Rationale

POSTER ONE:

This poster has taken the stance of pro changing the flag, and looks at how the inclusion of the Union Jack on the flag leaves New Zealand with a lack of individual identity and freedom. Rhetoric has been used, in the form of pathos, as the imagery of a bulldog trying to eat the kiwi aims to appeal directly to the viewer’s emotions (wehi). The bulldog has been used to symbolise Britain, while the Kiwi represents New Zealand, which was a more interesting and exciting way of expressing my intended standpoint rather than directly using the flags themselves. Fundamental design principles, scale in particular, have been used in order to exaggerate this idea, and make the bulldog appear more dominant and aggressive. There is quite a serious tone to the poster, while the text acts as a call to help, with the bold, slightly offset font coming from the voice of the kiwi. The typography colour selection and style also compliments the clean stylistic nature of the poster.


POSTER TWO:

This poster has taken the stance of pro changing the flag, while looking at how the Union Jack on our flag leaves us with a lack of individual identity and freedom. Juxtaposition has been the main rhetorical device used, by pairing two different to create contrasting and conflicting ideas, in order to appeal to the viewer (wehi). The imagery consists of a simple stylistic approach, pairing iconic London landmarks with the silhouette of a kiwi, representing New Zealand. Landmarks such as the London Eye, Tower Bridge, and Buckingham Palace have been used to show that the Union Jack isn’t representing us for what we really are, it’s more continuing to salute to British Imperialism. Contrast and scale are the most dominant principles used, in order to create a hierarchy within the composition, and make the silhouettes stand out. The typography furthers the images juxtaposition, with the pairing of an ‘Old English’ font, with a simple sans serif typeface.

Poster Wall

Today I photoshopped my posters onto the Poster Wall found on Stream, and have attached it below:

I tried to make the psoters look quite realistic on the poster wall by adding lighting to them, warping them to the shape of the posters that were in their place, and also adding some texture which resembles posters that have been glued up onto a poster wall. I also went and purchased some white foam board today to flush-mount my posters onto for the final presentation. 

Final Posters

Since Monday and Tuesday's critiques, I have been working on coming up with developed and refined responses to the topic of Ihi Wehi. Today, I ended up getting the posters to what I think is a really refined and high standard, so I went and got them printed at Ink Digital on Marion St. 

It is really cool seeing them professionally printed out at full size, and I was really happy with the final outcome of both posters. I feel like they both focus on different forms of rhetoric, yet communicate the same issue very clearly. I have attached a digital version of my posters to this blog post. 

The above poster is my first poster, which uses Pathos as a form of rhetoric, as it appeals to the emotions of the viewer, in the pursuit of an outcome. The issue I was focusing on was the concept that New Zealand is trapped by the fact that we are still associated with the Union Jack on our flag, and this means we lack a strong national identity in our flag, therefore we should change it. Hence the reason I used the Kiwi to symbolise New Zealand, with the more dominant British Bulldog representing Britain.

Poster two more uses juxtaposition as a rhetorical device, by pairing two elements in order to create contrasting ideas. I have paired several features of London, such as the Tower Bridge, London Eye, Buckingham Palace, Big Ben and a Crown, in order to represent the Union Jack. I have then use a silhouette of a Kiwi to represent New Zealand. The juxtaposition occurs by using these elements together, by pairing these Iconic British features with New Zealand's iconic bird. 

Overall, I am extremely happy with the final outcomes of my posters, and the steady work throughout the term has definitely been beneficial to my final outputs. Over the next few days, I will head out and buy some card/board to flush mount my posters on, and also photoshop my posters into the 'Poster Wall' which has been uploaded to Stream. By the sounds of things on Stream, we will be mounting our posters during class on Monday, and also writing our rationale in class.

Typographic Choices

As part of the recent developments in my posters, I have been focusing on making the type more fitting for the poster, and helping enhance my concept, rather than being a subtle piece of text on the side. 

Below, I have included some snippets of the text on my most recent developments, with some annotations:

The above snippet is from Poster One, which features the Bulldog trying to eat the Kiwi. The font I have used is 'Badaboom'. I really like how this font fits into my stylistic vector approach for this poster, and also helps give the sense of urgency and that the Kiwi is shouting. In my recent posters I had looked at having a subtle piece of text, although now that I have changed the kiwi to trying to escape and fighting rather than lying their without much life left, the shouting, bolder, and heavier font definitely suits this poster. The text further gives the sense of urgency, and helps appeal to the viewers emotions and enforce Pathos as my rhetorical approach.

This snippet is from my second poster, which has the Kiwi made up of iconic London Landmarks. Since the rest of my poster consists of juxtaposing the iconic New Zealand Kiwi up against iconic London landmarks, I decided to stick with the 'Old English' font, as I felt it's easily identifiable with England/Britain. The text which reads 'Ditch the Jack, I decided to use a font known as "Orator Std Medium", as I felt that it would be fitting to continue the juxtaposition in the text, and add a thin, sans-serif font below. I have again used the red and white colours to further fit in, and the colours are known for being on the Union Jack.

Week 5 - Session Two

Today's class was based on more class critiques, for those who didn't have time to present yesterday or who were absent from Monday's class. It was interesting to see just how everyone's work had been developing over the past week.

At the end of class, I asked Caroline for some quick feedback on my new Bulldog poster, which I had edited last night based on yesterdays feedback, and I have attached an image of the poster below:

The above poster is a refined version of one of my A2's that I presented during yesterday's critique. I have changed the background colour to suggest more of a 'fight for freedom' than the black which is often associated with being dark and with death. I have changed the typography to more suit the vector based stylistic approach to the poster, and have also played around with changing the dogs eyes, and also the expression on the Kiwi's face. Caroline suggested to play around with where the kiwi is looking, as at the moment it looks like he is looking off of the page, which may have different connotations and be perceived differently compared to if he was looking at the dog and fighting to escape. I am also considering adding some drool to the bulldogs mouth, as it's a common feature for the stereotypical British Bulldog.

With this being said, I wil play around with refining and developing this poster (as well as my other A2 poster) before printing later on in the week. I really like how they are both coming along, and am excited to see the finished outcome. 

Week 5 - Session One: Class Critique

Apart from the 'shared moment' this morning, where we were introduced to how the fashion students had been responding to the topic of Ihi Wehi, and then introducing them to our response, we spent the rest of the class time doing critiques. In groups of three we would pin our work up on the walls and have the class critique them and make suggestions.

Some of the feedback for mine was:

Poster One (Bulldog/Kiwi):
- Make the Kiwi look like he's trying to get out, rather than on his last breath.
- Change tagline to "Set me free, ditch the Jack!"
- Make bulldog more of a creamy colour
- Open the Kiwi's mouth more, change head positioning
- Play around with white in the dog's eyes.
- Try a dark red background rather than black.
- Play around with more bold and expressive fonts/typography

Poster Two (Red Kiwi):
- Make the poster seem more lively (add more)
- Add 'The Gherkin', London Bridge etc.
- Zoom out slightly, involve more of the Kiwi's beak in the image
- Play around with more bold and expressive fonts/typography

After hearing the feedback, which is extremely valuable especially with only one week until final hand-ins, I will continue to develop my work and make changes according to this feedback, and play around with the typography so that it becomes a significant part of the design and makes it even more effective.

Poster Two Development

I continued to play around with and experiment with the use of various FADPS in order to come up with a more interesting way of expressing this concept, so that it is more appealing to the viewer, and really draws them in. In order to do this, I felt like scale was one of the key aspects to use, so enlarged the kiwi silhouette, and cropped it in to mainly the head area. I have attached pictures below:

The only real difference in the above posters is the addition of the faint Union Jack in the background, as well as a slight change in the tagline in the bottom right corner. However, in terms of developing from my initial mock-up, I feel that the extreme increase in scale helps to create more intrigue about the poster. By having it so big, it's aiming to draw in the viewer so that they can try and break down the poster. At first, some might not realise that it's a kiwi, although I have made it more obvious by leaving a slight part of the body in when cropping, opening the Kiwi's beak, and placing the 'London Eye' in the spot where the Kiwi's actual eye would be. In terms of the font, I have opted for Univers as a basic sans-serif font, as I have been aiming to use the imagery itself as the hero focal point, while the tagline further helps put the poster in context for the viewer. I quite like how this concept is coming along, and will take this along to the interim presentation on Monday so I can get some feedback on the idea, and see if the class and the teachers think the message is coming through clearly enough. 

Tomorrow, I will go and print out my 2x A2 posters (I will print in A3's and stick together for the interim). Along with this idea, I will also present the earlier idea of the Bulldog eating the Kiwi, which more focuses on Pathos as it's form of rhetoric. I'm looking forward to the class critique, not only on this poster, but on my developed Bulldog poster, since I feel that it's improved greatly by making the dog easily recognisable as a bulldog, and making a few other small adjustments as well.

Poster Two: Digital Ideation

Today I continued to look at developing a second poster, for our next interim presentation on Monday. This poster needs to look at the same topic, from the same standpoint, although while applying a different stylistic and rhetoric approach. 

Below, I have attached my initial digital mock-up for Poster Two:

As seen above, I have created a basic digital mock-up of another poster, which is also proposing the idea that we ditch the Union Jack, in order to solidify our own identity as New Zealand, rather than being dominated/overshadowed by Britain because of the Union Jack. For this idea, I have created a London skyline silhouette inside of the kiwi, using the 'London Eye' as the Kiwi's Eye. In terms of the concept as a whole, I think it could be quite effective, although I will continue to play around with the poster and it's respective FADPS so that I can create it more visually appealing, and draw the audience in. This was just the first mock-up so there is still a lot of room for improvement and refinements. 

Poster One Typography

Following yesterday's development of the imagery in Poster One, today I was looking at some typography to use down in the bottom left hand corner. Based on how I have positioned the imagery, and worked the visual flow on the page, the text is best positioned down in the bottom left, as it helps to convey the intended message, and then further emphasises the tone of it being spoken by the kiwi itself. 

Below I have attached three examples of the text I was looking at using, with brief annotations on each:

The above snippet has used a font called 'Generally Speaking'. This font is quite good in the sense that it's got a sort of 'written' or 'spoken' style, which is the look I was hoping for. However, the main problem with this font is the fact that it's based on only capital letters, which doesn't help the tone I am trying to set in the poster. Capitals tend to give the impression that something is being said quite loud, although I want to express a more subtle tone, as if it's being said by the struggling kiwi.

The above snippet features a font called 'Easy Speech'. Again, I quite like how it reflects a 'spoken' tone. One of the main problems with this font however is the jagged style, it's almost 'too rough', and doesn't quite seem to fit in with the clean, simple vector style I have used in my imagery. In some ways, it's also more distinctly a 'handwritten' font as well, possibly too distinguishable as handwritten text.

The above snippet consists of using a font called 'KG Miss Speechy', which is more of a rounded sans serif font. I quite like this font in how it fits in to my intended rhetoric approach. The rounded sans serif style of this font allows it to appear as if the kiwi is saying it, while the ability to use lower case helps keep quite a subtle tone, rather than it appearing to be shouted. Another positive is the fact that it's not so 'handwritten', so the viewing audience is more likely to read it as if it's being said by the kiwi during his struggle, rather than it appearing to be being written down. The subtlety of the type also allows it to fit into my intended visual flow throughout the page, rather than being the most dominant feature. In this particular poster I am wanting the imagery to be the main source of rhetoric, appealing to the viewers emotions, just like pathos as a rhetoric.

Below, I have attached the developed Poster One featuring some typography, which I feel fits in quite nicely.

Over the next few days, I will continue to ideate and develop a second poster for Monday's class critique, in which we are required to have 2 x A2 Posters printed out for critique. It's vital that I have two posters that I am quite confident with, so that I can get some valuable feedback which focuses on developing the imagery etc rather than coming up with a whole new poster. I will continue to update my blog, as well as my physical workbook, with my design processes along the way.

Poster Development

This afternoon, I continued to work on developing my Bulldog idea which I presented during yesterday's class critique. The feedback I got was very valuable, and I used this in order to generate a more effective poster. Some of the main things that needed to be changed are as follows:

- The dog needed to look like a stereotypical bulldog, droopy mouth, small ears, thinner eyes, and a change in the colour.
- The kiwi needed to have some sort of facial expression to show that he was struggling, rather than dead, to fit in with the tagline "Help set me free..."
- Make it more obvious that it's a kiwi, by making the eye more obvious, and having the beak open.

I have attached a photo of my development below. In this photo, I haven't included the text, as I am going to play around with various different fonts to see which one works the best. I would like it to seem like the kiwi is saying it, to add a different tone to the poster, while I want the font to be nice and easy to read, and fit in with the existing stylistic approach to the design.

I feel like I have still managed to maintain the Pathos rhetoric in the poster, as the imagery has still been used to appeal directly to the audiences emotions. I have used scale in quite an effective way, by making the dog large and therefore adding the feeling of dominance and superiority. In terms of visual flow, by having the dark nose on top the greyish/white mouth area, it allows the eye to be drawn to that point, while the angle of the drooping mouth then guides the viewers attentiion down towards the struggling kiwis head. From there, I'm hoping that the beak will direct the viewer down towards the tagline, which will stretch out across about two thirds of the page, and subtly lead the viewers eye towards the union jack collar. I will upload another blog post once I have found some typography that I feel suits the design. 

Week 4 - Session Two: Class Critique

The majority of today's class was based doing a class critique of everyone's work. It was really interesting seeing everyone else's approaches to the poster, both stylistically and symbolically. The poster I presented has been attached below, the kiwi/dog poster:

When presenting this poster, I gave a brief explanation of my intentions and how I was trying to deliver a specific message (Ihi), such as why I used this specific stylistic approach, how I used the FADPs to help convey my ideas, and how I have used pathos as a rhetoric in order to appeal directly to the emotions of the audience, in an attempt to draw in the viewers. The class responded with some very valuable feedback that I will take on board as I continue to develop and refine this concept. Some of the feedback is as follows.

- Make the dog look like a stereotypical British Bulldog, which will require a change in colour palette, and add the droopy mouth, slight change in head shape etc.
- Some people struggled to identify that it was a kiwi in the dogs mouth, so I will work on ways to make that more obvious. Such as making the beak open, and making the outside more jagged.
- With the tagline, saying "Help set me free", the kiwi needs to show some sign of life. Possibly show him struggling, with his eye partly open.
- Try playing around with the font choice, to make it seem like the kiwi is saying it.

Some of the class commented how they liked how the poster strongly showed my standpoint (pro changing the flag) without the flag actually being the main focus of my poster. I had some feedback from peers at my table saying they thought it was a really strong poster, and they liked the stylistic approach to it. 

Over the course of the next week, I will continue to work on and develop this poster based on both the class/teacher feedback and my own self-critique, and will try to continue developing ideas for the second poster, which needs to focus on the same issue from the same standpoint, although a different form of rhetoric. By next week, we have been asked to bring two A2 print outs of posters to class.

Week Four - Session One

In today's class we looked at the use of typography within posters. A lot of the class was spent drawing up thumbnails of existing ideas, although playing around with the typographical elements, and how this can further emphasize your concept, and how the text can be just as strong as the imagery itself. I used the two existing ideas I had made digitally in my sketched thumbnails for this exercise. These thumbnails have been drawn inside of my physical workbook. We also spent some time inside of the presentation studio looking at existing examples, and how they have used text within their designs. Some of these were extremely interesting, and looking at some of these will definitely help me develop my own ideas and concepts.

In terms of the posters I created digitally the other day, we were told at the start of class that we would be having a big class critique tomorrow, so to bring our best poster at tomorrow printed out at A3. I will present my poster which features a bulldog and a kiwi, used to emphasize how we need to ditch the Union Jack and 'set ourselves free'. The poster I will present uses Pathos as a rhetoric, as it looks to appeal to the emotions of the viewer.

Digitally Creating Posters

Today I continued working on a few posters, which I started a few days ago. The two ideas I am working on are based on my most recent 'Identity Ideation' (this ideation can be seen in my physical workbook). I have been working on developing one which is looking at the similarities between the New Zealand and Australia flag, although I don't think this idea is anywhere near as strong as my other poster, which is looking at getting freedom ditching the Union Jack. I have attached each of these below, with some annotations. These will also be visible in my physical workbook, with some annotations and feedback alongside the print outs:

The above idea is looking at how New Zealand and Australia are so frequently confused. I have used aboriginal patterns, along with a kiwi, creating a bit of tension between the aboriginal and maori backgrounds of each country. The tagline needs refining, and I'll it would probably be better suited to saying "This isn't my identity" or something along those lines. One of the problems with this concept is that people might not recognise that they're aboriginal patterns, so the message might not come across as effectively and successfully as I was hoping. The whole poster is quite central, especially in terms of vertical placement, so if I were to develop this idea I would look to play around with the composition, and various other FADPs such as scale and contrast.

The above poster is my favourite so far, which features a kiwi being trapped inside of a dogs mouth. There are a few ideas I have to further improve and refine this already, although I will wait and get some feedback from the teachers and/or the class as well over the next few days. The dog needs to change slightly, in order to look more like a British Bulldog, while the Kiwi should probably show some sign of life since the tagline says "Help set me free". The generic dog was more just used as a bit of a placeholder to see if the idea would be as effective as I had envisaged. I used quite a bold vector style in order to keep a nice simple, clean style to the poster, and have tried using scale to my advantage, by making the dog big, scary and dominant, looking to appeal to the emotions of the audience (Pathos as the rhetoric).