Positivenegatives is a London-based nonprofit founded by Benjamin Dix. Positivenegatives creates comics and animations that spread awareness around global narratives of human rights violation. Using a tried and tested methodology, Positivenegatives conducts fieldwork and interviews, and then maintains communication with the people who tell their sensitive stories to the company, consulting them throughout the process to maintain integrity to their narratives.
Why Comics? is the chariteable leg of Positivenegatives. Using the materials generated by Positivenegatives, Why Comics?supplements comics and animations with lesson plans, and distributes these to over 25,000 schools for educational purposes.
In the summer of 2017, I interned in London for Positivenegatives, donating my work also to Why Comics?. I participated in discussions surrounding illustrative brainstorming for a project with SOAS University titled "Borderland Brokers," helped teach prototyped classes to middle schoolers using comics and accompanying lesson plans, worked on a proposal (which passed and received funding!) for an IDEO challenge about girl's health in refugee camps, created a series of lesson plan covers, and created animations, illustrations, and designed promotional material for the Why Comics? launch of materials to 25,000 schools.
Brainstorming for "Borderland Brokers" and Teaching a prototyped Why Comics? class at SOAS University:
Proposal for IDEO challenge for girl's health in refugee camps:
On this project, we proposed a way to utilize comics to educate girls in refugee camps about their health and safety. I worked on helping to draft the written component of this project, and created all visual materials. I wrote the script for the video, performed the voiceover, edited it fully, and created all illustrative materials involved (except for the "methodology" comic shown in the video, illustrated by Lindsay Pollack). I also wrote and illustrated the usermap, a mandatory aspect of the proposal that is shown below.
We recently found out that our proposal was one of the winners of the IDEO challenge! Positivenegatives will receive funding and begin working on it starting in March 2018.
Another project I worked on was a self-driven project to create a series of illustrations to serve as lesson plan covers. These lesson plans (with my covers) were distributed near the conclusion of my internship, to about 25,000 schools. They served as teaching resources to accompany comics created by Positivenegatives to educate about humanitarian issues.
My proposal for these covers was to create mixed media illustrations on top of photography taken during fieldwork by researchers at Positivenegatives. This is something the company has done before, to conceal the identities of people who participate in the fieldwork, who often disclose very personal stories that they do not wish to associate directly with their identities. Each of my ink illustrations is a portrait of a subject within the photograph, now concealed by the illustration.
I also used this method to create new business cards for Emma Savilla, co-founder of Why Comics?Educational Charity.
The last, continuous job throughout my internship was to create promotional materials, primarily designed flyers and animated gifs, for the Why Comics? launch, which happened at the conclusion of the summer.
My design for the Why Comics? printable flyer for the official launch:
Animated GIFs/Promotional Materials:
Thank you for looking at my work for PositiveNegatives/Why Comics?!