Different
(PSA & Assets)
A PSA video and accompanying assets encouraging high school students to embrace their individuality. (Created in Adobe After Effects, Procreate, p5.js, and Adobe Premiere for Communications Studio III class, October - December 2022)
Project Brief
In this studio project, we were instructed to find a pre-existing PSA video and "remix the script", rearranging the pre-existing words and phrases into a new script to interpret the PSA's message in a new way. Then, using our new script, we were to create a new PSA video that was entirely typographically driven - no imagery could be used.
Along with video we were prompted to make "assets", items that go along with the video to further the message and allow the audience to interact with it.
What I Created
The best way to fit in is to act just like everybody else! Yeah... not so much. I chose to work with Shy Guy (1947), an instructional video aimed at high school students teaching that all a student needs to do to be popular is to mold themselves after the other popular kids in their school. I reworked the message by creating a video encouraging modern students to embrace and express their individuality.
Working as an extension of my video's message, each of my assets - a T shirt, alphabet temporary tattoos, and alphabet letter stickers - encourages viewers to customize their bodies and belongings in order to express themselves. I imagine these assets will be sold in campus spirit stores or be given out at campus events such as football games, spirit days, or other special event days, giving kids the specific opportunity to put on the tattoos and shirts and wear them around for the day as well as put some stickers on their belongings.
T Shirt Asset
The shirt, while reading out "I am what makes me happy" on the sleeves, is otherwise plain white and comes with a tag encouraging wearers to customize the shirt as they please.
Sticker Sheet &
Temporary Tattoo
Assets
Each sticker and tattoo sheet includes the whole alphabet as well as several “I am” statements to get students started, encouraging them to spell out aspects of identity on their belongings and bodies.
Images from Unsplash, by Quokka Bottles, Sincerely Media, Imansyah Muhamed Putera, Windows
Takeaways
This project pushed my skills creating a concise yet compelling video that leaves users with a clear and memorable takeaway, letting me practice constructing a narrative using text, type, motion, color, and audio, while at the same time giving me the opportunity to hone my skills in creating a highly identifiable visual system that can be applied over multiple kinds of physical and digital media while retaining brand recognizability.
Process work
Post-It Note Brainstorming
It was challenging to work within the constraints of only using typography to express the message of our videos. I began brainstorming with the idea of the text moving and behaving like "characters", embodying their meaning in their motion, so I started by sketching on post-it notes. This ultimately informed my decision to hand-draw significant portions of the video, creating uniquely expressive letterforms which embody the message that people's individuality is what makes them interesting.
Establishing a Visual System
To establish consistency across a typographic system I intended to be eclectic, through iteration, I created a limited palette of colors and typefaces (even the hand-drawn type is based on the few typefaces I selected). There are eight colors and six typefaces in total in the system, excluding the black-and-white arial type in the "boring" part of the video. I created my storyboard with this system in mind, then animated with a combination of Adobe After Effects, hand-drawn frames on Procreate, and screen recordings of P5.js code.
Choosing Not to Riso Print
Originally, I had envisioned that after animating the video, I would print each frame on a riso printer, scan each frame, and compile it into the final animation. However, I had to scrap the idea both because it would be difficult to establish visual consistency across my assets - riso printing the video would require I also achieve a riso printed look on the tattoos, stickers, and shirt - and due to time constraints.
Asset Rationale
To create the assets, I brainstormed what sorts of products would allow students to be active participants in the video's message by displaying their individuality, ultimately focusing on the shirt, stickers, and tattoos based on feedback that these would be the most engaging. As I began work on the assets after the video was mostly complete, I was able to use my pre-established visual system as I brainstormed and created.
Although I initially simply mocked up all the assets, I decided to physically prototype them for the final showcase, allowing the visitors to pick up and, in the case of the tattoos, put them on. I created the t-shirt using printable iron-on decals and made the stickers and tattoos with respective laser-printed papers.