Highjinks
Deliverables:
Motion Graphics, Interactive Game, Accordion Book, POV Videos
Being tall is often praised by society, yet the downsides are always ignored. In reality, tall people suffer through many problems in their lives, but don't have a space to vent their frustrations.
Tall people usually turn towards humor to cope, and shorter people can learn the major problems but not quite the full picture. The goal of Highjinks is to provide this space for tall people, laughing along with their struggles and informing society on the truth of being tall.
Sending out a user survey showed that the vast majority of people don't understand the pros and cons of being tall, everyone finds height jokes funny to some extent, and enough people considered wanting to grow taller without taking into account the downsides.
The mood board focuses on the jokey nature of internet culture with pixel art, memes, and games. This allows Highjinks to take many forms while also leaning into the more awkward humor that comes from height.
Interstitials were created to showcase some more random physical problems that tall people face, such as seeing over bathroom stalls, hitting ceiling fans, and having their heads over showerheads.
The interactive game acts as the opposite of the interstitials; while the videos are easy to passively watch and learn from, this forces the user to actively think about social situations that tall people often face.
Two stories were developed, each with five questions to answer, where everyone is put into the shoes of a tall person to try and figure out the situations for themselves. Some of the answers are purposefully contradictory and confusing, which is how it can feel in real life.
A seven-foot accordion book was created to combine the physical aspects from the interstitials with the mental aspects of the interactive game. It can be read as a normal book, but it can also be stretched vertically to reveal that the background is made from a tall human. Being 6'5" makes it quite easy to describe each problem from a personal level, as well as including pictures from real-life experiences.
As a bonus, I recorded POV videos from my own perspective to further showcase tall problems first-hand. Using maple.pet/webgbcam, the pixel aesthetic was kept while expanding upon everything that was built.
Highjinks is dedicated to my dad, who unfortunately passed away during this project's creation. He always made people laugh and ensured that everyone was having a good time; he was essentially the life of the party. While he wasn't too tall, only standing at 5'10" (178cm), a lot of his spirit and lighthearted humor made it's way into Highjinks.
