Special Agent Productions has given life to web leader Scribd's series of online "How To" presentations, including "Introducing Scribd in HTML5," which was unveiled last month by Scribd co-founder Jared Friedman at the Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco.
Scridb, the largest social publishing and reading site in the world - with over 50 million readers every month - tapped Special's talent to design and implement a series of "How To" guides. Special's team combined simple language with charming characters - and a few helpful visual gags - to produce a compelling device that delivers important information to Scribd users.
"Scribd challenged Special to come up with a unique design style that was both sophisticated and whimsical," said Amy Capen, Special Executive Producer. "It was key that the illustration style allow Scribd to provide a lot of detailed information in an easy-to-understand and entertaining manner."
When Scribd announced it was transitioning to HTML5, the company did so using a presentation designed and illustrated by Special director Mike Overbeck. Special's goal was to engage interest and infuse humor into the inherently dry task of explaining technology. Overbeck created two sets of characters: one to represent a wide variety of Scribd subscribers, and a second that presents documents, plug-ins and software programs as animated elements conversing with the subscribers - resulting in the look and feel of a creative storyboard, rather than an instruction booklet.