Reflective Blog Cross Media Production 2013
Character made with the help of stripgenerator.com
In your own words describe the character. What type of character is it ? What is the characters attitude to sustainability issues ?
Carlos is a strongman both physically and morally. He has dedicated his life to the service of the planet after years of witnessing its degradation by humans all around the world, he believes it's his mission to save the planet one university at a time. Sometimes stubborn sometimes free thinking Carlos believes the only real way to get the message across it through brutal force. Growing up in a circus for most of his life he also appreciates the small things and what it takes to laugh and have fun. He needs to show people the proper way to look after the planet as if it was do or die for him.
Describe the audience that this character was designed to attract.
This character was designed to attract people with a sense of humor, those who appreciate comics and those who like the idea of heros vs villains. Naturally not everyone will be into such things so it is important that I tailor my platforms so that everyone can experience the greatness that is Carlos.
Describe the platforms that YOU developed the character on. (should be at least 2)
I developed my character through two different platforms, one being more accessible to the wider audience which is Facebook and the other being Strip Generator which is targeted more at the niche audience of comic strip fans. They can both crossover relatively easy.
Provide links to what you consider the best piece of content that YOU developed on each platform.
Two of the best pieces of content that I've created for my audience would have to be the poll on facebook with the question 'What is the most sustainable way to get to uni?' with the results being enlightening to say the least.
https://www.facebook.com/CarlosClimateChangeStrongman
And the comic strip intro where the other characters of Carlos' adventure are introduced in a vividly comic style.
http://stripgenerator.com/strip/741626/introducing-carlos-climate-change-strongman/
Provide documentation of your characters rabbit hole on campus. Give credit for the idea and implementation. Did any audience come through the rabbit hole ? How do you know ?
Here is a simple example of my rabbit hole on campus. The poster provides the attention grabbing ploy while the small print provides the information necessary for the individual to 'follow' the rabbit down the hole. I got the idea from my peers who had started posting similar posters around campus, they reported some interesting results so I agreed to use this method over others. Unfortunately my facebook page did not gather enough likes and so was not enabled to examine data and so as much as I'd like to speculate I'll leave the results at null for now.
Upload an image of the poster that you created, and describe where you put it, and why you put it there.
This is my basic design for Carlos Climate Change Strongman posters, I put them in high traffic areas along with other posters so people could get a feel for the variety of characters while absorbing the message of sustainability as a whole. There is one right next to the Media Store room as well where people are often seen waiting in a line, hopefully they will get to read my poster while they do so.
What cues did you use to transition the audience across platforms ?
I managed to use a number of cues to transition my audience from one platform to another. A QR Code and website address was used from the poster to the net, then on facebook my main cues were status updates which informed the audience of the strip generator website and the comic strip stories I had created for Carlos.
Which parts of the narrative did you tell on each platform ?
I told the back story for Carlos on the stripgenerator platform and then climate change narrative on facebook.
Reflect on what you have observed and learned from the experimental phase.
From looking back on what I've learned over the experimental phase I see that the transition from design stage into experimental is not always without problems and unforeseen circumstances. In fact for me it was relatively smooth but from hearing other stories and reading blogs things can fall apart if you try and be too ambitious, this is where I like to go back to the design principle of simplifying. Any great idea can and should be boiled down to its main constituents if ever the process of building goes astray, usually we as creative practitioners lose sight of our message and so simple is better in regards to design.
What would you do differently next time around ?
I would employ more platforms with more access to students. So instead of centralizing my character around comics and facebook I would take the charaqcter to them, possibly through the use of enticing free stuff or a mascot. Perhaps both.
What you would do if you could get funding to develop your character further ?
I would develop a short animation based on the comic strip series, perhaps I could follow Emma Keltie's model for success in web series and trans-media.
What are your thoughts regarding the Design Challenge "Can we use Transmedia to Inspire a Culture of Sustainability at UC ?" Do you think we have succeeded ? Do you have suggestions on what to do next time if we tried this challenge again ?
I think cross media is one of those developing concepts where just about anything is possible if we put our minds to it. Engaging a transitory audience with a potential size of thousands is also difficult; to get the best results I think localizing it to niche markets within this wider audience of UC would be the best approach (take comic fans for an example). Promoting the message of sustainability on campus, or any just cause for that matter, is probably the most worthwhile application for cross media at this stage of it's development, however it is not usually a worthy cause that develops new technology but rather the consumer's needs and desires which don't always fit in that spectrum of 'just causes'.
I think aspiring for a culture of anything is a well deserved goal for such exercises, though in short, I don't think we achieved it this time around. This may be due to a number of factors; while we did raise awareness to our cause by such exercises as poster blitz we may have pushed it into the audience's face a little too much. Overkill is a deadly sin in any marketing campaign, I believe the trick, and maybe for future attempts, will be to entice the audience into creating a culture for themselves, whether this is done by hype campaigns or even shock campaigns is completely up to the next class but it is well worth taking what we've learned here and thinking about it for next time.
Has the integration of the topic of sustainability into this unit changed your behaviour in any way?
