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OVERVIEW: RESEARCH + SCHOLARSHIPMy design practice has always benefitted from a strong sense of storytelling and audience engagement. As a result, my scholarly output is concerned with the communication of ideas through visual storytelling. This work lies at the intersection of creative disciplines, especially graphic design, illustration, comics, and game design. Quality indicators of my research include acceptances to peer-reviewed conferences and journals, including Design & Emotion, International Association of Societies of Design Research, AIGA Design Educators Conferences, and a number of cross-disciplinary academic and creative conferences. I regularly serve as a reviewer for academic design conferences, including the AIGA National Design Conference and the Motion Design Education (MODE) Summit. The results of my research on educational board games are a featured case study in the design research textbook, Convivial Toolbox: Generative Research for the Front End of Design, by Dr. Liz Sanders and Dr. Pieter Jan Stappers. Additionally, my creative work on Norse Mythology occasionally yields appearances and presentations in academic settings on history, culture, and comparative literature, including the International Congress on Medieval Studies and the Montreal Comic Arts Festival.
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PUBLICATIONS + RELATED CITATIONS
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PEER REVIEWED PAPERS + PRESENTATIONS
“Navigating Mythological Source Material in Contemporary Comics Adaptations”
International Society for the Study of Medievalism: The Medieval in Cyberspace, October, 2023. Special session: Comics Get Medieval 2023: New Work on the Comics Medium in Medieval Studies Sponsoring Organization(s): Association for the Advancement of Scholarship and Teaching of the Medieval in Popular Culture [link] An academic presentation on mythological adaptation from an artist's perspective, presenting a selection of challenges, solutions, and rewards intrinsic to the process of adaptation of Medieval sources into a contemporary comic book format.
Design Research in a Polytechnic Setting: Leveraging Polytechnic Research Initiatives as Thematic Content in a Graduate Design Research Class
Global Polytechnic Summit, UW–Stout, Menomonie, WI. June, 2019. This presentation will feature the research project conducted by graduate students in a research strategies class in UW–Stout’s Master of Fine Arts in Design. Students were presented with the issue of algae blooms in regional lake watersheds, a topic that is central to UW–Stout’s LAKES REU summer research program, sponsored by the National Science Foundation. Students’ work touched on elements from sociology, economics, and biological sciences. This opportunity has pushed the idea of cross-campus, interdisciplinary research initiatives and provided real-world stakes that helped guide purely conceptual models. It has also provided tangible examples of what research can look like in the design field. Visual examples of the research methods and students’ conceptual models will be included. Examples of student artifacts include proposals for site-specific installations, interactive experiences, and research-driven documentary film.
“Adapting the Norse Myths: Risks, challenges, and creative choices,”
International Congress on Medieval Studies, Western Michigan University. May, 2019. Sponsoring Organization(s): Association for the Advancement of Scholarship and Teaching of the Medieval in Popular Culture [link] It is the intent of this session to shed the spotlight on these other examples of Nordic-inspired medievalisms and to bring them into ongoing conversations and debates about the reception of the medieval in the post-medieval world. In this proposal, the author will present the delicate balance of adaptation, blending the desire to represent stories with historic and cultural accuracy with the need to communicate complex ideas and concepts effectively and efficiently, using the strengths and weaknesses inherent in the medium of expression. This process is further challenged by the desire to create a narrative structure familiar enough to contemporary audiences to engage them with the subject matter. The author will present three contrasting case studies from his own body of work: Gods of Asgard (2007), The Beast of Wolfe's Bay (2013), and Odin: Lord of the Gallows (upcoming). In illustrating the differing adaptational approaches for each project, the author will present a critical analysis of the challenges inherent to the act of adapting complex, ancient content for contemporary artistic media.
“Comics as a Design Ecosystem: A Case for Comics in Design Education”
ImageTexT Interdisciplinary Comics Studies journal: University of Florida. September, 2014. Comics have long held a connection with the world of graphic design. In regards to media, comics utilize a combination of text and image that blend together, which is always a primary motivator of graphic design (or visual communication design, as I will describe it later on). Comics also serve as a vehicle for a narrative. The narrative is an important aspect of all design fields. Visual communication designers’ relation to this idea is perhaps its most important defining characteristic, and other design areas use the visual narrative to engage clients, educate users, conduct research, and make large-scale ideas understood in an economical way. Comics and design are even connected in history. As described and fictionalized in Michael Chabon’s novel The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, many early comic artists were plucked from the pages of newspaper advertising departments to be tasked with filling a public demand for comic books. The brushed-ink style normally associated with comic art is, in fact, derived from the same techniques employed by advertising illustrators, and was developed to maximize photographic reproduction on newsprint.
“Using Comics to teach Visual Communication, Design Thinking, and User Centered Principles.”
Intersections in Design Education: AIGA Design Educators Conference, Portland, OR. September, 2014. Visual narrative and visual communication have been intertwined from the beginning. The field of comics has had a notable connection with the world of graphic design since the invention of the printing press, and especially since the comic industry’s mass market boom in the first half of the 20th Century. Formally, both comics and graphic design attempt to blend imagery and text together to create a narrative. But this relationship goes deeper than the formalist and historical contexts, connecting to design concepts that are not typically mentioned when discussing the creative space shared by comics and design. Design uses the visual narrative to engage clients, educate users, conduct research, and make large-scale ideas understood in an economical way. This paper will analyze the connection between several of these inherent design principles and the visual language and narrative properties of comics. It will connect the interdisciplinary and user-centered positions of two universities’ undergraduate design programs with the inherent format and creative requirements of sequential visual narratives. Specifically, this paper will explore design issues such as problem solving through task analysis, personas and user experiences, systems thinking, storytelling and communication, and reductive thinking. To illustrate these points and stimulate more connections in this area, case studies of classroom projects from Design Drawing classes for students in all design majors at both universities will be used. Using problem-centered narratives, students anticipate or develop empathy, analyze the interaction of people with other people, objects, and systems, and synthesize various drawing concepts for the specific purpose of storytelling. Successful results require a deep understanding of the problem in order to present a clear story. Through the development of visual narrative, students exercise not just drawing, but spatial thinking, clarity of communication, and effective creative decision making.
A Toolkit for Board Game Design (chapter/case study).
Convivial Toolbox, Elizabeth B.-N. Sanders, PhD, and Prof. Pieter Jan Stappers, PhD BIS Publishers, January, 2014 This book introduces an emerging domain of design research that is of immense interest today, not only to the academic design research community but also to design practitioners and to those in the business community charged with the development of human-centred products, systems, services and/or environments. This toolkit was developed to inform the design and development of an educational board game promoting diabetes awareness. The project functioned as a graduate thesis case study, and was a collaboration with the Central Ohio Diabetes Association (CODA) of Columbus, Ohio.
Making Educational Games Make Sense (Without Losing Entertainment Value).
AIGA Design Educators Conference: Response/Ability, Toledo, OH. May, 2010. This research model was developed as part of an educational game design project in collaboration with the Central Ohio Diabetes Association. It was used as a graduate thesis case study, and was incorporated into a graduate Design Research class at The Ohio State University. It can be condensed into four phases: Data Gathering, Creative, Testing and Evaluation, and Prototype. Each phase utilizes a set of processes borrowing from different forms of design research and generation. The model should not be seen as a step-by-step process. The four phases of research making up the model fit within it fluidly and can be intermeshed with one another, depending on the designer’s context.
Crafting a Design Concept Prototype for an Educational Game Design: A Case Study.
International Association of Societies of Design Research (IASDR), Seoul. October, 2009 This paper presents the importance of rigorous design research in the development of an educational board game. The project's goal was to create a board game to engage children, their friends, and parents in the management of diabetes, which are difficult to understand. Board games were perceived as the most appropriate delivery because of their capacity to simplify large concepts, making them appropriate for the experiential learning required to master complex information. Research and design process of this project involved collaborations with graduate student researchers, sponsor clients, subject experts, and faculty advisors. Designers developed an iterative research model encompassing several design research methods, including interviews, literature review, participatory research methods, generative tools, usability testing, and pilot testing. The paper summarizes the collaborative and rigorous research process used in the design development of an emotionally connective and engaging game that was fun, educational, and significant to the management of diabetes.
Making it Fun: Uncovering a Design Research Model for Educational Board Game Design.
Graduate thesis, August, 2009 This study discusses the importance of rigorous design research in the development of an educational game for an academic research project sponsored by an established non-profit diabetes association. The goal of this project was to create a board game to engage children with diabetes, their friends and parents in the diabetic’s daily personal health management, the self-management requirements of which are hard to understand and maintain. The board game format was perceived as a highly appropriate form of communication because of its capacity to simplify large concepts, making them appropriate for the experiential learning required to master complex information.
Game Design for Personal Health Management: An Emotional and Educational Perspective.
Dare to Desire: Design & Emotion 6, HKPU, Hong Kong. October, 2008 This document presents the efforts of a graduate student team that developed a board game design to engage children living with diabetes, as well as their friends and parents, in personal health management. Diabetes has multi-leveled health and life style management requirements, an employing a game format can simplify complex concepts in appealing ways and motivate appropriate behavior. The students applied participatory design research methodologies to co-design with subject matter experts, educators, care providers, and end-users. The students utilized game design strategy, character design, and storytelling to develop an emotionally connected and fun activity where game players interact with each other while learning about personal health management. The authors summarized this collaborative design process and shared the learning experiences of the students.
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CONFERENCE PANELS + PRESENTATIONS
“Educational Perspectives in the Game Industry,”
M+DEV Midwest Game Dev Conference, November, 2023 Panelists: Erik Evensen, Tammie Schrader, Winnie Karanja, Andrew Williams, Brian Pelletier, Eric Bauman “Monster Love”
Montreal Comic Arts Festival, June, 2021. Panelists: Elisa Echeverría Parra, Erik Evensen, Ines Estrada, Sarah Andersen Our relationships to the non-human, the paranormal, and the monstrous are endlessly fascinating, but what do these relationships — at times romantic, at times antagonistic, at times an unsettling mixture of both -- say about our relationship to our own humanity? This panel attempts to explore the full spectrum of our love for monsters, whether wholesome, or twisted, or both. “Licensed Comic Books”
Convergence, Bloomington, MN, July 7, 2018 Panelists: Erik Evensen, Christopher Jones, Gordon Purcell Working with licensed comic book properties has some unique challenges and constraints. How does one get this kind of work and keep within those boundaries? “Norse Mythology in Contemporary Society”
Convergence, Bloomington, MN, July 9, 2017 Panelists: Erik Evensen, Severina Hein, Gabriel Hilmar, Will Shetterly The re-emergence of Norse Mythology in our modern psyche is suggestive of a move back to nature while exploring our own inner-nature. Contemporary Authors such as Gaiman and Riordan have either expanded or exploited this interest. “Kickstarter How-To Panel”
AIGA Minnesota Design for Good, Minneapolis, MN. February 5, 2015 Panelists: Erik Evensen, Dr. Ursula Murray Husted, Jeremy Wilker; moderated by Kelli Fox “The Creative Process Behind Star-Crossed”
Minnesota Music Educators Association Midwinter Clinics, Minneapolis, MN, February, 2013. Co-presented with Dr. Andrew Boysen, Jr. “Language Acquisition Through Comics”
New England Comic Arts in the Classroom Conference, Providence, RI, March, 2011. Co-presented with Dr. James Bucky Carter “Creating Twilight of the Gods”
College Band Directors National Association W/NW Conference, Reno, NV, 2010. Co-presented with Dr. Andrew Boysen, Jr. Master of Fine Arts Panel
AIGA Design Educators Conference: Social Studies, MICA, Baltimore, MD, 2008. Panelists: Erik Evensen, Rebecca Tegtmeyer, Marty Maxwell Lane, Pamela Napier, Luke Johnson, Vida Kluko Pecha-Kucha style presentations about graduate Design programs, from the final day of the Social Studies Conference in October of 2008 (hosted by MICA in Baltimore, MD). The SSC was part of the AIGA Design Educators Conference series. |