The Stephen Hawking Effect
focus features + fandango // hyfn // DESIGN + web + social
Quick—list three standout names in pop culture. Chances are, “Stephen Hawking” didn’t make your list. So when Fandango challenged HYFN to engage and activate millennials with “The Theory of Everything”, a 2015 romantic drama about Stephen Hawking, we knew we had to find a way to make the genius physicist relevant today.
In-depth research proved that Stephen Hawking is a legend even in today’s media—from Star Trek to The Simpsons, Legally Blonde to Pink Floyd. As the reams of research grew, so did our excitement to visualize Stephen Hawking’s lesser-known influence on pop culture. Combining the minds behind UX, Creative, and Development, we devised an interactive grand taxonomy chart that would engage users to discover unique, personal connections to Mr. Hawking.
Through a bit of experimentation, D3.js quickly became our development library of choice, with several animation customizations of course. When it came to social, creating shareable images quickly posed itself as a significant problem that needed a smart solution, simply based on the sheer quantity of possible connections (several hundreds). Rather than manually create an asset for each possible connection, we tapped into our taxonomy once again, creating application that sourced all possible connections, replaced assets, and exported final shareable images in a matter of seconds.
