wee see

Part art installation, part pacifier, Wee See is a collection of black-and-white animations built from basic shapes to delight both child and parent. As vision develops slowly over the first months of life, Wee See provides surfaces of bold, well-defined artwork to engage your baby’s curious mind and bring the screen to vibrant life.

I was lucky enough to get my hands on these brand-new DVD’s and I am *impressed*. The Wee See videos are a truly artful and minimalist experience. Rolyn Barthelman and his team did an amazing job. The site, the packaging and the two videos are designed with *such* attention to detail. Hat tip!

This is a fantastic gift for (designy) new parents! Here’s a little peek at collection number 1:

15 Comments leave a comment below

  1. I love them. How fantastic!

  2. Looks like there is starting to be conclusive evidence that showing videos to children under 2 years of age can lead to attention deficit problems… i worry about promoting any videos to young babies.

  3. Heck.. my 4 yr old kid can make simple Flash tween animations like these.

  4. I agree with Amy. No television for kids under 2. A big no-no.

  5. Actually, there’s hardly any, to NO evidence of that. There’s been quite a few studies that suggest that television won’t make your baby smarter, but none that I’ve seen (and I follow and read about the subject) that prove it does harm.

    I think these animations are beautiful. Nice work!

  6. Was talking to a psychologist and she is the one who had provided this insight regarding attention-deficit being caused by television for babies under 2 years of age. Her husband is also a doctor in the field. Both work at Mass General Hosipital in Boston. I will ask for articles to post that state the evidence. Agree the animations are really great, just don’t want to see them marketed towards babies and new parents.

  7. there is a big difference between these dvds and television. it is the crazy spastic editing and music in most of tv programming that doctors warn against…this is much more peaceful and gentle.

  8. Totally agree, Robert.

    I bet your psychologist doctor friends would agree that this is vastly different than what was used to do any research you might be referencing. I respect your concern, as I share it, but I’d hate to throw something this beautiful under the bus before there really is any direct studies tied to it.

    I’ve read quite a few articles on ADHD concerns as it relates to television use, and they raise some interesting questions and beg for more research, But ALL of that is based on programs so radically different than this.

  9. I don’t know about this one. For a start I got really sore eyes within a few minutes.
    The sound also tended to get a bit spooky, and some of the simple images could be seen as all sorts of things to different perceptions (think ink blots).

    All in all, I could imagine this leading to nightmares (even in me).

  10. This is the best! Sore eyes and nightmares! Give me a break! If more parents would thoughtfully consider what their children watch on tv, there might be less hyperactivity in kids. The wonderful images with the beautiful music create a relaxing, soothing mood for all, not just children.
    I urge all parents of young children and infants to watch with their families and experience a new kind of video, soothing to the eyes and ears and come away smiling. BRAVO! Very well done; even the packaging is top notch

  11. I thought the packaging clearly stated how to use these DVD’s and we parents must take responsibility. Generalizing various half truths is a cope out to sensible raising of your children. Television may well be bad in excess. Chaotic or high energy videos certainly affect my kids. I believe in moderation and good sense. WeeSee, certainly isn’t Baby Einstein or Nickelodeon. I find their DVD’s calming, attractive and make sense for modest periods when we can’t be personally be interacting with our children. I’ve always felt parents who use videos and TV as a babysitter are foolish. Maybe someday well have clear facts to deal with, but WeeSee in unique and refreshing for me and my kids.

  12. Hello, Heather from Wee See here.
    My husband is the creator of Wee See and I just have to say this conversation was totally anticipated and expected. I don’t mean to fuel the fire here, only to state a bit of the process of how this product came to be.

    Rolyn created Wee See as an alternative to the current products marketed towards babies and children. In fact the inspiration came after watching a video given to us as a gift. Questions he immediately asked were : Why can’t this stuff be thoughtful and well designed? Why the random soundtrack laid on top of random visual?

    He set out to design something that television is not. Nothing moves quickly and there is essentially no editing, short of some objects appearing on screen. We’ve even described it as a mobile on tv. We make no claims that Wee See will make your baby smarter.

    Once we had several clips finished complete with music, two different child psychologists (one specializing in infants the other in toddlers) were given samples and asked for their honest professional opinions without any form of compensation. Both came back with great feedback. There were several comments that we took into consideration (that have nothing to do with this conversation.) But the overall impression from both doctors was that Wee See was very thoughtfully designed and they didn’t see how it could cause harm in any way.

    Amy, I would love to chat off Swiss-Miss about this and if possible would like to speak with your friends as Mass General as well. We did quite extensive searches for studies on tv and children and honestly found very little that applies apples to apples. Most studies are based on many hours, as in six+ hours daily, of traditional television. We state on the packaging and our website that parents must ultimately decide what is right for their child, in both choosing content and the amount of screen time. You can reach me at [email protected]

    We understand this product might not be for everyone. But for the parents that have been looking for something beautiful for their kids to experience we hope that Wee See is the answer.

    Thanks for the lovely review Tina.
    Now signing off to spend some Mommy time with my daughter!
    :)
    Heather

  13. I was able to obtain the link to the studies about Infants watching TV.
    The reference for the actual article is at the end of
    this science daily writeup.

    http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/01/090113074419.htm

    In discussion with my friend, the psychologist, she states “Many of the studies seem to indicate that of greatest concern are babies/toddlers who watch hours of TV in a day. Nonetheless, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that kids under 2 years old should watch TV minimally or not at all. That seems pretty straightforward.”

    She goes on to state her choice is not to get any baby DVDs for her son and to be careful that he not be exposed to TV for very long, if at all. At the same time, she thinks other parents have every right to make their own, different choices.

    I hope that this article can at least provide some information regarding my initial post and concern over targeting DVDs towards children under 2 years of age.

  14. I love this!!! How do i buy one???

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