01 THE IMAGINARIES
“My characters have to do with how children master various feelings: danger, boredom, fear, frustration, jealousy - and manage to come to grips with the realities of their lives.” - Maurice Sendak As a child, I was always fascinated with characters. Whether it was the one’s I got up early to watch every Saturday morning or those present in the stories my mother read to me each night before she put me to bed. I was, like most children captivated by the imaginary worlds present in these books and shows. Their uncanny ability to help me understand things seemed to make more sense to me then the words of my parents or teachers. As a result, I spent most of my childhood carrying around small sketchbooks that contained my own colorful cast of characters. I used them to make fun of adults or to express feelings that I believed no one else could understand. Now at 23, not much has changed. I am still very much interested in children’s books, entertainment and the characters contained within them. As a result I have become fascinated by the ability for these characters to be a vehicle for ideas and to engage children as well as their imaginations in a deep and lasting way. While the role of these compelling icons has traditionally been that of commercial branding tools, I am particularly interested in the ability of visual communication to act as a vehicle for social change. More specifically, I wish to focus my energy on a younger audience, as I feel that the untainted imagination of children and the boundless creativity it comes with gives me the best opportunity to innovate. Clearly, based on the age group, the opportunity to affect children will differ greatly. I have looked into some studies on social identity regarding children and have found between the ages of 5 and 8 is a key time for the development of one’s self concept and identity. At this age the modern child will encounter quite a tremendous amount of identity influencing factors on a daily basis. Whether it is television programs, the internet, or advertising, the idea of a child encountering difficulties in identifying the right sort of influences to take in is quite a realistic one. Keeping in mind these influencing factors, I believe that the effective and innovative use of characters could aid children in the process of discovering their own self identity and help them to avoid the acquisition of negative behavioral traits.
My definition for the word “character” is the aggregation and simplification of the features and traits that form the individual nature of some person or thing. Through the lens of visual communication, creating a character means whittling down complex behaviors and messages into simple lines, movements and expressions that can communicate ideas. Some great examples of this can be seen in characters like the ones present in Jim Henson’s Muppets that deliver messages to children about a variety of educational topics. Henson’s characters are able to change and affect their viewpoints because of its cast of playful characters that are built from a mash of engaging, imaginative features and a simplified tone of a voice that speaks to children in a sophisticated way. Whether it be Sesame Street which was geared with a more educational message or The Muppet Show that uses comedy and parodies to appeal to children, Henson’s characters have and continue to be an iconic example of successful children’s entertainment. Another great example of innovative characters can be seen in Maurice Sendak’s “Where the Wild Things Are.” Sendak uses the “wild things” as a way to talk about difficult feelings such as anger and insecurity in a way that resonates with children. The book was originally banned from the shelves of libraries and was the recipient of negative critic reviews because adults thought the subject matters explored within the pages of the book were too risqué for children. However, the ban and negative criticism were removed when it was realized that children kept flocking towards the book again and again. Most mainstream children’s characters are created without taking much risk because we are very mindful about when we introduce certain topics to children. Sendak’s engaging story manages to break those very rules and succeed because of his captivating characters and story. The success of this book can be seen through its’ overwhelming popularity with children and adults, even 48 years after it was originally published. What becomes evident in these examples is that through playful sampling, mixing of symbols and features, a good
02 THE IMAGINARIES
character has the ability to evade established pictorial norms and confront the viewer directly and emotionally, regardless of their cultural background. The motivations that fuel these ideas lie in two areas. I have always found the design projects that I am most passionate about, are the ones where I was able to use my drawing skills as a way to speak to children. This allows me to bring them a educational message in a unique way or to help them overcome a fear that they previously felt paralyzed by. Since graduating almost two years ago from Syracuse University, I have worked at two advertising agencies where I have created work for international clients. However, none of this work has replicated the feeling I experienced while working on the projects I’ve created characters for. I feel as though I am contributing to the growing pile of ephemeral design that is used to sell products for months at a time and then discarded with little or no real benefit for the intended audience. While this experience has undoubtedly been beneficial to my design skills and has helped me to understand the restraints of designing for real clients, I wish to do something that leaves a lasting beneficial impression on its’ audience. Secondly, in paying attention to mainstream children’s programming and media I have observed a lack of purpose in the characters present. They have the ability to seduce the imagination of young minds, but I feel they often fail in addressing and nurturing children’s intelligence. This extremely important in a time where the amount of information children are taking in is quite staggering, even compared to 5 years ago. Children are held to a higher standard of maturity at a younger age and there is a need for stories with engaging purposeful characters for them to identify with.
Throughout this project there are certain things I am looking to achieve: First and foremost I wish to use this project to “practice progress.” By this I mean to stretch the limits of my work and personal visual language into different mediums in order to gain a strong grasp on my personal voice. In tandem, I aim to research and identify the qualities that make a strong, successful and persuasive character. I wish to use my visual communication skills to challenge the idea of what a character can be and how it can interact with its audience. Finally, I want to gain a better understanding of the signs, symbols, and tone of voice that resonates with children in a way that doesn’t overlook their intelligence and wit. I believe I can achieve success in my goals by initiating case studies on successful characters in visual communication. By researching what has made them popular, I will gain an understanding of the process the creator goes through to materialize them. I intend to conduct field research and interviews where I talk to various people about the characters that they identified with when they were younger and the impacts they had on their lives. Additionally, I will be investigating child psychology for clues on how to better understand a child’s aptitude to process information, and the best and most imaginative ways to deliver it through illustration and graphics This pathway is very relevant to my background. In pursuing my BFA degree, I teetered between illustration and graphic design before deciding on the latter. This helped me to come to an important realization: that I could mix them both together and create my own unique visual language. Due to my interests, I chose a few of my projects to take on problems
03 THE IMAGINARIES that allowed me to work with a younger audience and hone my abilities to create engaging characters. One specific example of this from my portfolio is a packaging and branding project I named “Boo Busters.” In this project, I decided to tackle the problem of nightmares and helping children feel like they could fight back against them. As a solution, I came up with the term “Anti-Fear Gear,” and created three unique objects that could help children feel like they were turning the tables on these manifestations of their imaginations. These objects can “capture” their nightmares, and through a USB connection, they can be uploaded to the Boo Buster’s website. Where a virtual image was generated of the creature. After being uploaded, children can write about their nightmares and share them with their friends. Thus dealing with an imaginary problem in a physical way. This project gave me a great opportunity to illustrate characters and integrate them in a compelling way into a variety of visual applications. In my personal work I am always using characters as a way to explore abstract concepts and narrative structures. It is the most important variable in all the work I do in my free time. One example that I have included is my “Useless Beings” project, this project takes Bruno Munari’s idea of the “useless machine” and it bring it into the realm of my own imagination. Munari defines “useless machines” as “Not having a real functional purpose in the eyes of design, but rather
empowered by some spiritual and artistic purpose.” As an exercise in exploring and experimenting with new techniques and pushing the limits of my own visual language, I am drawing a character each day for the next year. Each of these characters will be a visual reflection of the thoughts and experiences that occurred to me on that particular day. By exploring different emotions and expressions the project is helping me to play within the medium of character design. Drawing and creating characters is the elemental thing that I do, and I believe that combined with my interest in social identity this specialist pathway will be a perfect unification of my passions. Through my studies I will be able to gain a strong foundation of knowledge within my proposed audience and develop an effective strategy to address them. I believe my approach will then have the ability to touch on illustration, photography, books, installations, and moving image to create a concise yet eclectic body of work that provides a unique insight into the connection between character design, children, and their journey to identify with the world. I believe that it is not only a relevant and exciting idea for me to pursue but it is one that is synonymous with me as a person.