Rational: Plus Reflection

Rational: 

The inequality I focused on was women sexual abuse and specifically the idea around rape and sexual consent. I decided to create posters that emphasized the importance of both parties consenting. I did this through the use of using food to visually show how invasive and shocking sexual abuse is in New Zealand. For my ‘stick it in’ poster I used a confronting photograph to convey a strong sense of wehi which forced viewers to challenge their opinions on this inequality in New Zealand. By having tomato sauce and a sausage it allowed informal tone that viewers could connect with. For my ‘crack on’ poster I used an illustrative line drawing paired with the technique of assaulting the surface to create double the meaning with the text and the cracked egg. This approach was less confronting, but the juxtaposition demonstrated the strong meaning of how victims fell both physically and mental when experiencing sexual abuse and allowed viewers to consider the wehi and the feelings around how horrific sexual abuse is. The main fundamental design principle I used was playing with scale of my images on the posters to create visual impact.  

Reflection:

Overall I really enjoyed this project as I found it very hands on and found that I took a good creative approach to my designs. By taking photos and not just sticking to illustrator to create images it allowed my designs to have more depth. Throughout this project I also developed my photoshop skills and there are a few more valuable tricks and tips that I will use in further design work. I found that I kept well onto of bookwork and this benefited me well as in each studio class I could show physical print outs and gain good feedback. This has defiantly been my favourite project so far this year.

I was disappointed in how my final 'Crack on' poster printed as it had a few marks that weren't made by me. Next time because it was a photo and the background is black I would print on glossy paper. 

Week Six: Monday

Over the weekend I was able to take the photos that I needed. I created more concepts however after getting Lees feedback I realised that the focus was now on the hand and rather the sausage which doesn’t communicate my idea strongly. So during studio I was able to get some help off another student with regards to photoshop skills and have now nailed the image composition. I feel as though my type is working, so all I need to do now is just touch up minor details and make sure all text is aligned. For once I am feeling not too stressed about my work and I am going to aim to send my posters to the printer tonight. My to do list now consists of updating my bookwork; writing my rational and outlining the Ihi and Whi components of my work. 

Week Five: Thursday

Due to my flight being cancelled in Queenstown and being delayed by another day I wasn’t able to achieve getting photos of the tomato sauce being a love heart, so wasn’t able to make much progress on my stick it in poster. However I added eggshells to my crack on poster and both lectures have said this is working and that there is nothing more that I need to change which is a positive. Fay has suggested a new call for action so will look into that and add this to my posters. Tomorrow I will aim to take photos of tomato sauce shaped as a heart. I have also come up with another concept of a cucumber against green background but feel as though my sausage poster with the changes needed will be stronger and convey more whi to viewers. At the moment I am feeling pretty confident with where I am at, as I feel as though over the weekend I will be back up to speed.  

Week Five: Monday

I am down in Wanaka so have missed this interim presentation which I feel as though it would have benefitted me well, but had booked my flights before I knew the dates so I just need to make sure I speak to both Lee and Fay on Thursday and keep up to date. Lee was able to give me good feedback via email suggesting that I play around with grid systems. She also pointed out that the fingernail needs to be male and the idea of the tomato sauce being shaped as a love heart. These are all ideas that I will play around with and fix for next class. 

Week Four: Thursday

Unfortunately I wasn't able to make studio today as I emailed my lecture Lee to let her know. I will also be away down in Wanaka for Monday so have emailed Lee and Fay with my new concept of a sausage going into tomato sauce to get some feedback. For this concept I have also played around with the tomato sauce being my typography and am hoping that this adds depth to my poster. I also want to refine my crack on poster so that on Thursday I can almost be set on it being my final. I did also decided to stare away from the barcode idea as I feel as paired with the crack on poster the meaning isn’t very similar whereas the ‘stick it in’ makes more sense and both are about consent. 

Week Four: Monday

In the pit we looked at plagiarism and the importance of always referencing your work. This is something that I need to make an effort with and instead of just downloading an image I should also be saving the link in a folder. We also looked at student examples and this gave me a good motivational push. Over the weekend I came up with a new concept of ‘consent before you stick it in’ where I photographed a finger going into a jam donut to signify the act of sexual abusive and how uncomfortable and confronting it is. Lee gave me good feedback on the idea however the use of a donut didn’t communicate it clearly. My idea was that it men and women penetration however if I use food that represents a dick this will be clear for viewers to understand the meaning. I will aim to take photos with a sausage and cucumber before next class.  

Week Three: Thursday

The studio was an interim presentation which I found very helpful as I was able to draw inspiration from other students as well as getting a good understanding of what posters/concepts were working and not. I found that my ‘crack on poster’ was still quite strong so need to find ways to develop this further, however still keep the simplicity of the egg paired with the quote. The other poster of the ‘barcode’ received good feedback visually however and I need to consider how a barcode implies consumerism. I need to look further at how by changing the text from ‘stop scanning her’ to the idea around ‘she’s not a product’ and how this allows a stronger and clearer meaning around respect towards women. Over the weekend I will continue to develop ideas and aim to come up with a new concept.  

Week Three: Monday

In the pit today we were shown more examples of standout poster design. In studio we worked on our poster development and I have been generating more designs, looking at exploring illustrations and photos. Unfortunately, time fell short to get feedback from the lectures so after our interim presentation I am hoping to get good critical feedback so that I have a clear idea of what style direction to head in.   

Week Two: Thursday

Was nice to see that my poster for ‘crack on’ was displayed on the wall outside. Matt talked to me and gave me some advice around tidying up the type and space between the lines. So will pay more attention to detail for my next posters and continue to explore type. 

In the pit we continued to explore different posters and specific attention to communication being clear to viewers, In the studio we then looked at a few more class example and as a group outline what rhetoric principle was being used. 

We were then given a quote to use to come up with concepts for a poster in relation to our issue. The first one I got given was ‘can’t make an omelette without cracking an egg’ this I found I could interpret by looking at how victims will always be broken emotional and physical. However, I found this quite difficult and chose ‘a wild goose chase’ and decided to look at how low the chance of offenders going to court, or jail is. 

I found this task super difficult and was quite challenging to come up with graphic ideas in relation to my topic without confusing the viewer. Due to having work straight after lab till late I wasn’t able to spend too much time on my poster so used my own photograph paired with type and the quotes

Week Two: Monday

In the pit today we explored how designers need to communicate narrative and explored how this was done through the use of viewers perception and design compositions. The example with the cracked egg on a photo really stood out to me and is something that I want to play around with in poster concepts. 

In studio we touched on viewers association with symbols and I found that every viewer will have different prior knowledge on a topic and the importance of representation not being complicated.  The next task involved looking at the homeless article and analysing/pulling out strong quotes and concepts. As a class we looked the representation of ‘floating population’ and incorporated the symbolism of a moon and how the homeless are so isolated. Our group came up with the concept ‘zero gravity – zero housing’ 

Week One: Thursday

In the pit today we explored further examples of poster design looking at different ways of conveying rhetoric and engaging with the audience. There were many artists that stood out to me and I will further look at the class resources for artist inspiration to put in my workbook. 

During studio time we looked at mind mapping the three different topics of health, gender, race and housing. I worked in the group with gender which was very helpful and at the moment I am leaning towards gender pay gap job opportunities. I am also interested in the area around sexual abuse as I feel as though this is very relevant to university students. We then also looked at using a random word paired with our topic and generating different ideas. I used the word diamond and from this I came up with slavery and the trade industry of tool being more male dominant. I also explored the concept of diamonds and how its seen only for women. My other words were chicken and apple.  

Week One: Monday

Today was our introduction towards this assignment. Firstly we were briefed in the pit and then in studio we looked at different poster and the Ihi and Whi components of each poster and how it made us feel. We looked at the fundamental design principles and in my group I found that the bloodbath stood out to me the most. It looked at the juxtaposition of clean and sterile lives that protected western societies live versus Palestine war and terror stricken lives.  

Next we played dictionary which I found a fun and interesting way to engage with the use of simple and effective symbolism and messengers. My partner was quite successful in this game and her simplicity made it easy for me to guess. It was interesting to see how animate objects such as jeans were much easier to convey compared to the word freedom. We will then use one image for one of our posters tonight.