Interactive Annual 13:
Semillero
“A small but richly engaging world with simple yet compelling interaction that engages visitors and draws them through the site.” —David Young
“How did they make that tree do that? You don’t have to understand the language to enjoy the site.” —Jeff Benjamin
Based on the metaphor of a seed that matures into an expressive plant, this site is well suited to its subject matter—a school for creatives in Mexico City. While users explore the wildly creative interface, they also find information about the school, its teachers and upcoming courses.
- Graphics created in Illustrator and Fractal Painter
- 400K average section size, 3MB total file size
- Custom content management system
“Creating the Semillero plant wasn’t an easy task. It was a truly exhausting assignment of more than three months of drawing and giving life to every one of its details.
“Just the opposite of what happens with most projects created with the newest technologies, happened with this one. Semillero returned to the basics—an artisanal scheme that made us rethink its entire digital theme.
“Every one of the stages of the plant needed to surprise and enrich the user’s experience. In the end it became a psychedelic journey with brains, bugs, hands, flowers and hearts that lodge in its interior like a caterpillar waiting to mature into a butterfly.
“What we like most about this project is the analogy of how a universe can emerge from a tiny seed, in much the same way as our ideas grow.
“To date, it has been one of our agency’s most beloved projects, mostly because we had complete creative freedom to develop it.” —Miguel Calderon
Miguel Calderon, creative director/art director
Ruben Ruiz, writer
Homero Sousa, programmer
Raul Uranga, Flash programmer
Cesar Moreno, graphic designer/illustrator
Ulises Valencia, producer/sound designer
Sebastian Mariscal, production artist
GrupoW, project design and development
Semillero, client