Creative Director’s Choice: 180LA’s Jason Rappaport on the NY Public Library’s Insta Novels

Creative Director’s Choice gives creative directors a chance to highlight the work they think is the best out in the ad world – the ads and campaigns they believe are making a difference.

This week, Jason Rappaport, group creative director at 180LA, talks about bringing the analog to a modern digital platform with the New York Public Library’s ‘Insta Novels’ program.

Jason Rappaport, group creative director at 180LA

 

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I used to read a lot of books as a kid. I read in the car, the bathroom, and in bed, but mostly in the bathroom. I even kept a list of the books I’d read so my mom could brag about it to her “mom friends”.

This was way before the internet, which found a way to replace the feeling of a good book in my hands with a glowing screen dangerously low on battery. Timeless stories have been traded for the kind that disappear after 24 hours. And while Cardi B’s Insta story may very well be a digital page-turner, the only thing I’m learning from it is where to buy a Fashion Nova outfit. So, when Mother New York had the idea to turn those mindless stories on the top of our feed into actual stories, I thought, ‘Now, that’s a good idea’.

Not only does it help bring something as analog as a public library into the digital space, it also brings classic works of literature to a platform that young people gladly visit a bazillion times a day. The stories are beautifully art directed and the target is already familiar and comfortable with the platform’s functionality. I love that now, instead of complaining about how much time we spend on our phones, creative people are finding new ways to embrace technology and use it to make the time spent on our devices less frivolous and more enriching. Nothing bad can come from Franz Kafka and Cardi B coexisting in the same space.

Jason Rappaport is group creative director, 180LA.

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Mother New York: New York Public Library 'Instanovels'

Agency: Mother New York

Client: New York Public Library

Date: August 2018

The New York Public Library has launched a new feature to its Instagram account: turning its Stories feature into a place to host actual stories.

This feature, which NYPL has called ‘Instanovels’, shall include classic works starting with Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland, formatted for the mobile space with illustrations throughout to enhance the reading experience. Essentially, many of the classic works in the library's resources can be used to help make the instagram account much like the e-readers that once threatened the existence of establishments like it.

Readers of this book are greeted by the titular protagonist walking through the rabbit holes and the various themes — tea, playing cards, and the like — float through the screen.

Mother New York partnered with the city’s largest library system on this project, which allows readers to use the stories mechanic to ‘flip’ back and forth by pressing the corresponding sides to the screen. They can also hold down on the page to read through the dense material, and watching as animations take over the cover, some chapters and key moments in each novel.

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Agency: Mother New York

Client: New York Public Library

Tags: United States

 

 

 

 

 

 

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