I had the pleasure of interviewing Tapook CEO, Giorgio Fipaldini (with the assistance of Isabella Pingitore as translator) via email. I reviewed their app PlayART recently and wanted to follow up to find out more about the company and their development process. PlayART is a playground for learning about five masters of late 19th and 20th century art and tools to create images with components of their work. I will include a few images some young friends and I made with the app.
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| pieces from Paul Klee's work |
iArt4Kidz: Tapook is a relatively new
company. Can you tell us what your background was before Tapook?
Publishing, media production, artist?
Giorgio Fipaldini: Tapook’s
background is an added value to the company. Our vision follows a holistic
concept of digital publishing, involving people whose expertise comes from
different and complementary fields, such as publishing, video production,
visual communication and software development. With regard
to my background, I have a ten year experience as a creative director in
digital media: from the first websites for Giorgio Armani to the production of
dvd-roms for Barilla, via countless motion graphic videos for MTV Italia.
iA4K: Do you find having
offices in two countries gives you a wider perspective on trends in current
culture that may be relevant to media production?
GF: Sure, it does. In order to expand
your horizons, you can’t limit yourself to look at the world from the web only.
And the most cosmopolitan and vibrant city near Milan is London.
iA4K: Tapook
has released two very different apps, can you tell us your vision for the
company and what you see coming down the road.
GF: To begin
with we wondered: what has not been published on the App Store yet? So we
published the first (unofficial) app on the New York Marathon. Today, to ask
this question is reductive. “Paper by 53” is a clear example of how improving
something already made by others, can be very rewarding: more than 1,500,000
downloads in the first two weeks.Therefore, the kind of questions we ask
ourselves now are: what can we improve, innovate and transform? How can we
enrich the user’s experience and exploration, and inspire him/her? The best
place to ask this question, for us, is the bookshop.
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| pieces from Henri Rousseau's work |
About PlayART
iA4K: PlayART is such a delightful experience. Can you retrace for us how the
idea for this app evolved? A lightning bolt of inspiration (from what
source?) or developed slowly over time. How much did it change in
development?
GF: As I
said bookshops are inspirational places to us. It was just by leafing through
art books for children at a bookshop that we had the intuition: what if these
paintings could be moved or animated and children could play with them? Perhaps
they will look at art with more curiosity and interest, and have fun. Children
would be rewarded and stimulated by the creative process. From this insight to
PlayART’s final version, the path was long and not without revisions.
iA4K: How
long was it from concept to delivery to the app store?
GF: PlayART’s
production period lasted 7 months: from the first creative briefings in
December 2011, to the pubblication on the App Store last June 2012. A total of
12 people, including 2 children, have contributed to the app, divided between
Milan, London and Modena.
Isabella, Guido and myself, the core team, followed every step of the
project.
iA4K: What is your
favorite part/activity in PlayART?
GF:The
section “My Favorite”. To be able to combine elements from artists so different
in styles allows for unexpected creative results.
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| mash up of all of the artists |
iA4K: What
was your process in selecting these artists? Was it important to have
them be as famous as they are? How would it have changed the activity if
your app featured artists just as exciting, but not as world reknown?
GF: Selection
process was very important. We wanted to offer a broad overview of artistic
genres to stimulate children’s imagination in different ways, and at the same
time, offer a vision, although
concise, of the evolution of painting.
However,
the choice of the artists was mostly influenced by two practical aspects: they
had to be in the public domain and their artworks had to lend themselves to the
kind of post production work needed. From a marketing viewpoint the artists’
popularity has definetely helped, but the most important things is for average
adults to know them. In this way they can share and enrich the child’s
experience.
iA4K: The video clips are a wonderful
addition to the creative activity of the app. How did these evolve?
The black and white artwork is a delightful counterpoint to the fully saturated
paintings. Who did that illustration?
GF: The
motion graphic video clips of the artists are proving very popular, thanks to
Ellis and Sasha’s sweet voices. We’re now working on French, Spanish and
Italian versions for future releases and a tutorial video with illustrated
animation of the artists to guide users through the app. The
drawings in the videos come from my notebook when I was a student at the Academy
of Fine Arts in Milan: I only had to adapt and animate them. It was the most
enjoyable part of the job.
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| pieces from Paul Klee's work |
iA4K: Can you talk about your funding for
the app? Did you have investors or is the company self-financing
development?
GF: The
company is currently self-funded: PlayART will be the company’s calling card
for investors.
iA4K: What
were the tools you used in development, ie software, etc?
GF: In each
project the first tools we used were pen and paper, then Apple Keynote. I used
Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator for the graphic design, After Effects and Final
Cut for the videos, and finally, xcode for the software development.
iA4K: Did
you use focus groups to test the app in development...or was your research with
kids less formal than that?
GF: In the
early stages of development the app was tested on internal groups and children
from family friends. Later, we had the chance to test the beta version in a
Elementary classroom with children
and teachers. It was a very rewarding experience.
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| pieces from Claude Monet's work |
iA4K: How
will your measure the success of your kids apps? (or any app)
GF: To
measure success by the number of downloads is misleading: an app which is bad,
but free is likely to be downloaded more than a good one with a fee. With
regard to PlayART, we measure success on the feedback from children, parents
and teachers. As long as a child asks to play with PlayART, or parents wonder
at their 5 year old child’s request to visit a museum, or a teacher thank us
because she can teach impressionism to primary schoolchildren, then PlayART has
been successful to us.
About Kids Media
iA4K: What
are your all time favorite apps? for kids? for adults?
GF: All time best: Flipboard
Favorite
app for kids: Barefoot World Atlas
Favorite
app for adults: Al Gore - Our Choice
iA4K: What
do you remember from your own childhood that is inspiring you in the media
development for kids?
GF: As a
child I spent a lot of time breaking toys down. I wanted to find out how things
were made and, above all, if I could build them up with pieces from other toys.
Curiosity and creativity and a will to innovate are the most important factors
behind our apps.
Thank you Giorgio and Isabella for sharing this information with us about your work. The very best of luck as you move forward and I look forward to seeing what's next and how PlayART will evolve.
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