Who is Joe
Walk up to Southeast corner of Carnegie Mellon’s campus around noon and you will be met with the smell of hotdogs, and the sizzle of hamburgers. This is Joe’s Hot Dog Stand. Joe is one of the only outside vendors that sells on the edge of Carnegie Mellon’s campus; and despite the tough competition with campus-catered eateries, students and faculty line up, rain or shine, for a hotdog from Joe. Not only does Joe offer a delicious selection of tried-and-true favorites, but he makes it a point to know his customer. Joe quickly makes friends with his regulars, and is so friendly with all the rest, you’d think he was the uncle of every student he serves! In appreciation of Joe and his business that is so loved by the students of CMU, my classmate Lily Kim and I set out to produce this short animation introducing Joe’s HotDog stand.
The Deliverable
We began by interviewing Joe, who happily agreed to help us with the project. Our goal was to introduce Joe and his vending business as a friend would. To avoid a soliciting-tone, the storyboard was designed to share about Joe’s Hot Dog Stand and tell its history. In the spirit of the Joe’s humble and lovable hotdog stand, we used a combination of illustrative and handmade textures; and the transitions throughout the short video were marked by hotdog-themed stamp patterns. We wanted the video to convey the same friendly and upbeat attitude that Joe does. The video ends with a quote that captures just a piece of Joe’s regular encouragement that comes with your hotdog.