Last semester in Seminar 1, the final project we were assigned was about Mythology – taking a classic myth or legend and twisting it into a modern version of our own. The studio counterpart involved making a short magazine to accompany the story and add a visual perspective to our new myths.
The research component in this project was mostly up to our own preference, though some was required; we had to look into the origins of the myth we chose, and look at how the story may have evolved over the years, as well as the moral that its creators may have been trying to tell and how to adapt that moral or change it to serve the purpose we wanted for our story.
The story I chose to reimagine was that of Persephone and Hades, so naturally I looked into all versions of the original myth, as well as many interpretations of the symbolism and characters. The moral of this story is pretty ambiguous, but I was interested in the character of Persephone, and her relationships with the other Gods. I looked into the origin of the character beyond the story and discovered that Persephone’s name didn’t even exist until after she was stolen away (or tempted, depending on who you believe) to the Underworld to be Queen of the Dead. Before this, she was simply a maiden goddess called Kore. I also did research into the language of flowers, because I wanted to incorporate this in my story, and it ended up playing heavily into the visuals for my magazine as well.
If I had time to expand this project even more, I would look further into the motivations and origins of the other characters int he story, namely Hades, who I find very interesting.
https://indd.adobe.com/view/755409e8-361c-479e-9fc2-3b5b668df9e4
