The Value of Showcasing Craft

Lately I've thinking been about how we can value the craft of webmaking within the context of Webmaker.org. The topic is fresh on my mind because we are starting to seriously think about how to develop out a gallery presence for the platform that is true to the spirit of our community. This got me to researching a bit about how other web properties highlight this stage in the design process.

Threadless does a nice job of surfacing the process of individual t-shirt designers on their site. Very simply, they have a curated section of blogposts featuring designers going into detail about how they made the product.

First they profile the user, and then they show great process shots like this one below by Joshua Kemble:

Additionally, they have a critique section of their site, where users can rate in-progress shirts and provide feedback via commenting. Again, super simple and effective. There are so many reasons to do this kind of highlighting of process, but for Threadless, it serves three functions well: 1) as an educational resource that isn't in your face "here is how it is made," but in fact offers many ways to make similar things and 2) as a way to elevate their product- they highlight masters who have done cool work, and show you how to do that too and 3) as a way to build community.

Sketchpad.cc highlights process but in a very different way. In their gallery, instead of just showing the end product, they include the code which can be seen as a video replay. I find it compelling because it allows you to see the different decisions that the creator made when designing the animation. In turn the entire process is treated as a journey. I've seen other sites do similar things, and in a less organic way, a lot of cooking websites do this with their video documentation of their step-by-step tutorials, but I like that it's not really a tutorial- that the verb - or the action is actually an appreciated part of the design- possibly even elevated higher than the end product.

So we have two forms of process documentation so far, and my last site that I am going to talk about is so documentation heavy- that it might blow your mind: Github. Like other version or bug trackers, here you find a community of people who are collaboratively crafting documentation for their project. I like this as an example because you can see the history and different phases of the project.  So on an incremental level you can see how the project was built up, who forked what code, who hacked what - and from time to time, particularly with their "Issues" section of the app- you can see conversations about how decisions were made.

It seems like there is some awesome formula for success here- like 1 part documentation plus 2 parts social plus 1/8 part inspiration, 2 tsps of process and 4 cups design thinking = craft. 
Right now we are still in the research phase of the gallery for Webmaker- but what's clear to me is that it needs to accomplish a few things: it needs to be social, inspiring, educational, live across the web, and very importantly - have some level of showcasing the craft of making things on the web.

Mood Board

As I am warming up for a weekend of making storyboards, wireframes and such, I decided to quickly throw together a little mood board. This is helping me to get a little closer to a style for the psa. I need to really get my act together on this. Production is happening now. I really appreciate the hands on aesthetic of all of these styles cumulatively.


so the credit business:
-charlie and lola (top left)
-monster by artist lori joy smith
-keith haring
-yee haw industries
-Y water
-the happy corp
-the electric company
-vimeo

PSA Reference

water safety psa

This is typical of what I am finding.




I think that:
it's creepy
targeted at parents
doesn't actually give any positive reinforcement

complex plots for courtroom proceedings

I just happened upon this funny project. The description says "Client: Private Lawfirm
Goal: Coordinate and design complex population plots for use in courtroom proeedings." It made me think about my project and about how some people really just view maps as a more complicated way to approach a topic. I agree, but I also feel that it can be used to uncover mysteries and hidden stories, which is why lawyers implore this technique so often. Lawyers after all are just telling their clients stories...

presentation-2nd attempt

Grizzly Bear Music Vid

Two Weeks - Grizzly Bear from Gabe Askew on Vimeo.

This is an interesting piece because it nicely explores what a handmade world could look like.

Artist Amy Casey

Artist Amy Casey creates really interesting urban spaces in her paintings. I think that it is good to keep in mind when I start thinking about the worlds that I am creating.

I finally found it!

Watch La Maison en Petits Cubes in Animation | View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

Perspective

“Never forget that everything Hitler did in Germany was legal.”

— Martin Luther King Jr.

In respect to the water crisis, I find this quote apropos. Everything that the bottled water companies and governments are doing throughout the world is legal, and because of that millions of people are suffering from starvation, illness and torture.

Wave by Suzy Lee

This weekend I "read" the wordless picture book Wave by Suzy Lee. I was recommended this book by my colleague at Sesame Street, Margot, who had thought I would be interested in it stylistically. Not only was I interested in the aesthetic beauty of the piece, I was struck by the amazingly universal sensory experience of interacting with water at the beach. The entire book was painted in a light blue and accentuated with the whimsical charcoal lines of the character.

In terms of my project, I am very interested in creating a piece that can work on several levels. I feel that Wave achieved this by being both engaging to young readers and nostalgic for older ones. Additionally, this sensory experience is something that I feel is very important to pay attention to when you are speaking of environmental awareness issues. If people can feel connected to an issue, then that is the first step towards activism.

flowers: Lynda Dourthe

These pieces by Lynda Dourthe are so delicately intriguing. I appreciate how you can really see all of the veins and vines.

Amazing photography: Zena Holloway

gorgeous

Short piece on Global Warming

I really appreciate the style and message of this piece.

3650 from Ubik on Vimeo.

Rio's Great Wall

Article from Wall Street Journal on a wall created in Dona Marta to protect trees.

Cave of Time

I finished reading Cave of Time a few weeks ago and didn't get around to posting about it until just now. I think that I wasn't jumping to post this because I felt what Simon Cowell would call underwhelmed by the book. The book is a "choose your own adventure," "tree book", "game book" and/or "interactive narrative". The story was written in Each story is written in second person and so the reader became part of the story by dictating the choices and actions that the protagonist would make throughout the narrative. This was achieved by simple directives that followed at the bottom of a page where the character was at a crossroads- for example- if you choose to go into the cave go to page 5, if you decide to go on a horse ride to a castle go to page 11. In theory I thought that the concept was fun - but I felt that the resulting story was a little bit boring and sort of like clicking link after link in your browser following a whim. The plot lines were weak and I think the novelty of having say in the future of your reading is what added to the success of these books. I would also add that each reading of the book took 20 minutes maximum. Maybe this is what also appealed to its readers.

Although I am speakingly negatively about my experience, I do think that these are all things that are important to consider in regards to my potential audience. I need to remember that it is a game and that it needs to be fairly quick paced and to- the- point in order to be successful.
So, I do need to keep in mind:

• TIME: keep each portion of the narrative short and decision making limited
• PLOT: the plot doesn't need to be wildly complicated to be interesting/fun
• INTERACTION: a choice can be as simple as deciding to go left or right
• FUN: the novelty of the game playing interaction or core mechanic will provide a certain element of fun- not to be overlooked.
• AUDIENCE: keep the game appropriate to the age of your reader/player

I did read that some of the other books in the series dealt with more historical fiction and/ or political type topics. I am going to try to get my hands on one of these books, however I do feel that these books are like a one liner joke in that you get what they are about within 5 minutes.

Into the Wild Green Yonder

I recently watched a video that was made directly for DVD release called Futurama: Into the Wild Green Yonder. The movie was great not just because it provided the typical humor and creativity that one can expect in the regular Futurama programs, but also because it dealt with the serious topic of land preservation vs development. In the animation, this was achieved by an elaborate plot dealing with the father of one of the regular Futurama character's (Amy). He is plotting to rebuild Mars Vegas into an interplanetary "mini" golf course which finishes on a rare "virgin land" planet that has some of the rarest animals and plants in the galaxy. Although I am simplifying here, the story becomes a quest of sorts for the characters to save the planet from development. What is worth noting here is that in this treatment of the subject, in order to identify the need to preserve the natural land and associated wild life- they needed to also identify the "trouble maker" or direct cause of that problem being developers. While in this particular scenario the developers were creating a needless and somewhat questionable theme park, in reality the problem is more complicated. Sometimes land clearing/ loss etc. is done to make way for more prosperous development opportunities - for example housing, eco- tourism, park or recreational land.

I think that it is important to say that this issue is not monolithic and that is why I am leaning towards making a game- not an animation- to show that there are sides to every issue. Maybe the solution to recognizing this issue is to not make a linear "narrative" with a correct course of action but maybe having different endings that would allow players to come into a potential in- class discussion with different views that would assist a dialogue.

Technical Stuff

I found this great little article on making indie games for those with less technical know how.

In an equally cool find, this chart on the wild web of gaming from Wired is pretty interesting. I like how there appear to be "gateway" games that lead you into totally different realms of thought. Sort of like how Lost has lead me to several other dorky sci fi adventures.

An Inspiring Game: Blueberry Garden

I recently discovered the game Blueberry Garden. The game is really beautiful and whimsical. It is an artful game that has a hand drawn style that I truly appreciate.

In terms of how this relates to my project- I think that I am interested in the kind of navigation that it employs as well as style. Conceptually, I don't want my game to something of pure whimsy, I want it to have a true social message.

Concept for thesis

I am in the initial stages of coming up with a concept for my thesis.
Domains: games, informal education, illustration, animation,and the environment
Design Questions: - How can I create a simple interactive experience to explore the topic of maintaining virgin lands?
- How can I use a fictional narrative to investigate the issues of land preservation?
- How can I incorporate a "choose your own adventure" theme into a simple narrative?

Concept: My current concept is to create a flash point and click game in which the user is asked to help a character navigate through a fictional world using Rube Goldberg type logic. Initially the world is full of lush lands filled with an assortment of creatures, however as the player navigates through the world, based on their choices it becomes increasingly more industrialized and so the story becomes a quest to save the virgin land from extinction. The industrialized world boxes the player in and ultimately gives them less choices to make in terms of using the natural resources and the land.

Questions:
1. How do I create a complex multi-leveled narrative?
2. How do I make this game dynamic?
3. Should I try to make this multi-player?
4. Should I try to incorporate real time data?
5. Do I stick to creating a multi-tiered narrative?
6. I don't even want to think about the action scripting involved.

Precedents:
- The Polyphonic Spree: Quest for the Rest

- Myst

- Interactive Fiction

- Tree Fiction (choose your own adventure)
-Dystopia: 1984, Farenheit 451, Brave New World
- Memento
- Zirk I



Resources to Investigate:

-Complexity in Narrative (Stephen Johnson)
-Cave of Time (Edward Packard)
-The Throne of Zeus
-The 39 Clues
-House of Leaves
-Rashoman
-The Game
-Paris, Je T'aime