Workbook, blog and process thoughts

Just a few notes on my working, workbook & blog and design process experiences.

Working in both a workbook and a blog is useful because I can draw any idea that comes to mind and not have to scan it in, and the other way around for when I screenshot my work as I go when producing it on the computer. This saves a lot of time, and means that I can therefore produce more work or think about the challenges for longer than if I only had one or the other.

The design process was an interesting one. One of my final poster ideas (soldier/poppy flag) was born from the very first thumbnail that I ever did. Although I left this idea, I kept returning to it again and again, and the final it different enough from the original to show a development of ideas, but it's still pretty close. I almost came full circle.
In contrast, the other poster was a very last-minute change of idea that resulted in the final work. I had lots of other great ideas that I ideated and thumbnailed, but I couldn't seem to visualise them as posters and was therefore unhappy with how it was all going. This sudden realisation and new idea at the end kick-started me towards a poster that I was more happy with.

One thing that I struggled with in my process was keeping ordered. My blog is easier to chop and change, but my workbook has thumbnails from week 2 on the same page as thumbnails from week 5, and things like that, because I often leave blank spaces to fill in later and then, as i'm flicking back through my work, I have a similar idea to those on the page that I'm open to and draw it in. Due to this quick-put-the-idea-down-wherever-there's-room way of working, my workbook looks like some of my developments are dropped for several weeks and then re-visited, or seem to become less resolved thumbnails as time goes on. But this is why. I think it's better to put these ideas down as soon as I get them, even if it is higgledy-piggledy, than lose them. But this is something that I need to work on.

Rationales

Poster One: There’s history in the fabric of our nation

My posters focus on the historical significance of the New Zealand flag.

The poster uses soldiers dressed in ANZAC uniforms and red poppies which are a well-known symbols of the First World War, which was a moment of large historical value to our country. New Zealanders fought and died under the flag, so here the technique of subversion is used - poppies and soldiers are coloured and manipulated to form the shape of the new Zealand flag. I have used the visual style of collage to show it was real, making a connection to actual people. This is  impactful as the people are relatable, drawing the viewer in.

I have used repetition of the images to show the magnitude of war and shows it as an important historical event. They are making up our history. 

The Ihi is subversion of soldiers and poppies to form the New Zealand flag.

Wehi is that you feel respectful towards them, you can empathise because the flag/history now has a face. It makes you sombre and reminds you of the important historical events of our past as a nation.

The text is a play on words - meaning both “there’s history in our communities and culture” and “there’s history in the literal fabric of our nation, the flag”. Combined with the image of the flag, we can understand that this text is a pun, and we are able to solve the visual puzzle.

At close appearance, you can see that the image is made up of soldiers and poppies in the shape of a flag, but from far away they blur together and only the general flag shape is visible. I have used the distance of the viewer from the poster to subtly change the meaning of the image - from far away you want to look closer, so it draws you in. This double-image ensures that the viewers are engaged whether they are far away or close to the poster.

The tagline “vote no change” reinforces what the poster is talking about - it’s showing the history, the past and the significance of the flag, then urging you to vote against a change of flag, because, as it implies, this will be removing all of this culture and history from our nation.

Unfortunately the final image came out a bit pixellated - this was due to warping it in Photoshop so that the image of the flag wasn’t static and flat. This rippled, more 3D looking flag made a lot more of an impact than the static flag, so even though it is pixellated up close, I decided to stick with this option over the other, clearer one.

Poster Two: New! Zealand - 100% history free

My posters focus on the historical significance of the New Zealand flag.

Here a pun has been played on the words “New! Zealand”, as the country’s name is also taken to mean an adjective. The starburst symbol and bright, tacky, cheap-shop-colour yellow are employed to further reinforce the idea of a new item being marketed as something special and different for sale and consideration. This is also backed up by the words “new and exciting!” which are also using salesperson jargon to give the viewer a sense that they are being marketed towards. Another marketing ploy is facts and figures saying things like “100% fat free”. Here, these terms have been applied to the new flag - if we changed it, the new New Zealand would be “100% history free” according to this poster. It makes a subtle mockery of the new flag as being meaningless.

I have used simple outline style and only one colour to reference cheap shop advertising and junk mail, which has negative connotations, and I’m linking that negativity of it’s cheapness to a negative outlook of a New Zealand without history as being cheap and tacky too.

The symbols illustrate simply how by removing/binning the old flag design in favour of new ones, symbols of history and culture are lost as well, leaving us with a (literally here) questionable future.

Ihi - Juxtaposition of the words ‘New Zealand’ with a starburst symbol and exclamation mark that alter it’s meaning. The main visual rhetoric in this poster is conveyed through the words rather than the images.

Wehi - The headline engages the viewer - we are automatically drawn to words like New! and bright colours, and the headline feels positive and upbeat. The tagline, 100% history free, is negative, and changes the viewer’s initial, positive outlook on the subject to a negative one that mocks the idea of changing a flag, showing that a new New Zealand will be a bad thing that we should avoid.

The poster is also linking the idea of the flag being new because of the colour yellow that is used for both the big word “new!” and for the new, faceless, questionable flag of the future. The poster questions what the future will have in store for us, from a negative point of view.

If we take away the flag, we take away the history that it represents.

Poster Wall

Final Poster Designs

Still more poster ideas

Today I produced lots of quick ideations because I wasn't happy with my second poster, the one with text in the shape of a flag. This one (also in workbook) sprung up quickly through ideation, exploring using simple symbols to convey a message.

Developing the Pak'n'Save design

Development of the Pak'n'Save poster, deviating away from the supermarket as this doesn't have any real context with New Zealand history. Focussing instead on being bold, using symbols in place of words, and playing around with the idea of NEW! New Zealand and 100% history free.

Other other poster ideas

This poster idea uses items of historical significance and asks the question "What would they look like if stripped of their history?"

In this particular one, an early All Black flag, which has a lot of history behind it and is a significant cultural symbol to many people, has been looked at from this altered viewpoint, and becomes "just a dirty old jersey." This idea of history-less items being next to worthless is then transferred to the new flag - a useless cloth rectangle with no real meaning behind it. Here I've written "just a useless old flag," but this needs to be changed.

The image also needs manipulating somehow (or text integrated into it?) because at the moment it's only a found image from the internet.

(See workbook for thumbnails regarding this poster) 

Other Poster Ideas

I tried another idea, using the trash-bin window to show the deletion of our past and history. I used simple icons to represent the history, culture and items associated with them. I put a caption underneath each one as a title, so that they become like items one would see in a computer Trash bin.
I changed the text in the pop-up window that asks you to confirm your deletion so that it makes sense with the topic and becomes a sort of tagline. It now says "Changing the flag also removes these items. Are you sure? You can't undo this action, John Key." This gets the idea across that changing the flag affects more than just the flag itself, but it will have a wider influence on our culture and the way that we perceive our history.
The current New Zealand flag forms the background for the trash window because it is the overarching subject matter, and it shows that the flag change/deletion is the over-arching, main idea.
As a poster though, this image doesn't work so well - there is a lot of white space, the composition is not eye-catching, and it won't stand out from a crowd of posters at a distance.

Ihi: Uses juxtaposition of the trash bin, a well-known tool for deleting/removing items, with the flag, which puts a clear point across about what may happen to our current flag.

Wehi: It's a window that makes you evaluate what you are about to do carefully when you see it, because if you get it wrong and delete things by mistake, they never come back. This draws people's attention to consider carefully what this change will do, and the impact that it will have. They feel uncertain as to whether changing it is really a good idea, as brought about by the sentence "Are you sure? You can't undo this action."

Pak'n'Save poster designs

While thinking about my posters, I decided to try a quick and really simple design using symbols that I had found online at www.thenounproject.com and altered, as simple symbols can convey a lot of a message quickly. I also thought back to Pak'n'Save ads for simplicity of style, the kiwiana feel which grounds the issue to New Zealand, and the bold, bright colours used. So this is kind-of a pastiche.

Here are my designs:

Soldier flag - making waves work!

I did it! The method to simply ripple my flag is called Warping, and it's in Photoshop.

Photoshop:
Image > Transform > Warp
Where it asks you to pick a type of warp from the menu, choose FLAG. Turn the image around to how you want it and push ENTER.

I'm happy with this. It gives the flag more of a flow, and makes it a more interesting image to look at. The only downside is that the image comes out pixellated, no matter if I save it as a different file type or place it carefully in and out of the document. As the rippled flag works so much better than the static one though, I've decided to keep this design anyway. I haven't had much luck asking people and searching Google for the answer to this problem.