VIEW LIVE HERE.
Strange Realizations is a collaborative project with fellow illustrator Briana Tran exploring user research and personas - more specifically the contrast of individuals' self reported perceptions of themselves in comparison to their internal thoughts. I sent surveys across Mechanical Turk, social media and IRL asking individuals answer the following questions:
1. What emotion do you feel most often?
2. What is your favorite thing to do?
3. What is one adjective to describe your face?
4. Write one sentence that describes your essence.
5. Write a sentence or two that describes a recent realization you had.
Looking at responses for questions 1 through 4, Briana and I then created "personality portraits" for each individual. Essentially the "personality portraits" represented the individuals' self-perceptions based off words they used to describe themselves. The surveys were largely kept anonymous to maintain objectivity when drawing the portraits in the case that we personally knew the individual. The final portraits are displayed in an online gallery. By hovering over each face, each individuals' answer to question 5 (their most recent realization) is revealed, providing a glimpse into his or her mind.
An example of the kind of responses we would receive and illustrate from would be (for portrait right below):
1. Happy 2. Surf Internet 3. Round 4. I see good in most things and feel blessed by everything 5. My mortality is closer that I want it to be.
It was interesting to find the contrast between peoples' external self portrayals and their own thoughts. For instance, below, the individual described himself in mainly positive words, such as "Happy" and "blessed by everything" but his most recent realization is negative, regarding the inevitability of death.
View it live here.
