Pages 45 and 46 of What It Is by Lynda Barry

In the graphic novel, What It Is by Lynda Barry, we are exposed to a variety of different illustrations and collage like images that help depict parts of her childhood. Throughout the pages the reader learns of her dysfunctional family growing up and the small comforts she was able to find in her imagination and later, books. As a child she relied on the realness that she found in so many of her imaginations and later reflects on how she has lost that ability in her adulthood.  Imagination is a key component in the use of formstorming which is a major concept incorporated into this novel.

In Graphic Design: The New Basics, by Ellen Lupton and Jennifer Cole Phillips, formstorming is defined as an act of visual thinking and as a tool for designers to unlock and deepen solutions to basic design problems. Formstorming is focused on the idea of exhausting easily conceived notions in order to yield unexpected and profound results in return(13). Ultimately it forces designers to stretch their imagination and really immerse themselves into the art of creating. Barry uses multiple forms of formstorming but the one that jumped out to me in particular was her use of alterego.

An alterego is a tool used by designers to create a fictitious persona that amplifies, undermines or rediscovers an element of themselves (27). By illustrating herself as a child Lynda Barry is able to create an alterego of herself and revisit so many of the ideas, memories and imaginative ways of looking at things that she was able to have while she was younger. A good example of this is on pages 45 and 46 where Barry looks back on the idea of children needing to play and have toys. Each of these pages have depictions of what I believe to be some of her memories of her old toys. I feel as though all of her illustrations give off a feeling of childlike creativity and chaos that is seen in young children’s drawings. There are ideas and questions thrown about each of the pages in a scattered array, but by doing so I feel as though Barry has successfully captured the ideals of her alterego and is able to rediscover the imagination that she had as a child.