OVERVIEW: Selfish Escapism was the capstone project for the final year of my B.A. in Visual Communication. We were given the freedom to design our own passion project, something that used all the tools we had learnt during our studies.
PROBLEM: Most of my classmates had some very deep, thoughtful and meaningful passion projects for their capstone projects but I didn't want to reinvent the wheel or cure world hunger, I wanted to create a body of work with a target audience of one.
I created this project to teach myself more about illustrative design, to celebrate my hobbies and create something that is all about me and what I want for the last time before heading into the design industry.
As design students we often get caught up in trying to solve other people’s problems through design, I wanted this project to show that you do not always have to create for other people, it's okay to take on projects that are unashamedly for you.
SOLUTION: The solution was the "Selfish Escapism" project. A project celebrating some of my favourite video games and the moments in my life when I could selfishly ignore the noise around me and escape into another world.
The project is comprised of six illustrated posters of iconic video games, designed in a minimal vector style and a companion book. Within the book, you will find a synopsis of each game, accolades and quotes from critics, a short rationale about my design process for each poster and an exclusive bonus poster variant for each design. Once the project was completed, part of my goals for the project was to hold an exhibition on campus for other students to see.
I really enjoyed working on this project because it gave me the opportunity to work alongside the printers to make sure the colours, gradients and effects printed the way I envisioned them. I also really enjoyed using some more advanced printing techniques in the design of the book such as making use of spot colour inks and inventive laminate styles to create patterns and foil effects.
