Comic Unit Kickoff!

Today, Katie and I met to start our comic book. We had both previously read three comics, one instructing readers on how to use google chrome, the other on the history of freud, and the third on the untapped capabilities of comics and a genre. I was especially interested in the third comic, which detailed how comics could be used. I had no idea the power of comics, but they really can operate on two levels: not only telling readers what they mean but showing them as well. This is really really effective for storytelling, and also for instruction.

We were tasked with creating a comic that informs the reader about the humanities and arts requirement at WPI. The requirement is definitely a struggle for a lot of new students at WPI, so we decided to cater our comics for first year WPI students. We also had to make sure that our sponsor, Kristin Boudreau aka the head of the Humanities and Arts department, would be satisfied with our final project.

Since Katie and I are both tour guides, we wanted to do a sort of "tour" through the humanities and arts at WPI. We chose Gompei the Goat as our tour guide - a figure that all WPI students would be familiar with, creating ethos. Our Gompei character is a student who had already completed his HUA requirement, so he can pass on his sage advice to new students. Neither of us are super good artists, so we wanted to start by creating a storyboard:

A tour of the Humanities and Arts:

Gompei - Main character

Audience - Incoming first year students

Purpose - Explain the goal of the requirement, what the requirement is, and how to fulfill the requirement and example registration.

Intro frames:

• Gompei introduces himself like tour guide “Hey, my name is Gompei! Welcome to WPI!”
• Gompei under the bridge
• Gompei: “Here at WPI there are a few graduation requirements, and one of these is the humanities and arts project”
• Gompei in front of MQP IQP HUA holding HUA in block letters
• Can separate this into two frames
• Gompei pointing at title of the webpage



Source: https://www.wpi.edu/academics/undergraduate/humanities-arts-requirement

• “A popular way to fulfill this requirement is by complete a “depth” and a “breadth”
• Scale with depth on heavy side, breadth on light side
• You pick your depth and breadth from five different areas of study
• Gompei gesturing to the five areas of study

• 

  Source: https://www.wpi.edu/sites/default/files/inline-image/NEW%20updated%20for%20WEBPAGE%204-7-2017%20HUA-Brochure-Aug2013-Web.pdf
• Your depth is three or four courses in one of these areas. You should choose something you’re really interested in for your depth! As a goat, I am very interested in philosophy, and like to ponder plato as I chew on my grass in the morning.
• Gompei chillin on the grass
• Your breadth is one or two courses outside of your main area of focus. You should choose courses that you want to try in different subject areas.
• I love WPI’s fight song, and I wanted to learn how to make music just like it, so I took a music course!
• Pic of gompei singing!
• I also want to do my IQP in Paraguay, so I took an introductory spanish course!
• Pic of gompei in paraguay?
• After you do your depth and your breadth, you get to take part in a capstone project in your depth area.
• Pic of just gompei
• This capstone project could be either a seminar or a practicum
• Pic of gompei with seminar and practicum in either hand
• The seminar allows students to dive deeper into their depth area by looking at a complex, humanistic problem or theme.
• Gompei in dive gear under the sea w/ sebastian the crab from ariel
• Students with their depth in writing, music, and drama/theater can do their capstone project as a practicum, a hands-on project where students will be involved in the production of something, such as a play, a piece of music, or a book.
• Gompei at a theater
• "Something helpful that I used in my HUA experience is the Humanities and Arts tracking sheet"



Source: https://www.wpi.edu/sites/default/files/inline-image/NEW%20updated%20for%20WEBPAGE%204-7-2017%20HUA-Brochure-Aug2013-Web.pdf
• "Be sure to ask your advisor if you have any questions!"

We are planning on meeting today to figure out what programs we can use to create this comic! I think it's going to turn out really cool.

The Finished Product!

I just got back from our post-thanksgiving meeting, where we finished our fabulous infographic! We took a lot of the critical feedback from the class into account while we were making our edits.

This is the draft we showed the class

Here's our final product!

We converted the file from the piktochart file to illustrator. Natasha, our resident illustrator wizard, redrew all the shapes to our needs. She also added some cool new characters by tracing and editing stock photos. We thought that our first draft had a lot of white space, so we used a light gray background that matched our color scheme. I honestly think that the gray helps make the graphic look so much more professional and make all the icons pop. We also all agreed that the color scheme was a bit masculine, so we used a more feminine font. We made all of the font on the signs a LOT bigger, which proved a little tricky in illustrator. 

We thought that "serve" would be a much more professional way to say "save lives". We also streamlined the information by adding a lot of it towards the bottom of the infographic under the corresponding icons, and we were very particular about the information we kept on the graphic, and the information we took off. We worked really well together finalizing the graphic and combing through our artists' statement, and had a lot of really productive discussions about word choice and word placement, which I thought was really fun and engaging.

Here is our artists' statement:

“The Road to WPI EMS” targets WPI students who want to join WPI’s EMS. WPI’s EMS is a club that is known campus wide for being first responders to medical emergencies. However, there is very little information readily known about the organization. Our infographic serves to explain the process to become a general member of WPI EMS. The visual we are most proud of is a word cloud in the shape of an ambulance driving along a road. We made the word cloud using the most frequent vocabulary words from the WPI EMS website. This visual serves to direct the viewer along a path that sequentially iterates the steps a student must take to become a part of WPI EMS. We included road signs to display these steps and to bring the viewer’s eye down the winding road. The final sign has the recognizable shape and color of a stop sign with the WPI EMS logo inside it. The sign indicates the end of the process to become a general member. Behind this stop sign is a cartoon human jumping for joy. They hold an EMS badge in their hand to show their excitement in achieving membership. We used visual cues at the bottom of the infographic to summarize the application process and to provide more information about it. There is a figure performing CPR because knowing CPR is one of the qualifications needed to apply to WPI EMS. The WPI EMS symbol on this figure has the WPI crest inside it, a recognizable logo which creates ethos. Walkie-talkies are used because they are one of WPI EMS’s main forms of communication. Using the cartoon-like people was intentional -- they are colorless and genderless so that all WPI students can picture themselves as a member of WPI’s EMS. We chose our color scheme from WPI EMS’s colors: navy, red, grey, and white. These colors are slightly masculine, so we balanced them with a thinner, softer, more feminine font. This serves to attract both genders to the organization.

I'm really really proud of how the graphic turned out, and I am really excited to send it to WPI EMS! Who knows, maybe we will see it around campus!

First Draft of Infographic and Critique time!!!

SOOOOOO we have our first draft of our EMS infographic! (I'm posting this a little late because I decided combine two posts into this one.)

My group partners and I worked really well together in collaborating ideas and designs to create our infographic. Katie was a wizard using Piktochart, Natasha created the road on illustrator, and I wrestled with photoshop to help remove the white background of the ambulance. 

Our #lit first draft

In our first draft, we tried to incorporate some of the comments that our classmates made on our blogs. One of our classmates said we should avoid dehumanizing our data by adding some sort of stick figure, which we tried to incorporate. Another classmate suggested we add the non-emergency line in so that potential applicants can call with any questions, and also making the website and

In class on Monday, all of the groups brought in their drafts and we discussed each of our drafts which was SUPER friggen helpful. The class really liked the idea of the road with the signs, but thought that the font was much too small and there was too much information for such small signs. The class also really liked the big icons on the bottom, and suggested maybe we should add more information there. Professor deWinter also said that our header looked a bit like an FDA warning and that we should focus on simplicity up top and add more detail towards the bottom of the infographic.

My group and I took copious notes throughout our critique and sketched out our approximate revisions so we could hit the ground running when we meet on Sunday.

Please excuse my artistic skills

We definitely want to move the bulk of the information down below the icons. We still haven't figured out where to put our quick intro to the club but it will probably be somewhere towards the top of the infographic. We want to change all the font to be bigger and all the lil people to be a uniform type of person. The road should provide a quick overview of the application process, and then readers can get more information below the icons.

InFUNgraphics - a brief intro to the infographics unit

After the font unit, I started to feel like a real ~graphic designer~ so I was so excited to start research for the new infographic unit.

One of the readings we were assigned, Dragga and Voss's article Cruel Pies: The Inhumanity of Technical Illustrations heavily emphasized the humanity behind technical images and graphics. While some of the examples they used seemed a little extreme (clip art to represent the deaths in Napoleon's army as they retreat?????), I totally saw the point that Dragga and Voss were trying to make. As an author, you really do have to keep in mind that Actual People will be using your graphics to gain information, so you have the ethical responsibility to give them a holistic view of the information.

And along the same lines, Tufte's article Envisioning Information points out that these infographics also actually have to be understood by actual people. Authors of infographics have to compose these graphics so that their audience can easily follow the information and be persuaded by the information. It sounds like a simple, kinda dumb concept, but if I think about all the times I've looked at a graphic and been terribly confused and wondered what sort of robot designed the layout. 

Keeping the wise words of these academics in mind, my group (Katie Vasconcelos, Natasha Levey) and I set out to start designing our infographic. We all wanted to focus on WPI clubs and organizations, but we knew we would have to narrow it down from that broad category. We started thinking about clubs that really did not get that much PR on campus, and WPI EMS came to mind. 

WPI EMS is a student-run club that was founded as part of an on-campus IQP. WPI EMS students are certified emergency first responders. They provide medical coverage 24/7 on campus, and they have relationships with several ambulance companies that can provide further hospital assistance as well. Students can receive more advanced certifications, and they can also get full time positions as an EMT at the Boylston fire department. 

So basically, they're badasses. One of my group partners, Natasha, and I went to talk to them while they were tablesitting and they're not only badass but also super duper nice! They just started their new recruiting season, and they seemed really excited that we were doing this project on their club.

After talking to the members, we decided to create our infographic directing our audience (the WPI student body) on how to apply to be an EMS. While brainstorming, we thought of the idea of doing some sort of fun word cloud, and decided to do it in the shape of an ambulance.

We decided on the theme "Road to EMS", sort of outlining the road that a student could take to become an EMS and also sprinkling in some facts about the club itself. I'm really looking forward to this project, and I'm excited to see how it turns out!

Collaborating for the Final Font

In class, we were able to meet with our sponsor to talk more about what the escape room is going to use our font for. He was really excited about the prospect of working with a unique student project for his escape room, which was so cool! He said that the escape room was timed, and participants had to escape before the Yeti caught up with them. The room would be designed like a rustic base camp, with a crudely built tent, fires, and furs. Our font would be used on the posters advertising the escape room, accompanied by the logo of the escape room.

After hearing about the escape room's concept, all of us students were able to share our preliminary fonts and the concepts behind the fonts. We then paired up based on the direction we wanted to take our fonts. Myself and Katie Vasconcelos paired up because we really wanted to start fresh based off of our sponsor's description of the escape room. We wanted to portray that rustic, Himalayan vibe in our font.

The process of creating the font was quite an adventure. We drew the letters out by hand and then scanned them into Adobe Illustrator. Once in vector format, we projected the letters up onto an overhead projector and perfected them to make sure they would look good from far away.

Slightly struggling

We wrestled with Illustrator for quite a while, but we finally got all of our letters to look satisfactory, and we were both really pumped with how all of our logos came out!

Our alphabet!

Banner format with the logo

Landscape layout for flyers

Portrait layout for flyers

Layout without the Yeti logo

We also composed an artist statement for our font:

"We designed our font, Rune, as a title font for a Yeti-expedition themed escape room. In designing this font, the goal was to entice WPI students to experience the “Revenge of the Yeti”. Some of the influence for the font came from the Nepali language. Each character in Nepalese has a straight line across the top, and each letter has both sharp corners and soft edges. Rune incorporates sharp lines and corners combined with slightly rounded edges and softer points. It resembles the jagged mountain tops, shown by the arms of the letters, the snow on the mountain, shown by rounded corners, and the harsh fangs of a yeti, shown by tooth-like serifs. The overall design of Rune, with its appearance of being carved into wood, resembles the final sign an explorer sees before ascending to the base camp of Mount Everest. Our font was originally hand drawn, much like a carved wooden sign, and then enhanced using Adobe Illustrator. The lines that compose each letter are slightly different, with serifs that are not the same size and downstrokes that are not completely straight to give the font a hand carved feeling. Rune serves to caution an explorer from imminent danger, while conveying the harsh cold and ancient surprises of the mountain."

Overall, this project was really awesome! It was challenging to develop a font from scratch, and I definitely have a newfound appreciation for font design. At the same time, it was an extremely rewarding and fun project. It's so awesome to be able to look at a fully formed logo that YOU created! I also was able to develop a much better understanding of how to use Adobe Illustrator, and I'm definitely looking forward to using it in the future, maybe to design posters for my own events!

Figuring Out Fonts

Now that I had a good understanding of Yetis and their habitat, I began to think about what my font should look like. I looked to a couple of different sources for inspiration. Being the innovative thinker that I am, I typed "Yeti Font" into my google search bar and this image was the first thing that came up:

Source: https://www.123rf.com/photo_43767905_stock-vector-yeti-font-vector.html

The little yeti dude is pretty cute and I really like the color scheme. But the design relies so heavily on the color scheme, I don't think viewers would see that the font is yeti themed if it were printed in black and white. The letters do remind me of partially melted ice cubes, but for me the resemblance ends there. 

The next font came from a hockey team's logo:

Source: https://www.logoarena.com/logo-contests/the-fort-nelson-yeti-n3145/15 

The font really only reminds me of a yeti because it literally has a yeti right next to it and it's a pale, icy blue. I don't think this font could stand on its own in black and white. It's too plane and basic, and not reminiscent enough of a yeti expedition. 

The next logo I found was a sticker for the popular cooler brand, Yeti coolers. 

Source: https://dribbble.com/shots/788063-Yeti?list=users&offset=34

This font was a cool interpretation of the Western cartoon style of the Yeti. I really enjoyed the thicker-set letters, reminiscent of the vastness of the Yeti, and the furry quality that the letters have. This font could be better for a logo with the yeti, but I wasn't sure if this style could bring the Yeti to mind if it were just standing alone.

Through a sudden brainwave, I thought of my favorite Disney ride, Expedition Everest. Disney is pretty much the gold standard for all things design in my opinion, so I was excited to take my newfound artist's eye to evaluate Disney's logos.

BINGO! Disney did it again! These two logos had the vibe I wanted for my font. 

Source: http://wondersofdisney.disneyfansites.com/clipart/logos/ak/ak.html 

I really liked the logo for expedition everest, especially how it incorporated the eyes of the Yeti and the mountaintop of everest. The font itself probably wouldn't immediately bring the viewer to think of the Yeti, but the overall logo is extremely effective.

                                    

The second logo (on the sign on the side of the mountain) seemed to draw influence from the Nepali language, something that I definitely wanted to incorporate. After my research, their font just screamed Himalayas.

Source: https://www.undercovertourist.com/orlando/disneys-animal-kingdom/expedition-everest-legend-forbidden-mountain/ 

Source: http://www.omniglot.com/writing/sikkimese.htm

I definitely wanted to incorporate the Nepali influence in my font. I took my unsteady artist's hand and tried my luck at designing the first draft of my font. I tried to base each of my letters on its corresponding Nepali letter.

Honestly, the overall lettering was pretty messy, but I am pretty satisfied with my first draft. I'm definitely looking forward to talking with our sponsor, and I'm really looking forward to collaborating with another student.

Starting a Yeti Expedition

Hello and welcome to my WR2310 blog! In WR2310, or visual rhetoric, we recently began our fonts unit. So far, we have read several academic articles about the impact that fonts, layout, and graphic design have on the reader's perception of the words on the page. We also watched Gary Hustwit's documentary Helvetica, which detailed the profound impact that one extremely well-designed font can have on culture.

I had no idea how much I interacted with graphic design and font before exploring these sources! And now that I know about these interactions, I cannot read text without considering how the font affects my perception of the content. So being able to be a part of a font design project is both exciting and daunting - there are so many creative liberties to be taken, and with these liberties there is so much at stake. Designing an effective font should prove to be a fun challenge!

On top of these already high stakes, we are designing a font for an actual client, and the winning font will actually get used! Our client is designing an escape room, a fun interactive game where players have to find clues and solve riddles to unlock the door to the room and escape. These rooms generally follow some sort of narrative, and this particular client's room is designed around escaping from a Yeti Expedition gone awry.

So I'm not going to lie, I haven't gone on too many Yeti expeditions in my day. Through Professor DeWinter's instructions, I had some jumping off points for what a Yeti expedition may include.

My google search for "Yeti" yielded a lot of pictures of the popular beach cooler, but narrowing my search lead to a lot of images of this cute white dude:

This dudes just here for a good time!

Source: http://www.syfy.com/syfywire/scientist-claims-hes-got-dna-evidence-proving-what-yeti-really

Look at this fuzzy lil dude!

Source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/10/27/how-to-hunt-a-yeti-according-to-the-u-s-government/?utm_term=.de37282e9d21

This dude looks so friendly!

 Source: http://www.internetgovernance.org/2016/04/07/alternate-dns-roots-and-the-abominable-snowman-of-sovereignty/yeti/

I also got a lot of pictures of a much more ominous creature:

Scary!

Source: http://parody.wikia.com/wiki/Yeti_(cryptid)

Intimidating!

Source: https://blogs.baruch.cuny.edu/monsters2014/?p=176

And some pictures of a LEGIT ACTUAL YETI:

(Not gonna lie, this looks like a really large snow drift, but Yeti experts say this is the real deal! Hard to argue with that)

Source: http://en.protothema.gr/does-the-creature-of-himalayas-really-exist-pics-vid/

The Yeti is thought to originate from the Himalayas, a mountain range that borders India, Nepal, Pakistan, China, Bhutan, and Afghanistan and is home to the highest peak in the world, Mount Everest.

This image shows a map of the Himalayas, look how freakin huge that mountain range is! The Himalayas are a relatively young mountain range, formed because of the collisions of tectonic plates, crushing India into Tibet. (Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Himalayas)

The Himalayas from above, the tallest peak is Everest. (Source: http://everestbasecamptrekguide.com/himalayas-pictures/)

Because people are crazy and like a challenge, summiting Mount Everest has been a huge climbing goal for climbers worldwide. This climb is not for the faint of heart, climbers have to be ready to acclimate to extreme changes in altitude, expose themselves to extreme weather, and physically push their bodies to the limit.
(All of these images are from http://everestbasecamptrekguide.com/himalayas-pictures/)

Here are some people climbing towards the summit. Meanwhile, I can barely climb out of bed in the morning.

These crevasses are crazy deep. One wrong step and you're toast. Actually more like a popsicle.

Hikers camp out on the side of the mountain in these tents, burying them into the side of the mountain. I'm no mountaineer, and those look like they would be cold, uncomfortable, and dangerous.

The wind can reach up to 175 mph. Jinkies!

Good views though! I'll let the experts take the pictures so I can view them from my nice, warm bed.

Believe it or not, people actually LIVE in these mountains! People from the mountainous region of Nepal are known as Sherpas. They're generally regarded as expert hikers and mountain guides, and those looking to summit Everest often turn to them for advice. Even after a huge avalanche killed sixteen of the Sherpa community, Sherpas still return each season to guide climbers.

Carrying supplies for hikers. Imagine walking up the tallest mountain in the world with freaking SO MUCH STUFF ON YOUR BACK?!?!?! Source: https://www.vice.com/sv/article/7bm9n9/sherpa-describe-why-they-returned-to-everest-after-the-deadliest-season-ever

Guides help set up shelter for hikers, as well as cook and clean. Source: https://www.vice.com/sv/article/7bm9n9/sherpa-describe-why-they-returned-to-everest-after-the-deadliest-season-ever

Through my preliminary research, I have learned quite a few things: 

1. Sherpas are badasses.
2. The Himalayas are crazy huge, so there could very well be a Yeti in there somewhere.
3. Yetis could be cute, scary, or snowdrifts.
4. I have my work cut out for me designing this font!

Sources:
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/the-himalayas-himalayas-facts/6341/
http://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/2104896/good-bad-and-ugly-sides-climbing-mount-everest
http://everestbasecamptrekguide.com/what-is-a-trek-in-nepal/
https://www.vice.com/sv/article/7bm9n9/sherpa-describe-why-they-returned-to-everest-after-the-deadliest-season-ever