Feb 3, 2010
Thesis Statement 1.5
A humble business card, an integrated brand strategy, a title sequence, a blaring broadside—each graphic design, each telling a story. At its heart graphic design is storytelling. And storytelling is storytelling no matter the medium. Either you engage your audience or you don’t. Either you communicate your story well or you don’t. My thesis is about exploring new mediums and testing old forms. It’s about trying new things and seeing what happens, while simultaneously honing current skills.
The story I have chosen to tell is that of Harry Clawson. Harry was an American paratrooper who went missing in action during WWII. Twenty-seven years after his disappearance, a Dutch tree farmer from Opheusden, The Netherlands, found his remains in a shallow grave on his tree nursery.
My thesis uses an experimental research approach. Using method acting as an inspiration, I developed a process I call “method research”. I immerse myself into Harry’s life by going where he would have gone, seeing what he would have seen, and doing what he would have done. I traveled to Arizona, England, France and The Netherlands. I stood where he stood, where he lived and died. I spoke with those still around that knew him: his brothers in arms, his sisters, sons, and daughter. I have done some of the things he did: intense physical training, camped in the mountains, jumped from an airplane. Using method research has deepen my understanding of Harry’s story and drawn me closer to its realities, enabling me to tell his story of sacrifice and loss with more sensitivity and authority.
My thesis exhibition functions as an experiment of my thesis and a stretching of my abilities rather than an exhibit of my process and results. The exhibit is Harry’s story utilizing multiple graphic formats combined into exhibition design. It uses information graphics in the form of a contextualized timeline combined with geographic mapping. It uses the simple and powerful presentation of plain text. It has motion graphics using a triple wide film presentation. It also employes semiotic artifact imagery to convey elements of the Harry’s character and life.
In the end I have learned that my thesis is about me becoming a better storyteller, a better designer, and a better human being.
// First Forays Into Visual Language
// 4:1 Ratio Test (Best in Full Screen Mode)
The images and sequence and sound are just there to show the capabilities. They aren’t not meant to be interpreted at all.
