Alyssa Mackersie 2022 Portfolio

FEARS AND CONFESSIONS 

Poetry can be a powerful tool to help communicate ideas information and struggles. Angela Augear’s poem struck me in a way that resonated deeply with the type of work I want to produce. Fears and Confessions is a project about understanding what ADHD is beyond a diagnosis, about making everyone understand what it can feel like. Using stark contrast, each word hits like a sucker punch on the “page.” As someone with ADHD, I went with the concept of a square peg in a round hole, how it feels like you’re suffocating trying to fit in. The words fill up the screen, overflowing, or get boxed in and fragmented.No illustration or frills are needed because it is the words that have the power.

FRIENDS LIKE THESE

Bartenders say you can tell a lot about a person by how they order. Whether they are ordering to impress or they are a creature of comfort; there are so many ways to go, it reveals a bit of your personality. “Friends Like These” explores that concept in order to promote its message: the warmth comes from the company you keep, not what’s in your glass.

The design of friends like these is a combination of collage and illustration. The project uses warm tones and carefully selected sound design to help evoke the comfort of going to your favorite bar with your closest friends. 

HALLOWEEN

The redesign for the Halloween Title Sequence draws from the build-up of the paranoia and suspense within the movie. When describing this kind of suspense, the creators compared it to the stretching of a rubber band; you feel the tension, the build-up, and you know something is coming, and even though your anticipation says run, you are stuck waiting. Sometimes you are right and there is something lurking in the shadows, but more often than not it takes you by surprise.

Additionally, the creators talked about how Micheal Myers (the killer) was more often described as the shape. He was a figure that melted into the shadows, just barely within what your eyes could adjust to. This was the primary inspiration for the design; having your eyes adjust to each scene and not beginning certain that what you see is actually there. 

HALLOWEEN STYLEFRAMES

CINDER

The Cinder title sequence is a design based on the book Cinder by Marissa Mayers. It is a story of future technology and romance amidst political crisis while tying back to the original Grimm Fairytales. The design reflects this by combining an illustrative storybook style with harsh futuristic vignettes straight from the book.

CINDER STYLEFRAMES

ASSET CREATION

For most of the title sequence, there are two futuristic typefaces used. The title design is a modified version of the primary typeface, Anurati, taking inspiration from the intricate designs of storybook drop-caps. The other designs are hand-drawn characters or iconography from the books, to aid in the feeling that this is set with the pages of a book.

SHARED MOMENTS

People pass through our lives. Sometimes they stay for a while, sometimes they return. These connections help to shape us into the people we are meant to be, but it is what we do on our own that defines us. Shared Moments is a visual poem depicting the warming connection between two people as they meet, through to their bittersweet end as they outgrow each other. The seasons change, as we get glimpses of their world, paralleling the rise and decline of their relationship. Even though it ends in heartache, they have helped to build each other into the person they are when they part. It is now their turn to forge ahead on their own to grow just a little bit strong than they were before.

PHASES THROUGH TIME - frame by frame study

PERSONAL LOGO - frame by frame 

STAND WITH UKRAINE - frame by frame project snippet

As students it often feels like there is very little we can do to help with such large problems as the ongoing war in Ukraine. When we see something we can do, we jump at the chance. In my community, we felt the need to do something, so in collaboration with an artist from Ukraine and several other students, we set out to compile a message of our support through a series of designs illustrating the words of the Ukrainian artist we collaborated with. This is my personal snippet from the video.