Ransom Note

For our final project we were given the option to make one of two things, the first option was three black out poems, and the other was to create a ransom note. I decided to create the ransom note.

Making the note wasn’t as simple as cutting out letters and putting them over a background. There was a process that I had to go through in order to make my idea come alive. My first step was to empathize, what am I doing and who am I making this for. I realized that although the audience is my class, the possibilities were endless in what I could make. As long as it was appropriate I could make it.

After I empathized I had to define my problem. The problem at hand was, I need to create a ransom note for my class. And that is when I started to ideate.

My thought process started with looking at the example we were given in class. The one we were given seemed to have a humorous aspect to it while also giving a threat. I tried to follow that idea with giving an obscure place that seemed weird for a threat, so I decided to use a playground. After that I thought of the threat or ultimatum. So I just decided to use the phrase or else. This is letting the viewer pick whatever they want for the or else punishment.

Once I had the phrase I had to prototype my project. My first prototype for this project was actually made through photoshop and I created my own ransom note with a background of a newspaper and a playground. Eventually I scraped the photoshop version and cut out my own letters to use. I still used the background of the newspaper and playground for a place I can put my letters.

During this entire process I was using the design thinking process and I never realized it. We all use this process whether we realize it or not.