For this Digital Storytelling class, I had 2 required textbooks “Watchmen” and “100 Things Every Graphic Designer Should Know About People”. These books helped to shape my understanding of how to best tell a story. These books were of great benefit to my Superhero’s Journey Project by expanding both my understanding of design and my inspiration for what is possible.

The book “100 Things Every Graphic Designer Should Know About People” was a great insight into how design is seen. This book helped to shape my own design work through exploring several aspects of design. The insight into psychology, emotional influence, social and cultural considerations, cognitive load and information processing, and the power of storytelling was helpful in learning how to create a bigger impact with my work. Understanding these topics is truly a weapon to be wielded by the superhero in content creation.

The book “Watchmen” broke away from the traditional norm of superhero storytelling. This graphic novel not only used a unique color pallet and cinematic storyboard style graphics but also changed how the story was told. The deconstructed superhero stories within the book provided more depth to the overall story and a more interesting plot. I found this inspiring for my own work.

Another Graphic novel that I can draw inspiration from is “The Dark Knight Returns”. This graphic novel also has many conflicts and resolutions. I find that it also further proves the power of character stories within the story.