Project Brief
Create a story-based piece of media to encourage young girls of color to pursue an interest in STEM subjects.
Programs Used: Adobe Photoshop
APPROACH
“Science girl” is the story of a girl who is introduced to science in her childhood and develops a passion for it. The rest of the story is the progression of her life as we watch her succeed in this field all because her interests were encouraged as a child.
I designed this storyboard to be a comic distributed to parents of elementary and/or middle school students in order to persuade them to encourage their child’s interests. I wanted parents to be able to relate to the family in the comic and see the benefits of supporting their child’s interests as opposed to discouraging them. I felt that parents who read this would want to be like the parents in the comic after seeing that encouraging your child can lead to their happiness and success. It raises the question, “What would happen if we did not encourage her interests?” I took inspiration from the comic “When you Encourage and Artist” by Gavin Aung Than. It illustrates two different realities: one where a parent is proud of his child’s art and it creates a domino effect that allows her to become a famous artist and one where he reprimands her for drawing and nothing comes out of it. Stories like this evoke an emotional response from readers, which is the effect I wanted to have with my comic.
I also included a young girl’s point of view when considering my audience reaction. I felt that illustrating the success of a minority girl could inspire other minority girls because they see themselves in the character. I took inspiration from a Scott McCloud book in which he said that people like to see themselves in a character because as humans, we do that naturally.
I found answers to my questions after doing different drafts of the storyboard and through visualizing how I would want my audience to react. After doing multiple versions, I realized the things my storyboard lacked. I ended up adding conflict and obstacles to the story to not only keep people interested, but to also show people that success isn’t easy but hard work is always rewarding. I think creating beat boards answered my questions as to which were the main points of my story and what points to focus on.I tried to repeat certain elements to unify the different panels and create an emotional response. For example, the picture in the second to last panel is of her first project, which was the rocket she made in the beginning of the comic. I am hoping that the story I created makes this comic feel more human and people will be able to easily connect with it.
I found answers to my questions after doing different drafts of the storyboard and through visualizing how I would want my audience to react. After doing multiple versions, I realized the things my storyboard lacked. I ended up adding conflict and obstacles to the story to not only keep people interested, but to also show people that success isn’t easy but hard work is always rewarding. I think creating beat boards answered my questions as to which were the main points of my story and what points to focus on.I tried to repeat certain elements to unify the different panels and create an emotional response. For example, the picture in the second to last panel is of her first project, which was the rocket she made in the beginning of the comic. I am hoping that the story I created makes this comic feel more human and people will be able to easily connect with it.
PROCESS
A question I have would be how would a real audience react to it. If this were shown to parents and students, would they react the way I would have liked them to and would they have realized the main message of the story? If I showed this to people who are not in my target audience, would they still react to this in a positive way and feel inspired? I would also want to know if, overall, the story is clear and if I was able to use different storyboarding elements in a clear and effective way. I am not sure if my piece fits into the category of a comic or a storyboard. It seems like a mixture of both right now so I would want to revisit this project in the future.