Parsons School of Design
BFA Communication Design
Thesis 2013

Parsons School of Design
BFA Communication Design
Thesis 2013

Project Empathy
Lauren Hodges

Project Empathy is a year-long exploration of the most successful ways to visually communicate empathy to young adults ages 12–15. My interest in this topic came from my personal lack of empathy in middle school and later, in high school, where I saw the error of my ways. I consider myself very lucky to have seen the signs and listened to teachers who repeated the Golden Rule of, ‘always treat others the way you would like to be treated.’ In current events, the horrifying trend of mass shootings that have taken place in Newtown, Aurora, Fort Hood, Virginia Tech, and Columbine makes this need evident. The reasons for this lack of empathy are up for debate, but what is certain is that it needs to be increased. Initially my forms of communication began as of a series of print advertisements utilizing illustration and text. Through further research and surveying people in this age group, I came to the conclusion that video would be the best medium to explore in order to communicate my message. My final deliverable evolved into three stop-motion videos narrated to original poems, while using reductive graphic language to promote ideas of empathy.

Jonathan Abbo

Nick Abreu

Silao AJ Afano

Amel Afzal

Jeongkyun Ahn

Frederico Afrange de Andrade

Cynthia Bacall

Piper Black

Shravika Bothra

Zipporah Burman

John Bussiere

Noelle Campbell

Susana Castro

Nate Cepis

Yi-Shan Chang

Lisa Seoyeon Cho

Paul Jay Choe

Sara Chou

Saiq'a S. Chowdhury

Iee Deun Eden Chung

Caitlin Clingman

Evon Coleman

Rachel Cutler

James Czyz

Mae Decena

Stephanie De Jesús

Jonathan De La Rosa

Carlos De León

Kristie DeLouise

Dawa Dolma

Erica Efstratoudakis

Alexis Dawn Ely

Beril Esin

Sofia Falcon

Francisco Flores

Erik Freer

Ying Joyce Fu

Carina Giacomelli

Ermioni Giakou

Isabel Castillo Guijarro

Alex Hack

Shaobo Han

Paulina Ho

Lauren Hodges

Jenny Holt

Vicky Huang

Jess Hutchison

Joanna Izzo

Hasita Kamlesh

Elizabeth Kenney

SoJung Kim

Jihae Kim

Michelle H. Kim

MJ Minjung Kwon

Alleson Lai

Alfred Lam

Yejin Lee

Michael Leng

Christina Lu

Chris Lunney

Maketa Mabane

Amanda Maduri

Sara Maier

Tara Mann

Jenn Martins

Caroline Mathews

Andrew McCausland

Anna McKendrick

Bryan Meador

Melanie Mencarelli

Julio Montás

Jenni Mällinen

Burak Nehbit

My Nguyen

Jacqueline Oh

Melisa Ozkan

Boram Park

Caroline Partridge

Xing Hai Piao

Brenna Pladsen

Stephanie Porzio

Rocco Rada

Jay Ramirez

Joelle Riffle

Elizabeth Rodriguez

Yvonne Romano

Juan Carlos Santos Andrade

Ariel Scala-Perykasz

Shelly Seroussi

Betty Shang

Leslie Shapiro

Jennifer Haesoo Shim

Jeemin Shim

Amos Shin

Ben Shotwell

Robyn Silev

Nika Simovich

Axel Hammarskiöld Spendrup

Lesley Sakinah Steele

Naomi Sundberg

Britt Tapsall

Sabina Telagis

Daniel Bogre Udell

Azalea Vaseghi

Will Warner

Courtney Wells

Belinda Whiteman

Bryce Williams

Anita Wong

Chu-yi Wu

Giselle Nari Wynn

Katherine Yaksich

Kyungwon Yang

Emily Zhong

Michael Zoppo