Art of Problem Solving's 2024 Hackathon was an event set forth by the Research & Development department with the purpose of pausing work for a week in order to come up with a series of new products, initiatives, with the potential of receiving wider financial backing in the future. The Language Arts department set out to create a comic book prototype titled Quill Academy which, like our Beast Academy product line, sought to teach students Language Arts through a cast of characters journeying through a world where creatures have forgotten how to identify themselves through the use of language. The story's inciting incident would set the students up to learn language & critical thinking skills in order to give back the knowledge that was lost to the world and its creatures.

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As part of the Language Arts team, I was tasked with the creation of a bestiary that would be used as part of a series of course learning pages called the Wonder Wiki where students would have to identify different creature's body parts in order to eventually create & draw their own. My first day out of the week involved sitting down with the leadership team to discuss creature concepts that would both fit the world's lore, while also including several distinct body parts that would serve as clear identifiers for the students to learn from. Creatively speaking, this was a great challenge that taught me how to create unique and interesting character silhouettes that told a story and communicated movement through mere shape alone.

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Creative Direction by:

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Greta Selman, Erich Owen

 

Character Designs by:

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Nestor Tomaselli

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Graphic Design & Cover by:

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Liza Marino, Doga Ari

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Language Arts Leadership Team:

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Jack Sanchez

Dane Scott

Stephanie Sadrian

Kalin Cameron

Matt Granoff