For Part III of the Time Capsule assignment, I was tasked to create a story of my time capsule when it is discovered in the next 125 years.
Fast forward 125 years into the future… and the current inhabitants of Earth, just made a shocking discovery: your Time Capsule. What do you think will happen once your time capsule is unearthed, many many years from now? What will the inhabitants do or think?
Drafting the story
I decided to draft the story first before deciding which medium I would use to communicate. Because the theme is toward the far future, I thought of the dystopian novels and movies that I have read and watched. So, I came up with my own story of a dystopian world, when humans are prohibited to some activities resulting in a use of robots and AI to do things we can’t do.
The Graphic Novel
After getting a rough draft of the whole story done, I started drawing the first scene: an outside of the dome that all humans live in. I used Procreate, a digital drawing tool, to illustrate the story I made into a short graphic novel.
Scroll down to read the story
Reflection
Creating a story is not easy, neither does drawing it. I went back and forth a lot while working on this assignment, but I also really enjoy the process and the final deliverable! Drafting the story from scene to scene helped me a lot in visualizing the story in my head before started drawing it. My initial idea was to make a wordless novel, but since the future setting is difficult for me to communicate in drawings, I have to include some word descriptions.
In some parts of the story, I used a familiar user interface design to mimic the features from current social media. After finishing the drawings, I actually thought about the development of icons and interfaces. Maybe in the next 125 year, people might not understand the meanings of the icons we use today anymore. This sparks my idea of creating another version with the “icons of the future” if I decide to continue refining this graphic novel.
Overall, I had a lot of fun working on all three parts of the Time Capsule assignment. It allows me to explore my past, present, and future from the objects that I own. Working on this assignment, I have also developed my observation, creativity, and storytelling skills, which is not only fun but also useful for my future design career!