Research - Ihi Wehi

Along with reading articles and sourcing material for each varying standpoint, regarding the NZ flag and the public vs private school topic, I have been searching for existing examples which reflect Ihi Wehi in quite a strong way.

In order to look at posters dealing with societal issues, I decided to look up posters about environmental awareness for a bit of inspiration. Below, I have included a few photos of examples I have found online, with some annotations:

In the image above, the Ihi of the author is to alarm the viewer of the negative impacts of electrical pollution, using pathos, and trying to encourage us to turn off the lights when we leave the room. The message in conveyed through the use of photos, with supporting text to give help contextualize the situation. Personally, I felt quite concerned (Wehi) when I saw this image, and immediately felt obliged to go and turn off all of the lights in my flat that I wasn't using or didn't need on. The imagery is quite powerful, with the penguins trying to unplug the power, while the light continues to melt their piece of ice which is keeping them afloat. Not only is the imagery powerful, but the use of other FADPS like balance, visual flow, and contrast are extremely effective as well. There are definitely aspects from this poster which I will use as inspiration for when I create my own rhetoric design.

In the above image, the imagery is again quite powerful, yet very simple. The author's intentions (ihi) is to use the imagery as a way of expressing just how bad plastic bottle disposal can be on our environment. When I saw this, I was immediately drawn in, mainly because of the stark contrast of the dark smoke, and was intrigued (wehi) to see what was so bad about a plastic bottle. That showed that the FADPS helped to grab my attention. Once I had my attention caught by the poster, I then continued on to read the text, which then informed me on why plastic bottles are so bad for our environment, which then made me realise just how much this is affecting our environment for the worse. Everything is placed quite centrally in terms of a vertical axis, which makes it very easy on the eye for the viewer. The composition of this poster is definitely an aspect which I like an will consider using in the poster of my own.

The above poster uses a different style of imagery to the previous two examples, yet the Ihi remains similar, alerting the audience to the negative affects that our actions are having on the environment. In this poster, I felt quite shocked seeing this, with a whale being killed in the image. It's quite a clever move using the Ying Yang symbol in this way, yet replacing each colour with a whale. The silhouette vector style is very effective, despite being quite simple. I would like to experiment with this style in my own posters when it comes to designing. However, when looking at this poster, after feeling shocked, there wasn't really any text directing me to websites where I can find out more information or what I personally can do to help stop people hunting whales.

In the poster above, the author is still trying to convey the damage we are doing to our environment (Ihi), yet it is done in a different manner, by getting the audience to interact with the poster and answer a series of question, with each question providing strong juxtaposition between imagery showing a healthy environment and a damaged and polluted environment. This design consists of a more illustrative style in comparison to the previous, two of which had photographic imagery while the third was basic silhouettes and vectors. In terms of Wehi, I was initially left quite intrigued by this poster, and was interested to see what it was all about. This curiousness allowed me to have a closer look at the poster and interact with it, answering the questions and getting a realization of just how important trees are to our environment. I quite like the style of this poster, and the method of making someone curious at first and encouraging them to spend a bit more time and interact with it, and I could possibly try incorporating this rhetoric approach into my concepts.

I will continue to upload more research and ideas for Ihi Wehi as I go along. Over the next few days, by Monday's class, I will create some thumbnail sketches of possible rhetoric approaches to the poster, and I'll choose which standpoint I will take for one of the topics.