The JibJab Blog

Stick Your Face In It!

Check out what our friend Mauro made!

Our friend Mauro Gatti is a brilliant designer / artist / animator and he recently self published this book…

SUPER BEST FRIENDS

The thing that makes Mauro awesome is that not only can he draw like nobody’s business, but he’s FUNNY! Unfortunately, for this project he could not find a large publishing house that would agree to print it on recycled paper so he self funded the production. How’s that for sticking to your guns?

Check it out – if it makes you smile (and you can spare a few bucks) support the artist. Grazie!

June 7, 2012
Team Photo Day!

We were brought back to our school picture days this week when we had Team Photo Day here at JibJab! During the photo shoot, we had the bright idea to animate the group photo of us. Check out the team in motion…

We are a pretty good looking bunch, if we say so ourselves! Wanna join our team? We are hiring!

June 7, 2012
Rest in Peace, Mark Ryback

We tragically lost one of our own last week. Mark Ryback, our System Administrator, passed away after a courageous battle with cancer. Mark, a devoted husband and father, had a passion for skateboarding, loved jammin’ out to the Greatful Dead and was extremely dedicated to his work here at JibJab.

Mark was a part of the JibJab family for close to four years and will definitely be missed. Consider making a donation to the American Cancer Society or Grind for Life in memory of Mark or for someone you know who has been affected by cancer.

May 24, 2012
Where Do the Ghost Heads Come From?

Do you ever wonder who’s head you are covering up when you make one of our many fun Starring You eCards? As you know we typically use an employee as an actor or model for a new video, but did you know our faces are also the grey default heads? We recently had a photo shoot of some of us here to make some new ghost heads for the site. It was school picture day all over again and with the help of our trusty photographer, Anthony, we got some great faces!

So go ahead…cover up our mugs with your faces & make some Starring You videos!

May 17, 2012
ATTENTION!! Drill Sergeant Mom

With Mother’s Day quickly approaching this Sunday we are in no shortage of fun cards to make Mom feel special on her day. In our newest Mother’s Day eCard, Drill Sergeant Mom, we see a cartoon mom singing her way through a day of keeping her house together. It is animated, but did you know we actually photograph every move our characters make to help the artists animate in a realistic way?

As an employee here it is not unusual to be asked to put on a costume to help make an eCard. Here we see our Director of Production, Corey, dressed as the Drill Sergeant Mom and one of our animators, Nate, as the child.

Now check out the cartoon storyboard below. Can you see art imitating life?

Have you sent your Mom a card yet? Create Drill Sergeant Mom today & we will deliver it to her on the 13th!

May 10, 2012
Ben & Jerry’s Stopped By!

After reading about the Ben & Jerry’s truck tour in LA, the JibJab team instantly got on Twitter to ask them for some free Ben & Jerry’s! They stopped by last week to share with us their new Greek Frozen Yogurt. We took a break and escaped to the parking lot to try out their flavors: Raspberry Fudge Chunk, Peanut Butter Banana and Strawberry Shortcake. They were delicious! OPA!

Want Ben & Jerry’s to stop by your office? Check them out on Twitter.

May 3, 2012
MLB Uniform Changes!

It’s baseball season which means it’s time for you to represent your favorite Major League Baseball team in our Take Me Out to the Ball Game video! Did you know many of the teams went through official uniform changes during the off-season? We followed suit (and uniform) by adding updated logos to the hats and pin stripes to home uniforms…it’s a good thing we created a smooth science to create all 30 videos!

The biggest change definitely was the re-branding of the Florida Marlins to the Miami Marlins. Check out the difference here:

Has your favorite team changed up their uniform?

April 26, 2012
Happy Birthday to You!

Do you have trouble picking out the perfect card for that special birthday someone? Well, choosing a birthday eCard has never been easier with our improved birthday website! We’ve expanded our search options, so it’s quicker and easier to find the perfect card. We added a personalized envelope to make the cards more fun to send and receive. And we have added the ‘QuickSend’ option, which makes sending a card something you can do within seconds. Plus we guarantee a new card each week! Check it out today & let us know what you think in the comments below!

April 18, 2012
Silicon Beach Town Hall

Last night we participated in an awesome local event called The Emergence of Silicon Beach, a Venice Town Hall that was hosted by the Venice Neighborhood Council and the Venice Chamber of Commerce.

We were one of the twenty-five companies in the showcase portion of the event and had a great table set up to meet the members of the local community, talk about our eCards and iPad app (JibJab Jr. Books) & give away t-shirts & mugs!

Following the showcase, a panel session began which was moderated by LA City Councilman, Bill Rosendahl. Panelists included Tom Williams (Senior Engineer – Google), James Citron (CEO – Mogreet), Jeff Solomon (Co-Founder/Managing Director – Amplify.LA), and Chris Pearson (Senior Policy Director – Mayor’s Office of Economic and Business Policy). They discussed the growing tech/media/entertainment community in the Southern California area, why these companies are here and what it means for the local economy.

It was a very well attended event and it was great for us to be able share all the fun things we are building with the local community!

April 13, 2012
Swinging into Spring!

Spring has officially sprung & the Easter holiday is this weekend! Of course that means another fun Starring You dance that will give you moves you didn’t even realize you had! Last year we brought you a 50s themed do-wopping dance and this year we were lucky enough to work with some amazing professional swing dancers to help you Jump, Jive and Wail! Check out these behind the scenes photos and video of the dancers shaking their bunny tails:

Have you turned your loved ones into swinging Easter bunnies yet? Click here to join the fun & share the laughs!

April 5, 2012
Learn to talk like Robert Deniro!

The master impressionist behind most of our videos, Jim Meskimen, has produced an instructional video that can help you learn to do a Robert Deniro impression. Check it out here:

How’d you do? If you are craving more Hollywood action, check out our Movie Spoof videos and cast yourself & friends into the funny roles!

March 29, 2012
Quote Wall!

When it was decided we were going to change up our office space, Gregg and Evan took the time to explore ideas for decorating the office in cool ways that would keep us inspired. One of their ideas spun out of our JIBJAB: LAB – a text-pattern design that Andy created. They thought it would be awesome to paint giant quotes from people we admire on the walls in his style. Gregg then emailed the team asking us to submit our favorite inspirational quotes.

After choosing some of the best quotes like “Simple is Good” – Jim Henson & “Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish” – Steve Jobs and throwing in a little of Andy’s design magic, we brought in a crew to get all the letters up on the wall. Of course we createed a video of the project – check out the time lapse:

Now as we look at the quotes surrounding our mission, “Billions of People Happy,” we can’t help but smile & continue to create fun stuff for all of you!

March 26, 2012
Sending Your eCards via Email Just Got Easier!

Recently we added a great new feature that makes it WAY easier to send your JibJab eCards via email. Thanks to service provider CloudSponge, now you can import your email address book to JibJab to access all of your family and friend’s email addresses.

Here are the simple instructions on how to use this new feature:

1. Click the “import address book” link under the “to” field.

2. Choose your email provider.

3. Allow access.

4. Search for the person you’d like to receive the eCard.

5. Check the box next to the person’s name. If you would like to send to multiple people, check the boxes next to all of their names!

6. Hit “Next” and voilà the email address(es) will appear in the “to” field!

Try it out today!

March 16, 2012
Magical Brew Animatic

Now that you learned more about the song writer for our new St. Patrick’s Day Starring You video, Magical Brew, take a look at the animatic used in the early creation process. In case you are unfamiliar an animatic is where we take the visual gags and ideas and start to lay them out into a timeline so we can see how they look and feel with the song. They are usually followed pretty closely.

Can you find any differences between the animatic and the final Magical Brew video?

March 15, 2012
Break Room Fun!

Just when you thought that working 2 blocks from the beach, a wheelbarrow of snacks and a beer fridge was enough distraction at work, we outdid ourselves…one day after a long team meeting we found two more fun additions to our break room!

We work really hard to bring all of you fun eCards & kids storybooks, but now during breaks away from the computers, you can find us playing Skeeball trying to achieve the high score or on the Foosball table defeating one another. Which game do you like best? Let us know in the comments below!

March 7, 2012