Senior Research Proposal

VCD 49098: Senior Research Proposal

Project & Paper Proposal Form

Directions: This form is intended to simplify the proposal process by asking specific questions that are critical to a successful project proposal. If there is other information that supplements the description of your project, you may attach pages as needed. All written information must be typed or word-processed. Use complete sentences and include each question. Please be as detailed as possible.

1. Subject or title:

Title: Character Branding

Deliverables: Short children’s book, small calendar, approximately three different cards (exemplifying the brand in its own line of greeting cards), and a journal.

Description: The illustrated children’s book will be a short, self-written, story about a young girl who imagines herself in different fantastical situations as either the heroine, mythical creature, villain, etc. Her little toy fox is her companion in all of these situations (reminiscent of Calvin & Hobbes). The plot of the book is that your life is how you make it.

o This short book will introduce a set of characters and a brand based on this book will be developed as the other deliverables exemplify marketability.

2. Academic / educational goal of the paper or project:

What I will learn from this project is character development, visual storytelling, and brand development. As an illustrator it is important to get the audience to be involved with the subject matter and this involves creating interesting and intriguing characters that a person will like to know more about. Visual storytelling is another important tool, as the message to be given must be clearly and quickly understood. I need to better enhance my skills at making the purpose of my work easily known. A huge opportunity to being successful is to create a marketable idea. I need to be able to take my illustration techniques and make them into something that can be branded (something unique and recognizable that can be purposely sought out).

3. How, specifically, does this project go beyond existing course projects?

This project goes beyond existing course projects in that I will be in charge of all the aspects of it myself, attempting to utilize the full capacity of my creativity; from the idea of the project to its conception I need to be able to pull off its success as a cohesive and professional work. The aspect of developing characters of my own should exemplify knowledge of social/audience expectations and interest. Building these characters into a brand to be marketable is also a unique aspect. With the fairly different deliverables, there must be a consistency throughout them that individualizes these products as being a part of one, identifiable brand. In the way “Hello Kitty” or “X-Men” can be seen through all different types of media, my goal is to somewhat simulate this through my project. The “brand” must be able to easily transfer and adapt to whatever product it can be a part of. Though we have had projects with different deliverables, the projects were preconceived, made for a select purpose, and confined. This project shall extend to what I can conceive individually, expand it to be able to be a part of various products (not just advertising/promotions), and be an example of work that better portrays what I would personally like to be involved with after graduation.

4. Research necessary for the project or paper. Describe any research completed: (surveys, interviews, publications, etc.)

Any research I have done so far has been fairly superficial. For my ideas I have looked into examples of the products I plan to make as my deliverables (children books, greeting cards, etc.), and I have listed helpful resources and examples I can reference in regards to writing and making the material needed for this project.

There are several things I would need to research. I need to research a solid writing technique in creating my own material for the storybook (this will include various writing manuals, possibly interviewing writers/literature-English majors, and basic examples of “classic”/”good” illustrated children’s books. I would also have to research both new and past forms of illustrating as well as any surveys that can be beneficial in determining appropriate methods of delivering/creating my material (what’s familiar and/or popular). Further questions I may have will need to be answered appropriately whether through help of faculty, online research, etc

5. PROJECT ONLY: Form of the project: Describe what the individual pieces would be: number of pieces, sizes, colors, materials, techniques, quantity.

The number of pieces in the project will be a total of six individual items. This will include a short children’s book, a small calendar, three different greeting cards, and a journal. The short children’s book will be the story form of a “pilot” for television shows. It introduces a broad plotline (as aforementioned) and a set of characters. This book will be the main source from which the other deliverables will branch off of. Presuming that the book has marketing potential, it can be set up for a series and is practical for marketing different products. By creating a brand based off of this book, the brand can be used to encompass products such as calendars, a line of greeting cards, and various notebooks. The project deliverables (along with the book) will have…

- A small calendar: About the size of an index card, all months on one page face, the visuals of it all connecting with the book.

- Three different greeting cards: Each card is for a different “event” (Valentine’s Day, Thank You, Halloween…) to demonstrate the characters from the book as easily adaptable.

- A Journal: About the size of a small notebook (roughly five inches wide and eight inches high), the journal will have visuals connecting with the book. Visuals will include the cover, the back, an opening page, and the rest of the pages inside with a recurring header on each page of the journal.

6. PROJECT ONLY: How will the final pieces be presented? (comped, printed, electronic, actual art, etc.)

The final pieces will be presented as physical (namely printed) items. The small children’s book will have printed illustrations, as will the cardstock small calendar and greeting cards, and double-wire-o bound journal.