(upbeat music) - [Announcer] Arts and crafts?

Yes, please.

Let's get artsy.

- Hello everyone, my name is Thomas coming to you from the Museum of Design Atlanta.

Here at MODA, we believe that design is the key to overcoming challenges, helping others, and making the world a better place.

Today, we're going to use design to create a character that is determined to solve some real world issues.

So for this activity, I'm going to be using paper and colored pencils.

However, we want you at home to use whatever materials you're most comfortable with.

So feel free to use any supplies or resources you'd like including online or virtual sketching software.

So let's get started.

Now, when designing a character, there's a few things that we have to think of first.

Your character is going to have superpowers to take on a problem in the real world that you're passionate about.

So, let's take a minute and think of the issues that we all care about.

This can be anything from preventing deforestation to protecting endangered species.

This part of the process is called Defining the Problem.

Now, for me, I grew up near the ocean.

And I remember being about your age and seeing tons of plastic bottles, baggies and other trash that had made its way to the beach, and was now polluting the ocean.

Unfortunately, this is a major issue in the world today.

So today, I'll be designing my character to help solve the problem that is, ocean pollution.

While you think about your character, you should ask yourself, what issues are important to me?

Take some time to think about it.

What problems affect your world the most?

The next step in the process is called Ideation.

So let's brainstorm and try to think of some ways that a character can solve the issue at hand.

Let's use my character as an example.

My character's purpose, will be to clean up the oceans and make them safer for fish and other marine life.

In order to design the best character for this, it's important that we fully understand the issue.

And right now, it's estimated that there will be more plastic than fish in the ocean by 2050.

Now, once that plastic enters the ocean, it causes a whole lot of issues for the fish and other animals that live there.

Now that we understand the problem itself, let's think of some superpowers that can help our character with; removing plastic from the sea, saving animals trapped in nets and other man-made pollution, and things like overfishing.

This leads us to our next step, Critical Thinking.

The ocean is a large place.

So the first power will be Super Sight.

My character will be able to see plastics, fishing nets, and other things from more than a hundred miles away.

The next super power, Super Strength, will help my character to swim ultra fast and to release whales and large animals from fishing nets.

Next, my character will have to be able to collect all the plastic once they find it.

So for this, my character will have a Magical Net.

The net will continue to expand and get bigger and bigger as more and more plastic is collected.

Finally, my character will have to find a use for all these plastics and other materials.

For this, I'll give my character the power of, Heat Vision.

My character will be able to melt and mend the plastics to create new, long lasting and reusable things.

I'm thinking about stuff like jewelry, accessories, recycling bins and maybe even small houses for those in need.

Now that we understand what our character's abilities will be, it's time to begin sketching.

As we sketch, let's think of and include some details that may help bring your character to life.

Every character has details that are external and internal.

For my character, an internal detail, is that they care about the ocean deeply.

An external detail is the power of super sight.

What internal and external qualities does your character have?

When sketching your character, try to illustrate both of these qualities as much as you can.

For example, a character with super strength could be drawn with big muscles.

A character with heat vision might have red lasers coming from their eyes.

These would both be external qualities.

Now, illustrating those internal qualities can get a little tricky and require a little bit more creativity.

But they can really help to make your character unique.

For example, my character is passionate about the ocean.

This is something that's internal.

To illustrate this, I might give the character a costume that has scales or fish-like qualities.

Perhaps it has a logo that calls others to help protect the seas as well.

The more details you add, the more your character comes to life.

Now, while I chose to draw my character with markers and paper, I want you all to know about and feel comfortable with other ways to design your character.

Now, finally, we here at MODA would love to see all the characters you guys came up with.

So feel free to take pictures if you're doing it on paper or screenshots, if you're sketching virtually, and send them on over to us.

This can be done by emailing your pictures to info@museumofdesign.org, or by uploading your pictures to Twitter and Instagram and tagging us @modatl.

(upbeat music)