I am going to spend up until Christmas answering the BICeBe
2019 international poster design brief. I am going to research into both the
themes an ‘era of disinformation’ and ‘women’s empowerment’ with the aim of
creating 2 political posters and one gif. After Christmas I would like to
continue answering briefs based around social issues, raising awareness and
making a comment.
In terms of outcomes I want to have a series of completed
poster briefs with supporting sketchbooks by the end of the year. I also want
to have done some client work while I still have the support of uni, because
this is something I have struggled with. I am currently working on the designs
for a t-shirt brand that raises awareness for anxiety and depression in young
men. I also did some informational design for a brochure and some logo design
in summer, which I really enjoyed and would like to do more of. I also need to
start marketing myself online. This term I am going to start work on creating
an Instagram account, then next term when I have more work a website. I am also
going to start a day journal where I document interesting social issue that I
have read about and potential design concepts.
Visually, I want my work to be bold, bright and immediate. I
am therefore going to start by using limited, bright colours (2 or 3) and
reduced shape, extracting any unnecessary information for the storytelling. I
have found that creating work that is simple and direct is really effective
within the context of social poster design. I also want to continue using
visual metaphors to make clever comparisons and comments on social issues.
By crafting my images this way, I aim to create work that
are alluring and grabs people’s attention, particularly on social media like
Instagram. I want them to be visually drawn into my image before being exposed
to the dark edge/ harsh reality of the social issue that I am exploring. I
think that creating this contrast is a really good way of increasing the impact
of my images. Creating these contrasts with movement is also something that I
want to continue exploring. My work is aimed at adults and particularly
socially aware individuals and young adults.
In terms of media I am going to continue working digitally,
using photoshop, illustrator and after effects. However, I want to bring a
handmade feel back into my work. I want to play with handmade and print
textures and to start thinking about how I can simulate these digitally to
speed up my production process.
My main ambitions for the year are to continue building a
commercial portfolio based around researching and communicating social issues.
I am going to use the next brief to make sure this is definitely the direction
I want to go in. I want my work to spur change, rather than just telling a
narrative or decorating. I also want to really hone in on my production process
and creating an aesthetic that works for me. Finally, I want to start thinking
about how I can bring more activism into my life outside of image making. It
might be interesting to back some of my images with campaigns. A question that
I keep asking myself is how much difference can an image alone really make?
