The Department of Multimedia and Graphic Design at the University of Johannesburg (UJ) recently collaborated on a project that involved designing games to be used as promotional tools for a book launch.
The four-week creative interdisciplinary project was based on developing a fully integrated viral campaign to market a novel of the group’s choice. BTech (4th year) students from the two departments used Photoshop, Illustrator and Flash software to develop their interactive designs. The groups coded the games using actionScript 3.
One game, Pan’s Missing Shadow, has been selected as a finalist in the Student Digital Craft category for the 33rd annual Loerie Awards - South Africa’s premier advertising and branding awards.
Pan’s Missing Shadow designed by Georigia Walsh (Multimedia students),
Emma Robinson-Harbour and Leighton Coertze (Graphic Design students).
Georgia Walsh shared that, “It was truly an enriching experience working with such specialized, talented and creative fellow students from another design discipline. We all learned something from each other and realized through collaborating, that we all have something valuable to share.”
Leighton Coertze says, “It was wonderful to receive recognition from our lecturers, who submitted our work into the Loeries. Being a finalist in this prestigious award has always been a dream, which I thought would be impossible to achieve while I was still a student”
Lecturers from Faculty of Art, Design and Architecture (FADA), Terence Fenn (Department of Multimedia) and Christa van Zyl (Department of Graphic Design) designed the brief and co-ordinated the project.
Multimedia lecturer, Terence Fenn remarked, “The students not only managed to successfully construct the screen based adventure games, but they also gained valuable insight into collaboration and teamwork with other designers.” He adds, “The Faculty of Art, Design and Architecture (FADA) at UJ promotes exploring multidisciplinary approaches to design. This project is a great example of this.”
Tintin designed by Stephen Hellmann (Multimedia student), Sannah Tembe,
Sheldon Stewart, and Ronel Botes (Graphic Design students).
Play Pan’s Missing Shadow here: http://ujfadagraphicdesign.carbonmade.com/projects/3161213. Read more on Pan’s Missing Shadow’s design process on www.pansmissingshadow.blogspot.com.
More of the games will be uploaded throughout year, so keep visiting the website.