Eponymous

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Eponymous

Information Design/Illustration

Eponymous, created as my BFA Capstone project, is an information design project that looks into eponymous skills in women's artistic gymnastics. Eponymous skills are skills that are named after the gymnast who first competes them. These skills provide gymnasts the unique opportunity impact the sport by turning the things that make them different or unique and turning them into skills that last for decades. My project seeks to highlight the impact of eponymous skills on the sport of gymnastics and share the stories behind some of the most impactful eponymous skills.

Eponymous is a kit or box of five interactive print pieces. Four are a set examining four different eponymous skills each created by a different gymnast on one of the four apparatuses of women's gymnastics. Those four pieces are The Yurchenko, The Khorkina II, The Wevers, and The Biles. Each of those include infographics and interactive elements that help to explain what the skills are and how they are performed. The final piece is a fold-out poster which provides more information about the apparatuses.

Outside of the illustrated infographics, each sill is represented with an abstraction of a gymnast's movements when performing each skill. This is not only used as a maker of each skill, but also runs throughout each piece as a visual motif. The color palette is vibrant to match the excitement of the sport of gymnastics.

The Yurchenko Vault Family

A Yurchenko vault is any vault that uses the Yurchenko entry: round-off, flic-flac (back handspring) onto the vault table. A roll fold mimics the flipping and twisting of the Yurchnko family vaults. A new and progressively harder vault with each fold.

The Khorkina II

This piece diagrams one two eponymous skills of legend Svetlana Khorkina. Included is also information about Svetalana and the story behind her eponymous skills. For this piece an interactive wheel mimics a gymnast's swing on uneven bars.

The Wevers

This piece diagrams the eponymous skill of Sanne Wevers of the Neatherlands: a double turn on the balance beam with leg held at horizontal. An interactive paper element allows users to pull a tab to make the gymnast spin and perform the Wevers turn.

The Biles

This piece diagrams the eponymous skill of Simone Biles and explains the story of how Simone created the skill to overcome an injury. An acetate pop-up lets Simone literally jump of the page in the diagram of her high-flying skill.

Poster

The last piece is a two sided poster. On the back of the poster is an illustrated infographic of the gymnastics competition podium. When folded, the poster first opens to a spread which talks broadly about eponymous skills and diagrams the four gold-medal-winning routines from the Rio 2016 olympics. This poster provides some of the larger context and information for the other pieces.