So… I usually try to avoid uncomfortable social interactions wherever possible, so this assignment was extremely out of my comfort zone. Fortunately, the uncomfortable part came on my friends, rather than me…
When I gave Olivia my three phone numbers (Brother, Girlfriend, and other Friend), I only told two out of three what was happening. I had Olivia text my brother cold, with no context, and after some prank texting, finally got the answers to her questions.
I texted her friends with a simple questionnaire that they answered about her, and it all went well.
Some of these questions include favorite animal, destination, food, and other similar facts about her.
Then I created the Zoom background. For this, I used Photoshop and a collection of relevant images from the internet to create a composite landscape that incorporates things she likes/identifies with. After playing around with layer ordering, effects (I love the “Oil Paint” filter), and blend modes. The images I used are either stock photos, meme images, and screengrabs from films, then heavily edited to fit the piece.
I’m very happy with how it came out, and while she did have a hard time identifying the image as hers, I think Olivia liked it too. We think that confusion came from her friends giving either wrong or inconsistent answers. In the future, I might change the time of day so it matches Olivia’s dark/eerie art preference, and remove some elements that she didn’t quite identify with.
I really liked the background Olivia made for me. Seems like she had a fun time texting my friends, and it definitely paid off! It looks like an awesome logo, when sitting in front of it. I was slightly confused by the main “Crossbones” logo, but she explained to me that it’s Frank Turner’s logo, a musician I really like. The Disney castle is perfect, centered in the fisheye lense. Apparently this was a late addition, but I think it works great–I thought it was a green smoke-filled crystal ball, from the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland, which fits well.
Overall, I have little criticism! It’s something that I would totally use as my own Zoom background!
I’m not that into group work–I simply do better work by myself. Having said that, I did have a great time, and meeting new people is always an interesting experience.
Working over zoom definitely puts less pressure on me when talking to people I don’t know, but I still think it was effective in getting points across and getting work done together.
