I usually prefer to keep my day job (lecturer at a design school) and my other job (superhero vigilante by night… I mean writer) separated, except when I’m thinking on a particular object (like Alex’s collapsing bow) and try to describe it as feasible as possible, inner workings included. The other moments is when my writing job spills into my day job like today. Well more the work at the writers’ collective of which I’m part, Inklings Press. 

As you have heard we talk about the inner workings of Inklings Press as the ‘Tower’ (hence the name of the new book). And we have a mascot of sorts, enforcer and manservant Herc the Orc: 

Now, last semester, two students selected me as their final year project advisor. They were hopeful I would be open to their ideas for project (at my work they are usually ‘encouraged’ to do boring design as furniture). When they told me they wanted to create sets and creatures for a stop motion film I accepted right away( “finally an entertaining project to supervise,” I said). Then Inklings Press jumped in as client for the project and they started to develop the material for a short promo film (think the Pixar lamp animation at the start of their films). They took the drawing of Herc and created a setting and the characters (that can double as collectors’ action figures) for a film inside the Inklings Tower.

Today, these two gifted students, Alanna & Montserrat brought for a midterm evaluation their work and this is the result:

They will start shooting the film soon.

Meanwhile I’m feeling very proud of them.

This is why I studied design. This is why I’m a design teacher now. For times when my students do things like this. Well done girls!