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 3.1 Interim 1

For our first interim we had to present 4 concepts. The main feedback I got was that my concepts were too broad. I didn't 'dig deep enough' into child poverty. Some of my concepts didn't clearly communicate child poverty, and I it made me realize that I should include more references to children. So far I'm not interested developing any of these concepts because they're lacking a strong use of pathos, logos, and ethos.

Concept: to show that a third of New Zealand children now live below the poverty line. I wanted to show how a child living in poverty misses out on having things that most children have - like a bedroom. From the feedback, this was noted the most successful one because it's simple and clear to understand. 

Concept: children living in poverty are at a social disadvantage and often feel forgotten. People said that it's unclear that it's about child poverty. It could be about anything.

The bite mark shows that child poverty is 'eating away children education' - meaning that poverty stops children from reaching their full potential when it comes to education. If the text 'Child Poverty' wasn't there, I think it would be hard to understand this concept because the imagery doesn't strongly indicate much about child poverty.

Concept: To show the relationship between the lack of income and a child's mindset.
As income decreases, the mental well-being of the child suffers more. The feedback I got from this was that the stairs are in reverse. They should be going down instead of up.