A.De Sando KCAI process blog: How-To Bury a Body: Final Product + Reflection

My idea for this How-To was based off of a mindmap of the word “lawn.” What I wanted to choose was an action that: I did not know, had a lot of style options, would not necessarily be associated with the original word and had some humor. There is a very elegant way to portray humor within a piece that does not need to be fully overwhelming, just subtly there to help understand the piece and remember it. Some of my favorite art pieces have themes or visuals that I had not seen before or ideas that simply contrasted with what I had initially thought. So when I design, I try to keep that in mind – although I think that the artistic style is normally what I focus on when I design and sometimes I am able to instill humor in my pieces.

I chose to go with bright colors in my final pieces to add more humor to the How-To. I figured that I could reach a broader audience and attract more attention if the bright colors were not normally something that was associated with burying a body. I chose different clouds in each scene to help show how it is no quick task to bury a body, thus the clouds and sky would not be the same as when one started and ended the process. I was also attempting to create a range of blues in the sky throughout the day; it is a bit more difficult to read because of the not too extreme range of blues, but I wanted just enough to make a difference, but not too much to be distracting. I chose red dotted lines for an additional aspect that I wanted the viewer to look at, for the main purpose in each scene, a way to show the motion or action to be taken in the step.

The major thing that I learned from this project was how important images are, specifically how they can replace words. Although I knew that words and text went together to create a visual design, I had never thought about just using images to represent words let alone statements or steps. This project was difficult for me, because I was pushed into a direction that I had not really thought about or had much experience with prior to. It is a lot more difficult to express your ideas when you are limited by how you demonstrate the idea. I was never good at pantomiming or acting out anything; I always relied on my words. I was a writer first, and then an artist and designer; so that’s another reason that I always fell back on words when all else failed. But through this project I started to see just how important images are – although the images may not say EVERYTHING that we had intended, they can say a lot more than one may give them credit for at first.

I would say that I am more comfortable and a bit more cautious when it comes to the images that I will associate with my ideas. Although I may have subconsciously in the past brought connotation into a piece through my choice of imagery or text, I had not actively thought about it before using certain parts of design. I also learned how important the process is in creating a piece of art/design. I knew that it was important in the past; especially the exploration of the number of ways that a design can go, but I was able to actually see that progress in this project. Through each “test set” or group of iterations or variations; I was forced to push my design and myself into different places or themes that I may not normally have come across. I tended to design based on what I was told, or really what came out that I directly linked to the subject. If I would have done that with this project my how-to would have become mainly morbid, dark, and unappealing to many. But my thinking longer on the project, I was able to add some humor to my piece to help the relation factor and broaden the possible client range.