2/22 — Taking on the world of comics
This week, I’m shifting to a field that I am yet to explore: the world of comics.
Our client came to us today looking for something very interesting: a comic spread about staying safe on the WPI campus during COVID-19. As such, I was both hesitant for the ignorance I had in the area, but excited for all that I could learn. By reading up on essays by Scott McCloud and Lawrence Sipe, I learned a ton about the effects pictures and text have on one another and the many different ways pictures and text can be combined to create extremely powerful messages.
To get a foothold on what was possible, me and my partner, Tori Buyck, teamed up to test some of the different routes we could go with this project. We tested two main ideas: creating something more fun or more formal. One would be purely informational while the other would play off the story-telling nature of comics.
On the left, we have a comic that shows a student going through their bi-weekly COVID test. The text represents an insight into what the student is thinking. The thoughts are intentionally comedic to create a fun, fear-free atmosphere around the tests, making students feel safer about taking them. Based on McCloud’s definition, this is considered an interdependent comic since the pictures and text work in tandem to convey a story that neither could convey alone.
On the right, we have a different comic that takes the more serious route. It breaks down all of the changes that will come to campus after the alert level status is changed to Green. Each box is used to represent a different change. This is considered a word specific comic as the pictures simply illustrate a largely complete textual idea.
In our next blog, we will be getting feedback from our colleagues on these ideas and be choosing what path our comic will take.
NEXT BLOG: https://paradoxpyt.medium.com/2-25-choosing-a-path-edb82b565947
