EMP Fantasy:Worlds of Myth and Magic with Belle & Wissell Co.
Concept development and illustration for interactive MapMaker at EMP's Realms of Myths and Magic exhibit
When I was in 5th grade, I created a world called Kalatz with my friend Keith Zimmerman. We drew land and geograpy, earnestly discussing the culture and technologies of this mythical place. We even developed an entire alphabet. Usually our mapmaking sessions would devolve into pages of massive battles between well armed stick figures detonating ICBM's over the opponents territory. This was the 80's and this was what we dreamed and feared.
Those memories of building maps of fantastic worlds played a big role as I worked with Belle & Wissell to develop and illustrate an interactive mapbuilding experience for EMP's SciFi Museum's celebration of fantasy stories, art, and movies.
My task was to develop 3 different illustration styles to depict maps for a Wizards kingdom, a Manga inspired world in the clouds, and an adventurous Pirate's treasure map. Rather than drawing finished maps, it was necessary to create a wide range of elements that could be placed interactively so that anyone could their own custom map. The final experience is designed to be almost instantly understandable for users of all ages with the ability to create the layout of land masses, bodies of water, trees, mountains, and a wide range mythical landmarks.
My contribution to this project starts at 1:49.
The Wizards map is inspired by a blend of the illustrations of Tolkien for his Middle Earth maps mixed with 13th-15th century maps of medieval europe. A flat overhead view of landscape, lakes, and rivers is superimposed with pencil illustrated icons of cities, mountains, and forests. At the end of the mapmaking session a colorful animated dragon flies overhead.
I have no qualms saying that the Pirate map was my favorite to illustrate. I enjoyed developing a style that was meant to imply a hastily sketched out map to booty drawn with makeshift drawing instrument. Lures and dangers are drawn at different scales. They become legendary landmarks on the leather canvas. I must have drawn 150 slightly different palm trees until we worked out the correct assembly of scratch marks that depicted a tree but didn't go too far. Pirates don't have time to make it perfect, they just want to remember where they stashed the loot!. This map was heavily inspired by old seafaring maps from a time when seamonsters were considered to be a genuine threat and were meticulously depicted chimeras of fish and beast. Mermaids of course do exist.
The Manga map is inspired by games like Final Fantasy with semi industrial steampunk buildings and airships. Unlike the other two themes, this map needed to be more a depiction of a place, and less of a symbolic map, so elements were drawn from 3/4 view. Each island and elment needs to be able to read correctly no matter where it is on the screen. Perspective is limited, but is reinforced by the large airship that flies overhead.
