Talking With My Brother

Tonight, during class I started thinking about who could help me make my pamphlet. I don't know anyone who is trained in graphic design, but I thought that maybe I could go through the art department and find someone who might be willing to help us out. This would have been an easier task had I known where exactly the art department was! So I decided to ask the artsiest person I know: My Brother. He recently graduated from the Art Institute of Salt Lake, and I am pretty sure I remember him saying that he has some experience in graphic design. Anyways, during class I decided to shoot him a text asking about what he may or may not know, and he responded that he had some experience! So, I organized a meeting with him that evening and went over to talk with him about my idea and what he thought of it.

Here is an image of what I was thinking the pamphlet should look like by the time I finished it.

My brother took one look at it and said, "Yeah, I can't do that," and I have to admit my heart sank a little bit! The only thing I wanted was for this pamphlet to happen. I NEEDED to get the word out about light pollution to try and make a dent in ending it altogether in the Salt Lake Valley, hence the Valley as a Laboratory Praxis Lab! However, I thought that beginning on campus would be the first step in expanding throughout the valley, and was delighted to find that a project was already happening when I took an interest in the subject. So when my brother abruptly told me he couldn't make what I wanted, I had a momentary lapse and thought I was screwed to move on. Then he said I would need someone called an illustrator. It's almost like a sci-fi title for someone "The Illustrator," the one who colors the world around us. Anyways, I would need to find someone who could illustrate these images for me, which just out another thing on my to-do list.

However, my brother began to brainstorm ideas on what else I could do to accomplish the very same task that I originally intended. To offer the University of Utah an outlet of information to help stop light pollution on campus, in their own homes, and eventually in the valley! He told me about something called a 3D map.

Here is an example of a 3D map.

The buildings and landscape are actually up out of the paper and offer a better image for the viewer. Then I proposed the idea that we could maybe have bubbles that pop up out of the map with actual photos of places on campus where light pollution is the worst, and also where work may be being done to stop light pollution currently on campus. I don't know of any other projects besides that of Bettymaya Foott, but I'm hoping that there may be more going on than meets the eye. Hopefully once I meet Bettymaya she may be able to tell me more about what's going on on campus with regards to light pollution, but for now, no pun intended here, I remain in the dark.

I think that this map may be a good direction to take the pamphlet in. I seem to have the resources right at my fingertips at this point and someone who is willing to help me make it happen, so my plan is to present the map idea to the class and see what they think! We'll see how it goes.