Join us for another in a series of interviews with winners of awards from our 2024 Awards Ceremony. Our goal is to give you insight into how our fleet’s best simmers write, and imagine their characters, as well as their out-of-character contributions and achievements.
This month, we’re interviewing the writer behind Commander Jocelyn Marshall, who plays the Chief Operations Officer assigned to the USS Gorkon. She won the Okuda Award: Awarded to members of the Image Collective who regularly go above and beyond in their contributions to this team’s efforts, creating images and graphics for the fleet. These team members display their artistry and dedication with a visual feast for members new and old, bringing our creations to life and stoking imaginations.
Nilsen: Tell us a little about the writer behind the character—where in the world do you hail from?
Marshall: Hey there! I’m Em, hailing from England, where the grass is covered in snow right now. I live in a small village in the north, where the cold comes from. I’ve been writing with StarBase 118 now, on the Gorkon, for about… nine years, give or take a few months. I’ve got a number of hobbies that stretch beyond writing, into graphic design and weightlifting. Right now, I’m trying not to open a can of worms with a new hyperfixation on lobsters. Thus is life.
I’m not sure I can fully express how much the fleet loves and appreciates the Image Collective. How did you come to join the collective?
I joined not long after I could, when I got to LtJG. I tended to make my own images with some dab skills at photo manipulation, so it grew from there. With Jess, we were plugging through multiple requests a week for a variety of characters. In the nine short years I’ve been around here, the quality of images has changed significantly through both the increase in source material now with the new shows, the skill of creative folk joining us, and the technology available. Long ago were the days of Bitmap (take your pain pills if you recognized that).
Now, instead of doing the requests on a regular basis, I do more of the background work, like maintaining the main website (https://www.starbase118.net/) and putting together graphic images for our news or special events. It’s more of a creative director role now, keeping us “on brand” than anything else.
What skills does one need to be a great member of the collective?
Overall, being adaptive to putting your skills into practice, thinking dynamically when it comes to how to put an image together, and keeping practicing. One of the questions I used to get regularly was how the IC does what it does. It comes down to practice. Creative folk there aren’t super gifted out of the womb with photo manipulation skills or graphic design wizardry; it takes patience and practice, doing the same things over and over until you can spot an image that needs a level adjustment from twenty paces.
Even access to the software doesn’t preclude people from doing this anymore. There’s tons of free software out there that does a similar job to the main one (mentioning no names), as well as online duplicates of said software available to folks who want to dabble.
What has been your favourite project/assignment in the collective?
Absolutely has to be the rebranding of the ‘Fleet, where Jess, Andrea, and I knocked heads for months over how we could redesign the branding and get a good level of synchronicity. It took a while, but the product is the StarBase 118 split badge symbol and a ton of other good stuff that hardly anyone would notice in the day-to-day. It was a chunk of work to do but a proper labor of love.
Are there any editing tips or tricks that you can share with those of us who like to dabble in graphic design?
YouTube videos will teach you absolutely everything you need to know about photo manipulation, and if you learn to Google in the right way, you can find exactly what you’re looking for, too. Not every image is built in the same way, so not every image will look good if you just slap them together and call it a day, so definitely think about lighting effects, the shade and saturation of the image, how you can match one to the other, and strike that balance right.
If one wanted to be assimilated by the (image) collective, is resistance futile and how do they go about joining?
Marshall: Anyone can join from Ensign upwards (with CO approval), so either reach out to your ship staff team to express your interest, and they’ll forward the request on to the task force. The IC are a friendly bunch, always willing to give constructive feedback or answer questions someone has. We have a dedicated area on Discord as well, just to keep track of requests the team completes, as well as sharing resources and knowledge with one another. Truly a great team to be a part of if you want to learn more about graphic wizardry.
Thanks for your time, Commander Marshall!
You can read more about CommanderJocelyn Marshall on the wiki.