It is Spring in Scotland! Time to leave behind long wintery days and enjoy longer daylight hours and warmer temperatures. Spring is a time of growth and at Hippotrix that is exactly what we are doing! While Hippo Seasons is enjoying featured banner ads on Apple’s App Store across the globe, we in the studio are busy designing and developing applications for a varied market, with particular focus on young people.
We are particularly happy to announce that Hippotrix are designing an exciting app with Catherine Wheels Theatre Company, who have been awarded funds by Creative Scotland to develop an app to compliment their hugely successful show for early years called WHITE. The app inspired by the multi-award-winning show White, will be for children aged 1 to 5. White was created in 2010 by theatre-maker Andy Manley, and quickly became a global success, touring to Japan, the USA, Australia and Europe, with over 550 performances worldwide to date.
Hippotrix intend the app to be both a fun digital toy to play and an educational tool to explore the world of colour. It aims to extend the experience of those children who have and will watch the White performance while at the same time be a stand alone app to experience and the widen awareness of the show and the people behind it.
This collaborative project aims to produce an unique and complementary children’s app for users before or after experiencing the show, as well as being an independent digital toy. It will be designed for children and their parents as an educational and entertaining exploratory tool to enhance understanding of colour, and may also be suitable for users with Special Educational Needs.
Hippotrix are excited to welcome Ben Fletcher-Watson, as our new team member onboard for a six month placement as part of his PhD. Ben Fletcher-Watson has been awarded an ESRC (Economic and Social Research Council) Industry Placement, via a Capacity Building Cluster grant awarded to the Institute for Capitalising on Creativity at the University of St Andrews.
Ben will introduce himself shortly and contribute to the Hippotrix blog during his placement with us, particularly keeping you up to date with the process of turning a theatre performance into an app for early years children.
Exciting times!