The artist as compressor

People are inundated with thousands of pieces of information every day. Much of it is unimportant. Others we should not only absorb, but also understand. One medium that can help us in this respect is an infographic movie. The latest Migros annual report is a successful example. For Migros' annual media conference, Hitch Eggenberger created a two-minute animated film with the most important business figures for the first time. A compact version of the annual report, so to speak.

"For companies that have to communicate complex and abstract information, an infographic movie is an interesting alternative," Eggenberger is convinced. An important advantage of such films: The effort for the user is minimal. "Users are lazy. A single click on the play button is all it takes and the story starts. We all love good stories and we don't forget them so quickly. The information embedded in the story also sticks better in our memory," the "compressor" is convinced. Hitch Eggenberger has been offering such a service for two years with his start-up Hitch Design in Erlenbach. He has been specializing in this area for almost ten years.

Hitch Eggenberger grew up in the Rhine Valley. As early as fourth grade, his teachers said: "Hitch will be an artist one day." Because he was also convinced of this, he looked for a suitable apprenticeship. An apprenticeship as a flat painter seemed like an "ideal foundation" to him at the time, albeit in a company that already specialized "in the decorative direction". He later switched to a proper decorative painting company and from there it was not far to the preliminary course at the ZHdK in Zurich. Hitch Eggenberger, who until then had wanted to paint pictures, discovered his fascination for information design while studying visual communication. "That set the course for me. "

Winner of the Adobe competition

During four years of intensive work in the field of information design in Zurich, the opportunity arose for an exchange semester in the USA. This was followed by an eight-month stay at SAIC in Chicago. During this time, Eggenberger also took part in the Adobe Design Archiving Awards and won a silver medal. The finalists were invited to San Fran- cisco for the award ceremony. "That was the starting point for the collaboration with Adobe." The young Swiss was commissioned to create the complete corporate design for the next competition in 2008 together with a young international team, and is still on the jury for the international competition today. Together with well-known designers from all over the world, he is on the pre-selection panel to help evaluate the almost 5,000 entries each year. "You see and learn a lot there." You also get to see what new influences come from the "youngsters", laughs the already "established" young entrepreneur.

After his success in Chicago, Eggenberger wanted to see more of the world and ended up doing an internship in Guangzhou, China. Back in Helvetia, Eggenberger began working for the Zurich Musqueteers.

The art of nesting

During this phase, he repeatedly reached the limits of his creativity. How could the ever-increasing amount of information be projected onto a surface in a comprehensible way? Eggenberger looked for ways to interweave information "so that I don't have to show everything at the same time". This problem led him to animation and ultimately to animated information films. "Here I can nest information and don't always have to show everything at once. I can guide the viewer through the information step by step and thus convey complex issues in an understandable way. "

During his subsequent Master's degree at Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts, Eggenberger spent almost two years "intensively studying such films". He coined the term "infographic movie" and wrote a master's thesis on these films based on his research and analyses. Because he was convinced of the great potential of this medium, he set up his own business immediately after leaving school.

He realized the first two projects on behalf of the Identica AG agency. The Migros project was followed by a film for Swisscom - and with these two references, things have continued steadily ever since. Hitch Eggenberger does not see a larger company as his own business goal for the time being. What is certain is that he wants to focus fully on specialization and become a "top address" in the field of animated information films. Being able to work for international clients from Switzerland is a major goal. He has already been approached by the United Nations in New York. He was asked to produce an information film for the recent United Nations Conference in Rio. Eggenberger's concept made it onto the shortlist and ultimately came second. But Rio will certainly not go down in the history of infographic films as the last UN conference. Andreas Panzeri