Making fakes is what we do, and to make a genuine fake, we need to know where things come from, and specially how they are connected to what we already have. Every decision needs to follow a thread in order for that world to makes sense. This is pretty much, my approach to design in general, I repeat to my self quite often: if it doesn't have a reason it doesn't belong there. I had to kill many designs with this approach, but in the long run the product is more cohesive and the people respond better to it. In college the line was, you got to kill your darlings, I'm sure many of you have heard that before.
We used to start by developing and idea and see what it grew in to, now that we have the foundation of what we call the Curio World, the ideas that come to mind are already connected to this skeleton. Having created the brands, their personalities, and their back story, it's easy to make the initial decision of how to connect things. Let's say we were to come out with a vintage Spaceman Jax comic book, would it be published by Ringer Publishing, who also published Frank and His Friend? Or, would we feel the need to create a new publishing hose for that project, or maybe just a subsidiary or Ringer? In this case it would have to be a subsidiary, with a similar name to but different logo. Obviously it would be easier to say Ringer Publishing does all the books in the Curio World but that would not make things feel real. After all Penguin Books is very different from Phaidon or Taschen.
We'll be talking in more details about this subject at one of the two Comic-Con panel we organized, it will be an open discussion with different type of creators from movie monsters, books and products to, steam punk props:
From comics to movie monsters and authenticity to alternate universes – how “real” does a fake need to be in order to be believable? Join Cesare Asaro (Creator, Finding Frank and His Friend), Kim Hutsell (Steampunk Designer and Prop Maker, Founder of the Annual Starburner Awards), Luke Khanlian (Design Engineer on the 10,000 Year Clock and Special Effects Creature Creator, Alien Resurrection, Starship Troopers, The Green Mile), Peter Maresca (Editor, Sunday Press Books), and Kirstie Shepherd (Author, Gadabout Time Machine User’s Manual) for a panel discussion on getting the details right when creating a believable fake world. We’ll be looking at what materials say about an object and how those materials can be manipulated to create the suspension of disbelief.
We used to start by developing and idea and see what it grew in to, now that we have the foundation of what we call the Curio World, the ideas that come to mind are already connected to this skeleton. Having created the brands, their personalities, and their back story, it's easy to make the initial decision of how to connect things. Let's say we were to come out with a vintage Spaceman Jax comic book, would it be published by Ringer Publishing, who also published Frank and His Friend? Or, would we feel the need to create a new publishing hose for that project, or maybe just a subsidiary or Ringer? In this case it would have to be a subsidiary, with a similar name to but different logo. Obviously it would be easier to say Ringer Publishing does all the books in the Curio World but that would not make things feel real. After all Penguin Books is very different from Phaidon or Taschen.
We'll be talking in more details about this subject at one of the two Comic-Con panel we organized, it will be an open discussion with different type of creators from movie monsters, books and products to, steam punk props:
Genuine Fakes: Making
the Artificial Real
Thursday, 7/18/13, 7:00p.m. - 8:00p.m., Room: 32AB
From comics to movie monsters and authenticity to alternate universes – how “real” does a fake need to be in order to be believable? Join Cesare Asaro (Creator, Finding Frank and His Friend), Kim Hutsell (Steampunk Designer and Prop Maker, Founder of the Annual Starburner Awards), Luke Khanlian (Design Engineer on the 10,000 Year Clock and Special Effects Creature Creator, Alien Resurrection, Starship Troopers, The Green Mile), Peter Maresca (Editor, Sunday Press Books), and Kirstie Shepherd (Author, Gadabout Time Machine User’s Manual) for a panel discussion on getting the details right when creating a believable fake world. We’ll be looking at what materials say about an object and how those materials can be manipulated to create the suspension of disbelief.
