Motion Matters

Whether you’re familiar with them or not, the elements of art are the foundation to everything we create. Space, shape, form, value, line, and color: these fundamentals are the grammar to a language that everyone knows. Like wood with iron, the near-limitless combinations of these elements become our tools to convey meaning and feeling.

For 40,000 years, we could only use the elements of art to convey time the same way we might convey sorrow. An abstract concept that had to be imagined rather than experienced, true time in art was a limit of technology.

“Art challenges technology, and technology inspires art.” John Lasseter

It’s no wonder that when we design, we first reach for our trusted tools, we focus on what we’re most comfortable with: space, shape, form, value, line, and color. Animation, or art over time, is treated as an embellishment, an afterthought to enhance what’s already been made. Yet our collective ability to experience animation is increasing exponentially.

Technology has challenged art. Smart phones, tablets, and the latest browsers have broken time’s technological limitation. We must now consider the next hurdle: breaking our own creative limitations. This is admittedly difficult, because we’re not just adding one more element of art, we’re increasing the possibilities dramatically through its combinations. How does time influence line? space? color?

The challenge we face as designers is how to incorporate animation in step one of our design, rather than in the appendix. Defining how a modal appears before choosing its background color. Considering how to “delete” beyond a big red button. Providing emphasis and context with animation before drop shadows.

Time is no longer an abstract concept to be conveyed, but a true element of art to be experienced alongside space, shape, form, value, line, and color. When can we update the Wikipedia page?