Stronger With Games
The cultural power of gaming
For a programme seeking to culturally empower young people through workshops based on games, four posters were developed to target different age groups.
About the programme
The initiative “Stronger with Games” is part of a larger cultural funding programme helmed by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research. This programme seeks to offer better opportunities to youths who grow up disadvantaged due to a socially challenging environment.
About the project
The Foundation Digital Gaming Culture teams up with local youth centers or other educational institutions to organize culturally empowering games-based workshops for young people. Workshop themes range from creativity over self-realization to self-reflection.
Workshops for Kids
Exploring new worlds through games
This template is used to advertize workshops for kids from age 8 to 12, so the briefing asked for a playful and creative approach. As Minecraft is still widely popular with this audience, I chose exploration and crafting as the illustration’s theme.
The three kids are on an adventure in a mysterious dungeon. Each one is making exciting discoveries on their own terms. These experiences are examples for interests that can be sparked by gaming: Becoming an expert in a new discipline, creative drawing or simply meeting new people.
© Stiftung Digitale Spielekultur
© Stiftung Digitale Spielekultur
Workshops for creative minds
Creating your own reality
This poster template is meant to advertize workshops that focus an creative activities. For people who thing of gaming as a more passive activity, it might be interesting to learn that gaming culture fuels an amazing international art community.
Not only does the development of games itself rely on the work of excellent creatives – the players of games themselves often discover their passion for art through participating in the medium’s culture. Games keep inspiring young people to become artists, musicians or writers themselves. May it be as professionals or passionate hobbyists: Games are art, inspiring people to create art themselves.
Workshops for teenagers
Become the hero of your own story
Heroes have always been important in human popular culture. Like games, stories of heroes provide the audience with a sense of agency. They tell tales of transformation and overcoming challenges – this is why they are the ideal blueprints for young people to project their own desires and dreams for the future.
This poster template adapted the potential of heroic transformation that children can find through following their passions or hobbies. Many children may know the thrill of winning a game, but they seldom feel they accomplish something in their everyday life. This illustration shows the empowerment of kids through teaching them about the joy and pride that comes with mastering their very own talents and skills.
© Stiftung Digitale Spielekultur
© Stiftung Digitale Spielekultur
Workshops for young adults
The relationship between reality and simulation
This poster template aims at advertising workshops that focus on more adolescent subjects such as reflection and distinction of personality. It seemed an interesting concept to revisit classic human ideals as represented in Leonardo Da Vinci’s famous “Vitruvian Man”, and transport it into the idea of the avatar in virtual realities.
The illustration reflects on the reality of virtual experience. The avatar’s virtual agency is represented through the digital control devices into their hands. Their identity is obscured through a virtual reality headset. The character’s distinctive attributes – a golden crown, a superhero cape and a wing – seem to be tied to the virtual simulation.