stock photos that make this surreal final piece come to life.
Aditya regularly explores more abstract concepts, like this post—provoking an undeniable shock factor.
Outside of his Product Designer role at Google, Jason Spielman is a video producer, entrepreneur, and Social Ambassador for GoPro. Among his video creations, which will give you undeniable wanderlust, the creativity he flexed in the post below was too good not to share.
Here is one of his posts:
The silhouette jumping from one post to the other caught me off guard when I first saw it, and based on the comments, I’m clearly not the only one. Definitely check out the rest of Jason’s work, and if it makes you want to leave everything behind and go travel the world, you can’t say I didn’t warn you.
It’s my hope that you’re feeling as inspired as I am by these creative individuals, and appreciate the work they produce. In a world with content overload, we need more ingenuity and these visual artists never cease to deliver.
Do you have any content creators you love? Please share in a comment below. The hunt for great content never ends!
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