rationale

 

My posters aim to show the psychological effects of child poverty. They explore how the burden of poverty causes children to experience behavioral and emotional problems that they can't escape from. In terms of Ihi Wehi, I intended for both of my posters to provoke an emotional response by drawing attention to the struggles of the child. To attract the viewer's attention, I've used contrasting colours and illustrations. Black is used as my primary colour palette as it's typically associated with the negative. For one of my posters, a child is under a black cloud to represent the emotional suffering surrounding him. The cloud emerges out of the child, showing that it's always part of him. My other poster consists of two children that are unaware of the shadow that cast behind them. By having the girl as their shadow, it represents her being overlooked and invisible in society.

Week 6 - Refining (text, kerning) and test printing

I've been experimenting with how the supporting text could be placed, as well as the font style and size. I've changed the font to a more simple one because the main text is already decorative. I scaled down the font size and changed the ground to a straight line so that it aligns with the text. Initially I thought I needed a subheading - 'Why should we care? but only realised after that it sounds sarcastic. So I replaced it with "New Zealand's hidden problem".

 (text on left) 

I rearranged the text on the cloud so that it reads like its supposed to.




 Kerning in Indesign.

Kerning the'T' and 'Y' in 'society' 

  

I did a few tests prints on A3 and A2 to see any minor mistakes. There weren't many so I'll be ready to hand my prints in to Ink Digital on Tuesday. 

Week 5.2 - More developments

The lecture and studio went over printing and submission criteria.

This week I've mainly focused on trying to communicate my intentions better for the shadow poster. I had trouble coming up with a good headline and concept that specifically relates to the psychological impact of child poverty. Eventually, I came up with the saying 'The shadow of society.' This saying works better than my previous one, which was "children living in poverty become the social shadow." That one was too long. The cloud poster doesn't need much more development, just refinements.

Again, I played around with colour and placement of text. I also included a shape of a ray light which acts as a frame for the girl. Looking at the experiments as a whole, I found that I don't want colours that are too similar to my other poster and preferred the placement of the heading to be below the girl so that it doesn't distract from her.

 

 

Week 5.1 Interim 2

Following the interim, I'm glad that people clearly understood my topic. I received really helpful critique that I wouldn't have recognized myself.

My 2 posters for Interim

This poster draws attention to the psychological effect poverty has on children, mainly focusing on the emotional problem. I wanted to show that children who live in poverty often get overlooked and feel invisible in society. The children in front are unaware and naive of the shadow that casts behind them. The shadow is supposed to represent the repressed in our life. The feedback mentioned that this poster doesn't reveal much about poverty. I could try to make the girl look sadder. Needs way more improvement!

Feedback for cloud poster: 

• Check text alignment 
• Some of the text in the black cloud poster is hard to read. 'shouldn't have to live' was read as "shouldn't live'. I'm glad people pointed this out because when you spend a lot of time looking at the text, you already know how it's supposed to be read. But it's not the same for someone viewing it for the first time. 

I also received one on one feedback on how I can consider New Zealand in a wider view and how child poverty is such an issue in NZ but it's not talked about enough.

Week 4 - Developments

This week I've been developing my 2 posters. I experimented with different colours and compositions.


Cloud poster 

Initially, I had the black cloud just on top of his head, but I thought it would make more sense for the cloud to come out of him yet still be under the cloud. This shows that the suffering is part of him and it's not something he can easily escape out of. It follows him everywhere.
I ended up deciding between the blue and red background. I thought that the red worked better because it's quite an emotionally intense colour that is able to focus attention.
I went with a more asymmetrical composition because it adds flow and rhythm. Since we read from left to right, I want to guide the viewer’s eyes from the boy to black cloud. It also leaves space for the supporting text on the right which balances out the composition.

Shadow poster 

I did more research on what shadows represent in Jungian psychology. This way I have a better understanding of the concept which will hopefully help me develop my poster.

A summary:

• unconscious self 
• being invisible, rejected, overlooked 
• can't be ignored 
• the dark side 
• the repressed in our life 
• "returns and needs to be dealt within a new way, because the seeds of psychological renewal and of possible future directions for life lie hidden within it”
• "unconscious aspect of the personality which the conscious ego does not identify in itself. The blacker and denser it is." 

I didn't like the colours I was using at first because they were too happy and not attention grabbing enough. Having the shadow upside down may be unclear from afar, so I will stick with having the shadow upright. 

Week 3.2 - Rendering concepts

This week I've rendered some of my favourite thumbnail concepts that are based on the psychological effects of poverty.

The shadow represents something the boy wishes to have - happy childhood that isn't burdened by poverty. While I like the idea of using shadows to communicate something, it's hard to understand what exactly the poster is trying to communicate. 

Concept: To be under a dark cloud means that sadness is surrounding the area under the cloud. The child is under the cloud to show that the child is suffering emotionally due to poverty. 

Concept: How poverty affects a childhood. 

The polaroid photo juxtaposes against reality (living in poverty ). It shows what their childhood could be. While I like the look of this concept, I don't think it communicates child poverty enough.

Concept: children living in poverty just want the basic things that children may take for granted - such as education. 

Concept: a child can feel isolated and bullied just because they're poor.

I began to explore surrealism and how I can communicate the idea of being trapped poverty. The boys head is replaced with a caged house to represent the feeling of being caged and being unable to escape poverty. 

This is a random one that relates to hunger. The illustration shows the child's need for food but is unable to have it tangibly. I like how the illustrations contrast with the photograph. 

After showing my concepts to Lee, she liked the dark cloud and shadow concept and suggested ways of improving them which was a relief to hear because they were my favourite ones as well. Both concepts still need a whole lot of development though which I plan to work on this week.
For the shadow concept, Lee mentioned that the image of the child on a scooter probably isn't the right image to have. I think having an image of a child living in poverty would be more suitable since shadows often have a negative connotation.

Week 3 Independent Study

I gathered some examples of posters addressing poverty. They use pathos by having sad imagery and illustration to makes the viewer sympathize with people living in poverty. Logos is used by having factual information. I want my posters to convey an emotional response - which is lacking at the moment.

I also gathered some posters of styles I like which use grungy textures, illustration, silhouettes and distorted text.