Soljee Lee and Professor Robert Barrett, Department of Visual Arts
The purpose of this project was to create a medium that will bridge between the youth and the classical literature in order to address increasing epidemic of child illiteracy in this visual dominant world. The proposed solution was to introduce the classics to youth in the form of graphic novels; therefore, the goal of this project was the execution of the hypothesis and the examination of the result through audience response. It was also intended to serve as a tool to emulate the professional publishing market so that a student illustrator may become familiar with the function/characteristics of the market, the collaborative teamwork, and possibly to gain the market exposure that is crucial in the publishing world.
The project was a group work that included twelve illustrators providing their own interpretation of a classical novel of their choice. It was preceded as twelve different individual projects and to be complied into one.
The work is being exhibited at the HBLL until Jan. 2013 and will be again at HFAC. (fig. 1) The project is still ongoing for it has not met its ultimate goal: the actual publication of the work and examination of the result through analysis of the audience response. There have been several obstacles in meetings these goals; and, necessary modifications have been made to resolve the issues/conflicts that surfaced during the course of the project. The following is a few notable issues that are yet to be resolved and researched in the future:
1. A struggle with managing the whole group throughout the course of the project:
Due to each member being at different stages of experience, skill level, school/career stages, it
was very hard to work together to keep the integrity of the project, which delayed the completion of the project tremendously. Each member is at different stages of the completion of the required work, the level of the quality, the diverse approach in resolving their creative problems. There are too many visions trying to come together as one enough to create disruption rather than variety. This problem was not foreseen, and it made me realize the necessity of having a designated role of an art director to manage the project. The responsibility of such figure needs to be separated from the creating members due to the weight of the responsibility and the necessity of objectivity. The suggested solution to this has been going through a board of judges (which will be a group of invited professors and artists that the group agrees upon) in order to set the standard of the liability as a professional and publishable quality of the work. Those that cannot pass the board may be excluded from the project.
2. An unsettled plan in publishing method:
Over the past year, the group has been educated and gotten more familiar with the current
changes/movement of the publishing market into digital format. It was deemed necessary that the original plan of publishing a printed version of the book need to be questioned. Upon research, it is likely that the completed work will be formatted and self-published through one of the e-book stores such Apple, Amazon, or Barns&Noble. Each direction offers different advantages and disadvantages. As soon as the decision is made, the project is to be re-formatted and adapted to the targeted market.
3. A struggle with applying the constraints of the project into a personal vision:
An illustrator should be able to conform their vision to an already set publishing standard in
order to meet its interactive/communicative/commercial goals. It not only needs to consider the type of audience but also needs to meet the marketable principles to capture the audience.
For my classical novel (Demian by Hermann Hesse), literal narration of the book did not suit the taste and comprehension level of the audience or the set publishing standards. The incorporation of the entertaining factors and the maintenance of the essence of the book should co-exist, and it was the problem that I need to solve as a creator of the medium through design and story layout. This was resolved as I used my own visual/conceptual narration of the message rather than the literal narration of the story. The design was set contemporary but illusionary to maintain the mood of the novel but also to provide a stage for entertaining factors. In order to avoid misrepresenting the novel by applying my own visual elements, I only used the direct quotes from the book for lines that are used in telling the story. (fig. 2 and 3 for samples of the work) This process has required me to work through many renditions of the story/design until it refined and fit into one, which has prolonged the process further than I expected at the beginning stage. Each page is a new beginning of the whole process, and the story/design constantly changed in order to meet not only my own vision but also the intentions of the project. The process has been working so far, but I still need more validations to check if my version still maintains the integrity of the original novel. It has been difficult since it is not a well-known classic in U.S. There is hardly anyone around me that has read the book to provide me feedbacks on this aspect. However, I have been receiving increasing response through online blog posts about this particular project from people that have actually read the book. I am looking into getting more structured feedback through this online medium.
Future Prospects:
The project will continue as it has been through regular meetings as a group. There will be incorporation of the outside critiques (evaluation board and online critique) in order to heighten the competency level to meet the publishing standard. I will also use this project a chance to increase the exposure of myself in the market through applying to illustration competitions, online posting to find the niche where potential audience and customer exist. Teens and college students have been more responsive to my graphic novel rather than younger audience. This population has dominant online presence in social networking sites such as in Tumblr; and this is where my posts about this project has been receiving increasing attention and questions from them. When the whole project is finished and complied into one, it will be formatted to fit into the e-book market. The evaluation of the proposed solution to the child illiteracy will be done through school exhibitions and school/library visits as it was originally planned at the beginning of the project.
