The designer Roberto de Vicq de Cumptich created an animated site called Bembo’s Zoo based on an abecedary (alphabet book) that he created for children in print form. In this case, Flash is used to turn typography, motion, and sound into an experience for children and the adults who teach them.
After spending some time with the animation, provide at least one complete paragraph with your analysis of the example. In your analysis, discuss how the design choices (images, typography, color, layout, motion, interaction, sound) communicate the story that’s being told. What differences, if any, do you notice between the way this animation looks/works and the way the other animations you’ve analyzed look/work? Support your ideas with concrete examples. Correct English grammar, spelling, etc. are required. Leave your analysis as a comment on this post.
Roberto de Vicq de Cumptich’s animated website, Bembo’s Zoo is truly amusing. I haven’t experienced an internet version of a child’s picture book before. The sound, color and typographic play is very interactive, and especially broadens creative horizons for those viewing. The creator could have used illustrated works of animals but decided to use serif font to create resemblances to the animals, he put a bit more thought into sending a message that could have been executed an easier way. I think the work is clever and very successful in educating children, after all many children are attentive when the work is interactive, and poses as entertainment rather than wordy textbooks and tedious note-taking. Cumptich’s work for his purpose of expanding youngsters educational boundaries is accomplished very well.
I thought this flash website was slightly entertaining but not as interesting. I doubt I can come up with a better idea but the letter animation was very creative. My three year old cousin whom I showed this too, loved it. She kept pointing at each letter asking me to open it as she stared in awe at each one. I think the site accomplish its goal to be attractive and interactive for young audiences. The interface was large and easy to see. The type was colorful and eye catching. Each letter to animal transformation was unique and clever. Compared to other other flash work, this site is a lot more simple yet creative at the same time. For example there was minimum options to choose from yet it was interactive for the viewer.
When I first enter Bembo’s Zoo website, I immediately felt that I was in a zoo already because the background audio of kids and the typography changed into a tiger character gave me a sense that the alphabet will be using typography to make different kinds of animals that began with the first letter of the alphabet. The bubbling alphabet itself has it own button that spin and you can hear the background sound before you even see the animal as you are about to click on it. This was such a terrific interaction for kids to learn the alphabet. This is just something what we did in class. For example, when we wrote our own actionscript in class, we are giving command to our own movie; we want our own movie to work exactly the way we want them to play when we click on it. The actionscript in each alphabet play and made a smooth layout back the whole alphabet page. Overall, the content of this animation had provided a great consistency.
I have actually seen this website a while ago, and every time I see it I would think that it was a clever idea of the designer to incorporate different letters of a word into creating images that sort of explain or represent the word. Each image was related to a specific alphabet that either symbolized an animal or a term that was being spelled. The letters were transformed into animals in a very remarkable way. My eyes actually followed the movements of different letters when they were being combined. It was fascinating to me that by changing the sizes of the alphabets and using their variations, such as making them into capitals or lower cases, a whole new visual effect was created. Many images were formed simply from rotating and flipping the letters in the words. Even though all the images were made in a 2d structure it was still pretty fun to click through and look at all the different ways letters could be merged together.
The layout of the website was very simple with only four different colors used. It also had consistent serif type with the same colors where when they were combined on top of a white background, the focus was directed to the animal or the word presented. This would be a great site for kids because it used movements of alphabets to make learning about them fun. And instead of showing images of animals with the correct spelling or words under those pictures, this website was creative in a way that letters were no longer just letters but animal’s ears, legs, and body. The sounds were also interesting in such that before you even click on the actual alphabet you could kind of expect what will show up once it’s being clicked. However, when you hear a sound that you are not familiar with it would be like a mystery and would drive the person to click on to find out which animal made that kind of sound. Overall this flash site was very easy to navigate, you just have to click on one alphabet and an animal or an image will pop up and then you’ll be returned automatically to the main alphabet page for your next click.
When I opened this site, the first thing that came to my mind was “wow, my eyes don’t hurt.” I would guess the designer of this site took “children” into consideration when he/ she created this site for kids. It wouldn’t irritate their eyes, nor would it irritate the eyes of whoever is teaching it. The colors are smooth and of a more relaxing choice. There are a lot of motion, whether it’s motion tweens or classic tweens present on this site. It must have taken some time to get all the alignments and timeline right for this site. As for the site and what’s contained in the site, the artist/ designer was really creative with how he/she made the letters move like jello. One, it may get children excited, and two, it’s one extra way to get the teachers to teach effectively to the kids. The way the letters transform into animals will also get a giggle out of kids. The actionscript was probably very complicated. The only difference between this animation site and others we’ve seen before is that this site is solely on teaching, and not selling. Also, there are more movement on this site than any other, at the same time of course.
To be honest the website has a very creative use of typography, but I do not feel it was designed with children in mind. While an adult would see the website and think how clever to use type to create images, I think a child would easily be bored with the website, and not click through every letter. I can appreciate the art form of the site, because its simplicity shows and the use of type create all the wonderful images of the animals; I know that much have taken a lot of work to do in flash.
If author wanted to make the website more kid-friendly I would definitely add more color. Orange, Red, Black, and Green are not exactly the best colors to attract a kid. Also the font seems very professional and not childish in any way. I also think when the font transforms into an image, it would have been nice if the author has used the color of the actual animal, and create some sort of common landscape in the background using text as well. It is very hard to keep a child’s attention longer than a couple of minutes, so if text, imagery and sound are all you have to do so, then you have to take total advantage, and in this case I feel he did not.
Sorry! 🙁
Sammy (and others) – don’t feel you need to apologize for criticizing something – criticism is great, as long as it is supported, which you’ve done well.
Bembo’s Zoo is a very creative site. The white background makes the different colored letters stand out and also makes the animals stand out as well. I really like how there is so much movement to the website. It would be interesting for children to see this site and maybe learn what a few animals look like but not all. I think the letters forming an image of an animal was a great idea but for some animals I thought they could have stayed on the screen a bit longer. Some animals, like the jaguar or the yak, disappeared from the screen too fast. It’ll be hard for little children if they wanted to see the animal a bit more and know how the animal may look like. I also thought the animals could have had more movement. The ibis showed it walking across the screen, and I thought other animals should show movement like that as well.
This is a great way to learn the alphabet, animal names that start with each letter and sounds that are related to each animal. It was a good idea to use animals because this is one of the first set of things that children learn. I liked that as a user scrolls over a letter, they can hear the sounds that the animal makes as a preview to the animation of the animal. I was amazed by the animation of having the letters of the spelling of the animal name grow, rotate and flip to become the animal. After a while though, this site does become a bit of a drag to go through all 26 letters. I think as a next project that the creator can focus on different parts of the zoo. Since the letters on the main page are floating, the background could have been an animated ocean and it could have focused on animals that live in this habitat. Similarly there can also be pages with jungle animals, desert animals or maybe expand to animals from different countries. Whenever, there is no animal available for a letter then something can be made up like the X-ray wolf of Bembo’s Zoo. The entire site had the same flow throughout from the opening gates to the letter Z. Everthing was plain and there wasn’t much to be excited about besides the animal transformations.
Bembo’s Zoo is an interactive site suitable for children. Clicking a letter to see what animal will appear would be fun for children. Watching the letters of an animal’s name morph into an animal is very entertaining. Hence, the typography is very impressive. I also like how the animals’ eyes dart back and forth because that makes them look silly, which would make children laugh. Moreover, the sound effects can help children identify different animals if they go to a zoo. However, I did not like the motion too much in the animation. Most of the animals disappeared too quickly, except for a few of them, like the ibis. The animals should stay on the screen for a longer time so that children can look at them more carefully. In addition, the section with the bouncy alphabet looks a little fuzzy when they’re moving, which makes me slightly dizzy. Perhaps the white background should be changed to a darker color because it is bright. Overall, this site has a simpler layout than many other animation sites so that it is children friendly.
Bembo’s Zoo used one typface: Bembo. I think it is a creative use of letters. While trying to make this site kid friendly, the designer made this site very simple and used various colors. Also the use of audio is intriguing to little kids. Hearing the sounds of the animal on rollover works well. However, some parts of the site doesn’t work that well. At first, the alphabet follows my cursor around in a long row. Then when you click on a letter and come back to the home page, that effect goes away. Don’t know if that is meant to happen, but it doesn’t seem consistent. If this is a site for children to enjoy, then the animations of the animals should last longer. When a letter is clicked (for example: C for crab), the animation of the letter forming the shape of the animal is interesting, but it only lasted a couple of seconds. I feel like it should last longer for kids to enjoy. Because of the swiftness in the change of letters and back to the homepage, people may start to feel a bit dizzy. I am trying to take in everything that is happening so fast and then it goes away just as fast. In general, this site is targeted towards little kids and it will entertain them so it serves its purpose.
As soon as I saw the creative way the site’s creator used the “e’s” to connect with the “o” in Zoo to form a lion’s face, I have to admit I was a little excited at the fun and different use of basic typography to become something new and some what unexpected. The rest of the site also reflected the creative use of letters to form some other image which also delighted me and I would expect the children who would view this site, however I became a bit bored after a while with the limited use of colours although the sounds were still engaging I felt as though more colours could have been used to make the images just a bit more interesting but I understand that they may have wanted to stick with one colour to represent the letter and the animal at the same time. The movement of the letters as they transformed into their various animals were also quite captivating but as some of my fellow classmates have mentioned the stark white background, although used to put the focus on the animals, may be just a bit too bright for most people to enjoy. All in all I still would reccommend this site to any one with a young child who was just learning their abc’s.
The Bembo’s Zoo website is an interesting representation of what flash can do. The first great thing that I noticed about the website was the opening of the zoo gates allowing entrance into the “zoo”; neat idea! This site is also very interactive; rolling your mouse over each letter makes a different sound to represent the animal that the letter spells. Also when you actually click on the letter, it spells out the entire word of the animal and then uses those letters to draw the animal. This is another great representation of what flash can do. The sound is appropriate for the target audience of this application however I found it to be a bit too loud. I have never seen a website like this to teach children about the alphabet and animals; most websites would use actual pictures and boring typography to teach children but this realizes that children need to be interested in learning to actually learn. Overall, I think this flash application had a great deal of thought put into even the small details, making it an application children will enjoy.
I really like the animation. I think it conveys the message found in an educational teaching book in a great way via a web based medium. Sometimes it is hard to transfer print onto the web and vice versa, since not always can print content be used online. I love the animation, particularly the way he incorporates the sound and the typography. I really love the idea of transforming letters into animals; I think he did it beautifully. The only thing I thought could be better was the coloring. Since it is a site for children to learn the alphabet, I think bright colors for either the lettering or the background would be more appropriate. I think the layout works well. It is straightforward, which makes it easier for a parent teaching his/her child to navigate through the animation by just clicking on a letter.
This animation is very different from other animations. First, it speaks to a different audience –young children and their parents. Many children begin learning the alphabet at age 2 and don’t use the computer themselves. Other websites, such as Got Milk? that teaches the importance of consuming milk, has much more interactivity in the forms of games. This website targets older children who can use the computer themselves and can read. Secondly, there the animation used in the website is very simple, without videos or characters, just letters that transform into animals with sound in the background. This is in contrast with a sales-oriented website that tries to use much more complex animation and more interactivity and navigation, such as the Loreal website.
I think this is a great site for kids to learn the alphabet. For one, it is interactive and kids love anything that they can interact with. It has a very simplistic design for kids to understand and easily navigate though. Colors are very kid-friendly by using bright “Crayola” colors. The sounds correspond to the movement of the letters and sometimes correspond to the animal/letter you are clicking. What makes this site good for kids to learn from is the fact that when you click on a letter, it not only gives them a zoo animal word to associate the letter with but a picture of that particular zoo animal. The zoo animals are rendered from the letters of that word. This flash site is much simpler than any of the other flash sites we have viewed in the past. This is probably because this site is supposed to appeal to children who need the simplicity to understand the content of the flash design.
This site is a great interactive site for kids to use. Using bright colors to catch the kids attention and to allow kids to associate the letters with specific animals. Bembo’s zoo uses the letters to create the actual animals which will amaze kids. This site has sounds and creative imagery. This site does what it is required to do, which is attract children to play with the letters.The layout of the website was clean and simple with a white background, which didn’t take anything away from the actual animations. Children have very short attention spans but with image, interaction, motion, and sound. For me, this site became annoying after clicking on the different letters with its bright letters and intense sounds.
I think the site is a great site for children. First, the site open up as a zoo gate opening up which will catches the attention and makes the children want to go into this site to see what’s happening. Second, the letters of the alphabet are in different colors, making it seem more playful less serious. Children tends to be more interested in colorful things than black and white. Third, the sounds that comes when you click on the letter and while the animal shape is forming helps the children know what kind of animal this is. For example, when I click on the octupus, it has watery sound. This would tell the children that an octupus is an animal that lives in the water. When I click on the zebra, it has horse sounds, so you can get a sense that this animal is somewhat similar to a horse. Last, the way that the letters in the word is used to create the shape of the animal will even farther catch the children’s attention because children tend to like visuals over word. This way helps them know both the animal and the spelling of the word.
I completely fell in love with this site, so much in fact that I wish I could interact with it and write this blog at the same time 🙂
First, the site is extraordinarily creative. At first glance you make think that the bright colors and a lot of white space is typical for a children’s site, and the concept itself (the alphabet) lets the viewer know that it is indeed for children. I also believe that identifying animals with each letter of the alphabet was a smart and innovative idea because, children, as well as many adults, are audio and visual learners. It is a much more creative idea than say having each letter and then the word of the animal come up, or a picture. The sounds make you pay attention and for some of the letters I found myself really listening closely to decipher which animal the sound was conveying.
Also, the way that the entire alphabet follows the cursor pleased me very much. Without it, the viewer may just get bored with the just the sounds. I played around with the cursor and made combinations of animal sounds which were accompanied by the alphabet making designs on the screen. The site had nothing overly complicated or too flashy (no pun intended). Overall, the site is clean, simple and brilliant.
This was an interesting flash site. I enjoyed its simplicity and loved how Roberto de Vicq de Cumptich was able to design such elaborate creatures with just the letters within its name in both upper and lower case. I would’ve very much enjoyed this site if I were still a child, and although it does appeal to both adults and children I would have to say that it wouldn’t keep me entranced for very long. On one good side, I had no idea what an Ibis was until now.
This was an interesting site. The colors were those that kids would love and would be able to keep their attention. But for me the most striking part was the effects of creating many reproductions of the letters and resizing each one to create the shape of the animal or object. If it was done in a frame by frame method, the amount of work and detail is amazing and very creative.
Cumptich’s idea to create the alphabet book into an interactive flash for children to learn from is a great idea. It was a very creative flash design considering he used typography to actually create the animal images. The beginning scene is simple and amusing. Each letter of the alphabet plays as an interactive button that when hovered over they play the animal noises of the animal they represent which in turn really emphasizes the zoo ambience. The multiple choice of colors also add the zoo feel, and he takes it further as you enter into each alphabet seeing how letters of the spelling of the animals begins to move in playful ways resulting in the creation of the animal. Its an alphabet zoo. This design definitely takes learning the alphabet to a new level with kids.