Just briefly - I decided to try and do all my process on a blog for a change and not hand in a workbook, instead I photographed the few pages I did write/draw and uploaded them within appropriate posts / stages of process within the blog. So don't worry, my workbook isn't lost. :) All the important stuff is on here!
Thanks.
Monday 17 August 2015
Rationale.
Poster 1:
Ihi Wehi - Anti Flag Change.
The argument I was portraying with my posters is that the flag change is a superficial and unnecessary distraction which is directing attention and money away from more important issues at the core of our society.
We have some of the highest rates of domestic abuse in the western world. In my first poster, I used subversion and homage for my version of Vermeer's well known "Girl with a Pearl Earring", shedding light on the issue of domestic violence in our country. I chose this painting as Vermeer was famously known for painting intimate scenes of beautiful girls, and to contrast the beauty associated with this image with the wehi I was trying to evoke, makes it have that much more impact. The imagery is confronting, violent... and sadly probably hits home for many of those whom may look at it, or will at some point in their life. A pained, and "reckless" brush font was used for the tagline, and bold blood red is used to lead the eye around the composition where the pearl earring has been replaced with a modern piercing and focus has shifted -- The abuse takes center focus, and puts priority of her safety even over the design of the flag. This reinforces the rhetoric: what should our real concerns be?
Poster 2:
Ihi Wehi - Anti Flag Change.
The argument I was portraying with my posters is that the flag change is a superficial and unnecessary distraction which is directing attention and money away from more important issues at the core of our society.
With so many pressing issues in our society such as poverty, suicide, drug and alcohol abuse etc. We have far more important things to focus our time and attention on than changing our flag, which is more a distraction than a remedy. For my second poster, I used metaphor and juxtaposition, and an ironic tone: combining icons of identity fighting for attention, with medication to point out that the flag change has basically become a cure-all panacea, a drug of distraction. I also tried an element of pastiche in this; I wanted the image to look like a weird “scientific” shot, and used sterile sans serif fonts that mimic the type on prescription bottles to further convey this. Our flag change panacea is nothing but a hollow placebo, which will not fix the greater issues in our society whatsoever. The use of scale makes these pills hard to swallow. They look almost alien and surreal. The color saturation was made intentionally vivid and ‘sickening’ to make the viewer question whether this ‘cure’ is actually good for them or nausea inducing. This flag change is an unhealthy distraction from more important issues.
Ihi Wehi - Anti Flag Change.
The argument I was portraying with my posters is that the flag change is a superficial and unnecessary distraction which is directing attention and money away from more important issues at the core of our society.
We have some of the highest rates of domestic abuse in the western world. In my first poster, I used subversion and homage for my version of Vermeer's well known "Girl with a Pearl Earring", shedding light on the issue of domestic violence in our country. I chose this painting as Vermeer was famously known for painting intimate scenes of beautiful girls, and to contrast the beauty associated with this image with the wehi I was trying to evoke, makes it have that much more impact. The imagery is confronting, violent... and sadly probably hits home for many of those whom may look at it, or will at some point in their life. A pained, and "reckless" brush font was used for the tagline, and bold blood red is used to lead the eye around the composition where the pearl earring has been replaced with a modern piercing and focus has shifted -- The abuse takes center focus, and puts priority of her safety even over the design of the flag. This reinforces the rhetoric: what should our real concerns be?
Poster 2:
Ihi Wehi - Anti Flag Change.
The argument I was portraying with my posters is that the flag change is a superficial and unnecessary distraction which is directing attention and money away from more important issues at the core of our society.
With so many pressing issues in our society such as poverty, suicide, drug and alcohol abuse etc. We have far more important things to focus our time and attention on than changing our flag, which is more a distraction than a remedy. For my second poster, I used metaphor and juxtaposition, and an ironic tone: combining icons of identity fighting for attention, with medication to point out that the flag change has basically become a cure-all panacea, a drug of distraction. I also tried an element of pastiche in this; I wanted the image to look like a weird “scientific” shot, and used sterile sans serif fonts that mimic the type on prescription bottles to further convey this. Our flag change panacea is nothing but a hollow placebo, which will not fix the greater issues in our society whatsoever. The use of scale makes these pills hard to swallow. They look almost alien and surreal. The color saturation was made intentionally vivid and ‘sickening’ to make the viewer question whether this ‘cure’ is actually good for them or nausea inducing. This flag change is an unhealthy distraction from more important issues.
Poster Wall
Photoshopped my posters onto the wall photo supplied on stream. I think I am pretty confident with how my poster solutions stand out visually compared to other posters, actually they grab your attention pretty nicely, even for someone like me who mentally blocks out this sort of stuff as I see these all around my daily life, the simple yet eye catching nature makes them stand out compared to a lot of the usual posters you might see around. :) Really helps you realize the impact of your visuals when you see them up against real posters in a real life scene. Pretty happy with that outcome!
Sunday 16 August 2015
Final Solution
Below are the completed posters which I got printed. I was pretty satisfied with the outcome of both of them, as I worked with CMYK in the digital files, the printing came out really rich and not too different from the screen versions. :) I think one of the things I like the best, is that both of my visual approaches are entirely different directions in aesthetic, color and 'Wehi' but both eye catching in their individual ways. The 'painting' was a good solution for the sake of the homage, and the photography was the right medium for the more medicine / science looking image in my second poster. The previous critique was really useful in nailing down my message and fine tuning the visual elements and rhetoric of my posters. I was really happy with the way they came out!
Saturday 15 August 2015
Crit version vs. Post Crit version.
The image presented at the critique:
Everyone said 'no' to my cynical tagline. :(
Updated, post-critique version:
Changes made: added bloodshot to the bruised eye, added a bit of shadow to the hoodie to add depth, tidied little bits of colouring here and there. Thankfully I didn't have to change too much -- this painting was a real challenge colouring wise to give it an effect even vaguely similar to Vermeers original work and would have taken a lot of effort to rework. :) I altered the tagline to make it more focused on the direction of my argument and less obscure. It made the unity between the text and image better in my opinion as we are suppose to feel concerned for her.
Poster 2:
Image presented at the critique:
Updated, post critique version:
Changes Made: I took the classes suggestion into consideration, bumping up the white of the pills a bit more so they stand out upon the background a bit easier. I tidied up the alignment of the text and made it spaced a bit better using the baseline grid. The star, an icon which could be interpreted in several ways was replaced with a fern, a more classic example of an NZ symbol of identity and patriotism. The body type was condensed slightly as I felt it was a little too big before, now it feels like it is almost a 'pill' size bite of info which fell out of the pill container which is very fitting haha.
Thursday 13 August 2015
Grid Considerations
In order to keep the layout feeling well balanced in each of my posters, I employed the use of a grid to get an overall feel of the imagery and where it would be best to place the text. This is an integral part of my design process as it can greatly affect the unity of the image and text, the hierarchy in which your eye is lead around the page etc.
Poster 1:
For my first poster, I utilized a 8 x 10 grid which gave me more options for alignment of text, as I wanted the overall composition to be simple and symmetrical so that it wouldn't take away from the strong imagery. Not surprisingly, being based upon an artwork by a master like Vermeer meant that most of my drawing fell very much into a comfortable section of the grid, which really highlights her face and draws your attention to that part of the image which is very effective, the red of the flag then leads your eye down to the bottom parts of the grid where the red stars and red word 'Flag' draw your attention. At first assessment people will ideally think "are they really talking about a stupid flag over something more important like the violence shown in this image?". I used the baseline grid to space each section of text evenly and create a cohesive feeling that didn't detract from the image.
Poster 2:
For my second poster, much of the imagery falls into the 'sweet spot' of this 5 x 7 grid composition. As the eye is naturally more inclined to move along from the top left-to-right, the angle of spilled pills helps lead the eye down towards the text. Not only is there a vertical axis of alignment, but there is also a diagonal axis at play in this composition. It makes the overall image seem a wee bit more dynamic and brings the composition to life more. I moved the lower pill so that it fell into a lower grid intersection. Lastly I spaced the type evenly using a baseline grid.
Tag lines / Captions Ideas
We did an exercise in class where we were told to read our text in multiple voices to see if the tone was correct for the message we wanted to portray, and matched the wehi we were aiming for. My posters are in a more serious and confronting direction and in no way aiming for humor, so my captions all ended up being more serious in tone/cynical in nature and I found this excercise helped me pin down appropriate taglines to convey the appropriate wehi/feelings.
The tag line is really key in nailing the message and putting forth the Wehi of my posters. For this reason, I think it is important to make the tagline and body copy straightforward and clear, legible but also having impact and emotive language.
Tag Line / Sub Text / Body Copy considerations:
On keeping the flag for historical or sentimental reasons:
Still just a flag?
Still just a piece of cloth?
Just a flag, right?
On the flag change being a waste of money:
It's just 26 million.
What could 26 mil do?
How else could we spend 26 mil?
On there being bigger issues in society:
Different Flag, Same Problems (I liked the broad and simple direction of this one)
A flag wont mend a broken society.
A flag can't hide our problems.
Some things a flag can't hide. (Very fitting for my poster showing abuse that is being literally and metaphorically hidden under her hoodie)
Our flag isn't the issue/problem.
Is our flag the biggest concern? (This one is very effective because it sets the mood, implying that there are much bigger things we ought to be concerned about. It begs the question, what do you notice first in the image? The abuse, or the flag? Which is more important? I felt this worked very strong rhetorically.)
What should we be changing?
On the flag change as a distraction / Criticism about our PM:
Blind Patriotism
The Key is sabotage from within.
Patriotic Placebo / Panacea (The cynical implications of a flag change being used as a way to cure / remedy / hide other problems were fitting for my second poster.)
The tag line is really key in nailing the message and putting forth the Wehi of my posters. For this reason, I think it is important to make the tagline and body copy straightforward and clear, legible but also having impact and emotive language.
Tag Line / Sub Text / Body Copy considerations:
On keeping the flag for historical or sentimental reasons:
Still just a flag?
Still just a piece of cloth?
Just a flag, right?
On the flag change being a waste of money:
It's just 26 million.
What could 26 mil do?
How else could we spend 26 mil?
On there being bigger issues in society:
Different Flag, Same Problems (I liked the broad and simple direction of this one)
A flag wont mend a broken society.
A flag can't hide our problems.
Some things a flag can't hide. (Very fitting for my poster showing abuse that is being literally and metaphorically hidden under her hoodie)
Our flag isn't the issue/problem.
Is our flag the biggest concern? (This one is very effective because it sets the mood, implying that there are much bigger things we ought to be concerned about. It begs the question, what do you notice first in the image? The abuse, or the flag? Which is more important? I felt this worked very strong rhetorically.)
What should we be changing?
On the flag change as a distraction / Criticism about our PM:
Blind Patriotism
The Key is sabotage from within.
Patriotic Placebo / Panacea (The cynical implications of a flag change being used as a way to cure / remedy / hide other problems were fitting for my second poster.)
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