http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=94884967&ft=1&f=1006

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5199969

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89750301

http://www.apple.com/retail/fieldtrip/http://www.gamesradar.com/f/gordon-freeman-strongest-personality-in-gaming/a-20080118104744203035

This newspaper article was co-incidentally found thru skimming the Sunday Telegraph of the 4th of May. It relates nicely to my project – tells of how young children are being exposed to design and word-processing programs, and so on.

It also mentions a name of a lecturer from UWS – Joanne Orlando. She is the Early Childhood Education lecturer and I am planning to contact her and probably make an interview, which could prove quite useful in the project =]

We had to represent our keywords into typography, and possible ideas for the name of our community project…

This sheet is to warm up our ideas for the community project, to being out keywords and illustrations….

The exposure to electronic entertainment in recent years children now younger & younger are being continually fed a myriad of visual information that could ultimately impact and create health risks in the younger generation that could and would prove detrimental in their lives long term.

The bad news is, this sea of visual entertainment – movies and video games at the top, being the most popular medium, is inevitable.

As influences cave in from every direction and is growing more powerful by the day, children cannot help but plunge into the world of today’s technology and entertainment. They are even innocent as to what is exposed to them and have therefore become helplessly addicted. Superglued to screens the youth of today are becoming lazier and less active.

Influence plays the biggest part in this, from friends and the community alike. What CAN they do when the latest video game releases? PLAY IT!…and with the majority of their classmates and relatives are in the same game, it’s hard not to. Influence now is growing stronger & stronger as technology, makes it easier & easier for them NOT to do anything else….as convenience, is spoon-fed. As this happens their bodies lag behind.

The Mission

As this will become detrimental in their future I want to bring to them the warning signs at an early age. As tender as they are now technology being exposed at such a young age could prove harmful long term, children as young as 2 years old are already being equipped with skills by parents to use design and word-processing programs, utilising the computer to TYPE stories rather than to write them with a pencil. Both positive and negative factors are within.

I want to inspire kids to get off their seats for at least 30minutes a day.

I wanted to focus largely on the numerals “30”, it is based on known fact that a minimum of 30minutes of physical excercise per day is a must.

To make kids realize how FAST 30minutes actually goes, and not to daunt on the thought. THIRTY MINUTES in a video game or chat-room flies by unbelievably quick.

My message to them would be “why not just insert a fun little break session in between?”

I also need people to know, and not take my message wrongly, that I do NOT want kids to completely abandon computers and entertainment! That is DEFINITELY not my point, my goal, and point of difference, is BALANCE.

This is my idea summed up into a short paragraph, they were my very first thoughts and with pretty much no editing, just straight from my head and jotted on paper:

“To get kids off their butts for at least 30MINS a day.

The exposure to electronic entertainment in modern day, kids now younger & younger are superglued to their homes (screens), and influence plays a huge part, from friends and the community. Influence now is growing stronger & stronger as technology makes it easier & easier for them NOT to do anything else….as convenience, is spoon-fed. As this happens their bodies lag behind.”

I wanted to focus largely on the numerals “30″, this was inspired by the worldwide Earth Hour wave, as their main, big visual was to show the “60″. BUT I did not simply cut 60 in half and used it, I based 30 on known fact that a minimum of 30minutes of physical excercise per day is a must.

I wanted to make people realise (parents + kids alike) how FAST 30minutes actually goes, and not to daunt on the thought. THIRTY MINUTES in a video game, chat-room flies by us unbelievably quick.

I want to tell them “why not just insert a little break session in between?”

I also need people to know, and not take my message wrongly, that I do NOT want kids to completely abandon computers and entertainment! That is DEFINITELY not my point, my goal is to get kids to BALANCE…that is the keyword!

I used a textured paper background for a “treasure map” like look. John himself is represented by an arrow, always shooting forward to finding a target (solution) for his kids, his kids are represented by treasure chests, they are his treasures. They are locked because he has yet to connect with them, as in they have not “opened up” entirely to their father yet.

First thoughts and ideas that was just floating around in my head was “pixel art”, those colourful, full-on detailed cityscapes sort of reminded me of a boardgame, in a way…

Then i thought wow, that looks way more complicated than I had remembered, so I moved on to another idea not too far from the idea of a boardgame. I thought a maze could be quite a nice metaphorical piece to do, he is traveling through obstacles, this time the whole thing is the obstacle.

This image gave me an idea that the whole maze could be in a shape of something, not just a typical SQUARE. It could make it more interesting and something you dont realise till the end when u look at it overall and at a distance.

Then I came upon this example:

This was THE ONE. It was the most simple maze I’ve come across and I thought of it being in the shape of a heart.