Spawned in the Art & Science Lab, Nifty Fish is a 60” digital aquarium that allows anyone with a smartphone to design a unique fish, and “fling” it from their phone into the tank.
With 10 options each for each part, there are over 30,000 species of Nifty Fish to create and discover.
The different body parts came from drawings made by the Art & Science staff: from project managers to developers, everyone was invited to sketch and colour a few fish on a template that indicated the general size and placement of body parts.
We then scanned the sketches and recreated each drawings in software, interpreting everyone’s artwork in a consistent comic book style.
The Nifty Fish brand continues to manifest in new ways. Most recently, we lured a few fish off of the screen and into the real world, 3D-printing a few species to serve as office decor. You can even order your own 3D-printed Nifty Fish and have it shipped to your home.
Over the past couple of years, Nifty Fish gave swam their way to multiple family-friendly events all across North America, including TIFF’s digiPlaySpace, events at Celebration Square in Mississauga, the Buffalo Science Museum and the doSeum in San Antonio.
