Final detailing

I changed the tagline type to bold italic to make it clearer, and made the leading slightly smaller on the first two lines of the headline because the gaps between letters were a bit too big.

(edit on Tuesday: I also, after printing, realised I spelt result without an S. So I've sent a fixed version to the printer, but I'm not sure if it's too late....)

I just chose between which version I liked best of these - I like the italics because it has more emphasis?

But otherwise I'm happy with them and didn't have anything to change. 

Type refining

For independent and during class I've been refining the type. I added a black fade down the bottom to make it more readable, as well as moving some of the white text in the illustration slightly to make a few of the birds more visible - because I had feedback that they were starting to get a bit lost.

a more asymmetrical version? I think it doesn't quite look right in comparison to the centred image.

tried moving the type down a little- this is too much though. I quite like the italic type though?

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With this one, I changed around the headline a few times

Removed the extra line - this fits in the space better

-or a more direct headline?

this is probably too simplified - the gap above the text is a bit too big.

Design Refinement

Make/Critique

I printed out my concepts at a2 size and we looked at them all as a class, and talked about how they could be made better with fundamental design principles. I put up these two concepts (I wanted to do more work on them but I've not been feeling well). I definitely need to think more about the fonts, and I'm also still not quite happy with the text. I think the first one needs some rearranging, so the text is not just shoved in the bottom. I might add more birds layered behind the others, too, for more impact? The second one also needs to be more polished and clear - especially the words within the birds, which still aren't obvious.

what does each element bring: rainbow bird - represents LGBTQ community, as well as freedom and is small/cute/colourful  - good, unique, want to protect it. black birds/magpies - bad, sharp and pointy and evil, black and white of the background: straight people/homophobes/discrimination etc

what does combination say:  homophobes attacking LGBT people, violence, etc

how does arrangement effect meaning: the attacking, black birds use up most of the space and are traping the rainbow bird

what is the tone/atmosphere/mood:  kind of harsh, with the blocky shapes? the graphic-ness is to the point

FADPS: contrast - colour vs black and white, also just the black and white in general, movement - dynamism of the birds, a bit of rhythm in the birds as well. and scale with the big black birds and small rainbow one.

Heirachies: the rainbow colour of the small bird immediately draws your eyes to it, especially with the dynamism of the black birds. The text is kind of an afterthought, and I need to work on making that better and more connected visually

negative space: there's negative space around the birds, but for the most part the whole poster is used up. that is kind of my intention though, giving a trapped feeling etc.

cropping:  I've dne some on my workblog.

what does each element bring: birds same as above, but also the small ones are various different pride flags and arranged in a heart - the whole community. There are words (slurs/homophobic language etc) within the birds, representing the discrimination, the text 'they're just words' as a contradiction, what people say, which is obviously untrue because discriminatory language is extremely harmful.

what does combination say: similar to above; the magpies are swarming the lgbtq birds, trapping them in the centre. there's more of an impression of there being hundreds of them, that it's a swarm. Combination of the headline and image is a contradiction

how does arrangement effect meaning: trapped in the middle, viewed from above  making the small ones seem small and vunerable.

what is the tone/atmosphere/mood: dark, scary, trapped, direct (with the text)

FADPS: contast - dark birds/colourful birds, movement /rhythm - the black birds repeating around and pointing to the centre, and scale - the small birds in the middle

Heirachies: again, eyes go immediately to small birds because of colour and dynamism

negative space: not much, but it's supposed to be trapping.

Intro to style

Make/Define/Critique

For independent study I continued ideating and developing my concepts, as pictured below. We had a lecture about style/concept, and then in small groups talked about style and connotations and how it can add to/change the concept.

Then we paired up and discussed each other's posters. We mostly talked about my 'they're just words' one, since that's my favourite. Ruth thought the message was clear, though didn't immediately understand what the caption meant - because when printed out the words on the magpies are quite hard to see. I will make them a bit more obvious, probably. Also had some feedback that maybe the  white gap between the birds is too big - it almost seems as if there's a barrier, rather  than them being very vulnerable like it's supposed to be. Also I should add a tagline maybe?

Word + Type

4/8/16
Ideate/Make

In Thursday's class we talked about image/type relationship, as well as tone of voice. We worked together in pairs to try out different verisons of our type in different tones. I've been finding it very hard to come up with any words that work directly and succinctly  so this was quite difficult, but one thing I tried which seemed to work okay was sarcasm, like the Tui 'yeah right' ads. I still don't think this quite works, though. I will continue to work on words and concepts for independent study.

discussion and rapid ideation

Critique/Ideate/Make

In class we critiqued our poster ideas from independant study - I had two (below). They thought the suit one worked well, though there are a variety of ways I could make it simpler or more succinct/subtle. The butterfly one is more ambiguous - they weren't sure if it was good or bad. My intentions behind it were: the rainbow is a subtle shadow/rainbow reflection thing & it's about not assuming people are straight just because straight is considered 'default' or they 'look like it' (the caterpillar part being b&w). I like this idea still, but maybe it needs something else added? maybe it the other butterflies were pointier? We discussed forms of rhetoric and how to use them in our concepts.
We also did some rapid ideation, which helped get a few starting points for some concepts, and worked on developing ideas a bit more.