A Softer World.

Something as familiar as a Garfield comic strip in the Sunday newspaper may not initially seem to hold the same amount of grandeur when it comes to design, as let’s say, the classic “Mona Lisa” masterpiece. Although comics are often looked down upon in today’s society as being unsophisticated entertainment for youngsters, there is actually an entire art form behind the makings of comics. Visual communication is the main focus when it comes to producing comics – allowing readers to not only appreciate the comic’s art, but to also allow them to easily follow the comic’s story.

Despite the natural assumption that comics are referring to the Sunday funnies, or the Marvel comic book heroes like Spiderman and Captain America, the design of comics can also be found in forms other than the standard cartoon. On the website, www.asofterworld.com, the two creators, Emily Horne and Joey Comeau, produce a webcomic that consists of photographs and linguistic twists and wits.

(Picture from www.asofterworld.com)

The square framings that split the single photograph into sections give the project a typical comic feel. Horne’s and Comeau’s common use of faded photographs and typewritten font in their projects allow their webcomics to appear aesthetically pleasing. Even if scrolling through the archives of the webcomics results in discovering creations that don’t always seem to make sense, like all other comics, however, A Softer World’s comics also portray a type of story through visual communication.