Rock Hard

“What a tryhard!”

I’ll catch myself asking if I’m trying too hard at something, overextending and still missing the mark. Who am I trying to impress anyway?

Graphic designers can be the biggest tryhards–making ideas more grand and important than they really are. Picking the perfect font, fussing over leading, kerning, creating systems to follow, finding images, brand guides, market research, interviews, visualizing data, colors, logos, simplifying, overdesigning, presenting, conceding, revising, agreeing. Is it that serious? We tryhard to make it so.

Rock Hard is a short animated film inspired by this discomfort. It follows Seed’s relationship with Rock as Rock flashes promises about itself. Rock’s all talk and Seed’s effort to push/break/penetrate it into action might fail.

The film playfully layers hand-drawn animation, illustration, photos, videos, and type.

Supplementing my short film are 3 zines. The first is an essay on my musing about being a “tryhard graphic designer.” The second is the film’s screenplay and storyboard. The third is a visual documentation of making. I also made screenprinted T-shirts and keychains so that you can fully brand yourself if you like–you’re already a tryhard so you might as well!

I hope this project prompts you to reflect on the ways you tryhard. There’s no escape but to maybe try/not try so hard/try harder?