Design Statement - Earth Explorers - Payton Taylor
Today, most children are seldom exposed to nature. Due to fear of kidnapping, many parents often limit solitary outdoor play time. Children may also have a decreased interest in nature itself due to overexposure to technology.
The benefits of outdoor play for children are significant and most experts believe that some sort of regular involvement with nature is healthy for children. Outdoor activities can increase a child’s mood and attention span, broaden their imagination and creativity, and improve relationships with their parents.
A parent’s worries about their child playing unsupervised outdoors are not trivial, and should be taken into consideration, but the pros of outdoor exposure outweigh the cons. I have developed an outdoor game that sparks a child’s passion for nature, and also allows interested parents to be directly involved in their child’s play, eliminating any safety concerns they may have.
Earth Explorers is a game that encourages children to dig into their extraordinary imaginations while they learn about local Charlotte wildlife. It can be played in the park, on the greenway, or even in the backyard. The game invites children to pretend they are an alien species sent to Earth by their planet’s scientists to collect and examine what Charlotte has to offer. They are given a backpack filled with tools to assist them on their journey. Contents include: a field guide with all the information they need for their adventure, a checklist of items that their home planet wants them to bring back, and items like jars, tweezers and a magnifying glass to help them while they collect. When finished collecting, the children must return to their spaceship (your car, house, etc.) and may return back to their home planet, thus ending the game.
My lifelong fascination with space and aliens influenced my creation of a brand for today’s children that persuades them to be enthusiastic about nature. My personal illustration style reflects my keen interest in the subject. I believe Earth Explorers successfully entices children to explore the wonders of nature. I believe this is because Earth Explorers broadens children’s natural and vivid imagination. Children are far more in tune with their imagination than adults, and I personally think this is a trait we should nurture throughout our lives. Earth Explorers can introduce children to nature they may have never thought about or seen before, like maple tree seed pods, or toadstool mushrooms. The smallest pieces of nature seen through the eyes of children become new and exciting discoveries!
Ultimately, my goal for this game proposal is to encourage parents to work with their children and become more involved in nature, and to nurture their child’s creativity. Earth Explorers embraces the smallest and biggest things our planet has to offer and I hope this is something new and exciting for children that is unlike games they can play indoors.
