Hide This Thing
In the spirit of a collaborative creative community and the fun of sharing a common secret with countless others, I bring to you the latest idea I’ve decided to throw at the proverbial wall to see if it sticks. I bring you… hidethisthing.com.
Easter eggs are nothing new, but the idea of creating a community around the hiding of common easter eggs in creative projects just might be. It’s easy enough to participate on hidethisthing.com. Simply download this month’s “thing” from the site and put it into whatever project you happen to be working on – TV spot, web site, software application, or crocheted stocking cap – whatever floats your boat. Once you’re done, come back to the site and let the community know where your hidden thing can be found in the Thingatorium.
The story behind the concept is very simple. Years ago, I made a graphics package for a newscast on a small television station. I had a crush on the weather girl there but never could quite muster up the courage to ask her out. Instead, I wrote a paragraph about how I’d ask her out and then hid it as an animated element in that graphics package. She never knew, but I knew, and others who worked at the station knew. It was our little secret.
Throughout the years I’ve hidden other easter eggs in my work. The most blatant was when I hid a picture of myself in the reflection of a two-story window in a crane shot. One of the recurring characters that I hid in my work was a militant monkey named Col. Pickles. He’s the subject for another time.
Ultimately, I got to thinking about my easter egg hiding and contemplated creating a site that outlined where I hid each. However, a little more thought got me to thinking it would be a lot more fun if we all started from scratch and created that collection together.
I think the idea behind this community has some real potential, so I’d really love for you to digg it, blog about it, and most importantly, participate in it. There’s a myriad of ways it can go, and eventually I’d like to open the submission and voting on each month’s thing up to the community. That way we are all truly a part of a little inside joke.
Also, if you’d like, take one of the following web buttons and add it to your site. Don’t forget to link it to hidethisthing.com.
[tags]social media, creativity, easter eggs, collaboration, community, design secrets, robotegg[/tags]