Illustration by Ben S Johnson,
with Design Farm 
The challenge: How do you make studying for the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT) fun and effective for 5th and 8th grade public school students? Wildly creative and engaging illustrations certainly help. The Department of Education has an innovative program, FCAT Explorer, with the mission to help students improve their FCAT scores through online learning programs. The FCAT Explorer team turned to Design Farm and Ben S. Johnson to help produce the fun, visual side of a highly complex interactive learning programs.
Ben S. Johnson has provided his illustration talents for two FCAT Explorer programs: Science Station (for 5th graders) and Science Voyager (for 8th graders). Each program is based around a storyline, or metaphor. Science Station takes place on the distant planet Nearth and uses friendly, one-armed aliens (Nearthlings) to deliver science lessons. Science Voyager revolves around an aquatic science research vessel "manned" by rodents.
This illustration work was vast in scope, and required both big-picture concept development and attention to technical details. Ben helped bring life to an entire universe of wacky (and politically correct?) characters, all intent on helping teach science fundamentals to students. The illustration work began as concept sketches and ended up as elaborate, layered Flash files, some even including animated sequences or user interactivity. In addition, the illustrations were able to go from on-screen to print media for a variety of promotional applications.
Programs: Adobe Photoshop, Flash and Illustrator
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