How strangers
become
friends
Brief 1: To write a 500-1,000 word autobiographical story about an event or moment that changed your life in some way.
My narrative is about a few days I spent in Belgium in Summer 2017, staying with some distant relatives I had never met before, and the experience of making friends despite not speaking the language and entering a pre-established social group. It boosted my confidence with going into new social situations, and gave me a lot of optimism about starting university.
Brief 2: Identify a 'superobjective'; a key message you wish to convey.
My superobjective is to evoke a sense of childhood nostalgia, while encouraging play and interaction within a new group
of people.
Brief 3: Design and create a book that contains your complete narrative and conveys your superobjective to the reader without it having to be stated.
I chose to design and make a pack of playing cards, with my narrative printed on one side of an instruction leaflet, acting as an introduction. The idea is that the cards can be used as an ice-breaker when meeting a new group of people. Each suite has a different element on. The spades cards each pose a question, such as, "what was your favourite game as a child?", to start conversations and encourage the players to reflect on their childhoods. The diamond cards each have a photograph that illustrates the narrative, sequenced through the card value. The club cards each prompt the initiation of an activity, for example, "start a game of tag", to encourage the players to reconnect with childhood and have fun. The heart cards are inspired by how children count on their fingers.
Apart from the typefaces, all the work within this project is my own. I wrote, edited and laid out the text. I took and edited all the photographs used, and created my own pips (suit symbols) in Adobe Illustrator. I hand-cut each card. The card faces are printed on white paper and mounted on red card, which is what gives the pack its striped appearance.
