Wisecrack: Teaching Philosophy with a Twist
My book is an adaptation of the popular YouTube channel Wisecrack. Wisecrack explains philosophy through television shows and games so that viewers can better understand complex concepts. This book would be marketed to fans of the YouTube channel as special edition merchandise.
A big part of Wisecrack’s appeal are the visuals, so my project started with crafting icons. Picking Plato as an example, I will go through my process. I started by gathering images of Plato and studying them. Since the content was going to be complex it was crucial the layout and imagery would be easy to consume. Using the realistic image of Plato as my base I took away details, going as simplistic as possible without losing the recognizable features of the initial image.
From there I had to focus on differentiating between the different icons. One needed to be used for the cover pages, one used through out the book and one for the philosophers. The cover page added a purple used in the brand new intro the videos and the classic yellow. The anime and cartoon characters would have small captions stating show and name. Philosophers would be pinned to the top of the page, include their credentials, specializations and name.
The philosophers are pinned at the top of the page, a function mirrored on the Youtube site. The text was carried through out a comment box that was time stamped, just like YouTube at the time. At the end of this comment was likes, dislikes and replies, also like YouTube at the time. Taking the critical parts of youtubes layout i married it to classic philosophy books. Just like the large ones you were never allowed to take out of this library this book stand 17n tall x 14in wide at the smallest possible size. I believe incorporating these features marries and integrates the two concepts of the YouTube channel and my book as fan merchandise.
