Major Project Proposal

Subject, Audience and Purpose

October 9, 2024

Initial Project Proposal

YJ1: Become a VR Artist

I’d like to adapt the current brief of this project from that of an art gallery to one that revolves around the creation and promotion of a nature reserve based in Hull. I’d like VR art to be a major component of the reserve that way I can interweave both virtual art and animation and apply it to a real life establishment. This would be directed towards a younger demographic to entice the generation to be more proactive over the protection of certain species as well as further their interest in wildlife . The art will carry a landscape/rural farmland theme throughout and I will use my research of children’s art illustration to design an appropriate campaign for the business.

I’ve always had a strong interest in the natural world but that has only been more greatly developed in recent years when places like nature reserves, hiking trails, outdoor related societies etc. have been more geared towards my age group and have drawn me in more effectively. This is why I’d like to produce a new local wildlife site directed towards younger children through the ages of 8-13, where there may be less resources readily available to them, in order to get them interested in the protection of local species and their environment as well as facilitate their interest in the outdoors.

Photos I’ve taken of wild/protected animals in my local area.

Of course there are lots of pre-existing business’ open to children learning about endangered species, however these are often specific to more exotic animals that people won’t come into contact with on the daily as well as animals that are kept in environments such as poorly ran zoos that don’t enrich their animals. This could potentially lead to children having misinformed thoughts on what animals “deserve” to be protected as well as not having little knowledge on some animals that are native to their own area.

Audience

This project will be directed towards younger children as the content and visual elements will be more on the cartoonish side as well as taking into consideration the narrative and story telling aspect I plan to incorporate. However the reserve can still be enjoyed by people of all ages as there is no limit to who can enjoy an immersive reserve experience. As younger children are less likely to be susceptible towards advertisement due to them perhaps not being as active on social media I’ll need to take into consideration how I can advertise towards family (i.e parents) who will see it and believe it would be appropriate/fun for their child.

The target audience will also not rely upon gender as that could potentially discourage certain children from wanting to become involved. I will however target it towards those who live in less built up areas as well as people who are already interested in nature and wildlife. I’ll do this by creating leaflets that can be passed around local communities and people that are already a part of environmental interest groups.

Here I’ve found two separate examples of a website designed for a nature park highlighting various different elements I’d like to include in my own web design to make it more fitting for children. The one on the left has a very minimalist approach that doesn’t use a lot of colour whereas the one on the right utilises big landing images, colour and a more dynamic logo that I believe would appeal more to the younger generation.

Example of website not catered towards children compared to one that is.

Purpose

The purpose of this project will be to connect the younger generation with nature and the protection of local animals. I will aim to create dynamic and interactive tours using VR and AR to solidify the branding as well as using my own artistic skills to attempt to make it visually appealing. The use of 3D/2D animation overlayed onto real life images will create a sense of interactivity and help the user feel more immersed through the use of augmented reality pop-ups. I also want the nature reserve brand to create it’s own community where people can connect over their shared interests, whether that’s through a function on the website/app that I may potentially design or through the reserves social media pages.

“We need technology in every classroom and in every student and teacher’s hand, because it is the pen and paper of our time, and it is the lens through which we experience much of our world.” (Warlick, 2006)

This quote dictates the importance of teaching children and immersing them in our technology as it advances at such a fast rate in the modern world. By allowing them the resources to use the tech in a safe and fun environment we can facilitate a world where people are learning faster instead of being held back,.

Group Meetings

In our second week of planning our major projects we all sat together in small groups to discuss each other’s ideas and initial proposals. It was interesting and beneficial hearing others opinions of your own concepts as well as understanding how they will approach projects that have a completely different path to my own.

I first spoke to Callum who was deciding between designing his own board game and creating a geo-location app for university students to use. Through him describing how he was going to create his app it prompted me to think how I could use similar techniques if I were to design an app of my own and using it to build a community as Callum had talked about. He also offered useful terms I could use for the name of my own project (the nature reserve) which would relate to the target audience of younger people as well as those interested in nature.

I then spoke to Imaan who is planning to create a virtual childrens book. Her project sounded quite similarly aligned to mine as we’re both targeting our proposals towards the younger generation as well as narrative and story telling being a strong theme in both. We both spoke of different illustrators and artists we wished to take inspiration from to which we may both further develop into the 3D landscape. This was useful as I got to hear from someone else point of view on the artistic side of things.

Throughout this exercise I jotted down notes of what I may wish to name my project as I gained inspiration from hearing other peoples plans. I used a similar method to one that we’ve used in past modules where I brainstormed words relating to 2 different prompts and then combined them to see which I thought best fit as well as making quick sketches of the words which I could possibly use for the brands motif/logo.

Notes I took during the group session



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