The Hunt, Procreate project was to refine the process of taking data and using it to influence the design of visual outputs. I wanted to do this for each step of the process as is; to refine the way in which the data is selected, the way in which it is used to create a design and how the data is presented in said design. Through this, I hoped to take the refined and re-evaluated steps and manipulate them into an improved, more cohesive workflow which I could take with me into my final year.

The data I focussed on for this project was taken from my partner, specifically whilst he was playing a game named Monster Hunter, in which the player’s main objective is to track down and cull various monsters that exist within the game’s universe. Whilst I have never played the game myself, I have always commented on the sheer volume of these monsters the player is expected to hunt and wondered how this would translate to real life. I decided that, with this project, I would attempt to translate this through using data to influence design, as well as using the game itself to dictate how the design would come to be.

Over three days, I recorded each monster my partner hunted in the game. I then took this data and individually researched each monster that he had killed, looking at their appearance, categorisation within the game, etc. I then wrote their names in Japanese and mirrored them, as in most of the games, the written language used is upside-down Japanese Kanji. I then labelled each name with the specific type of each monster, of which there were six, and displayed this by taking inspiration from Japanese Hanko signature stamps, using Kanji relating to the type of the monster and colours from palettes made from images of each monster. I took inspiration from a lot of Japanese culture as the game itself originated in Japan and a lot of content within it is based around or inspired by different elements of Japanese culture. I also created the graphic entirely by hand to mimic both traditional Japanese calligraphy and art sprites from the games.