Ideas, Craft and Context - Podcast Interviews
It was really interesting this week to hear about how leading designers visualise and develop ideas and also what their points of inspiration are. It was interesting to me that almost all of them said they get their inspiration from everywhere, not just graphic design or the wider art world but it can come from anywhere. Like conversations with their friends, the place they live and meeting clients, it's made me think that I meed to be more open to looking at the world around me and not just focussing on books and the internet.
I also noticed that most of the experts said sketching by hand was the first place they started when coming up with new ideas and developing existing ones. This is usually where I start too, uninhibited drawing and sketching I have always found is a great way to visualise your initial thoughts and feelings about a topic. I found Christoph Miller particularly interesting when he was talking about where he gets inspiration from - I have made note of plenty of suggestions for artists to look at because they sound intriguing to me.
Overall this was a really good set of interviews this week with so many hints and tips at how to visualise ideas and also where to seek inspiration.
Design Genius. The Ways and Workings of Creative Thinkers
The reading this week was really useful when looking a how people come up with ideas and develop them. It gave some really good insight into the kinds of questions we need to ask ourselves when starting a project, whether it's the six Ds, the five Ws, KISS or TIMTOWTDI, they are all important things to consider when embarking on a design project.
The part about politics in design was of particular interest to me, especially considering my self initiated project is a political one about period poverty. I had no idea that Picasso actually popularised the use of a dove and olive branch as a secular symbol - I found it interesting how a logo for a conference ended up becoming such a wisely used symbol outside of Judaism and Christianity. This really puts the power of design into perspective.
An idea I will definitely take away from this is Jennie Winhall's quote about how design is political because it has consequences. This is definitely the responsibility of the designer and something I will take really seriously in the self initiated project brief. For example, last week in my weekly summary I mentioned that the terms I had been using were not exactly accurate; not everyone who has periods identifies as a girl or woman, this is exactly what I think Jennie was referencing, we have a responsibility as designers to do no harm and hopefully make things better. This links nicely to the part of the reading about political design also being used as a way to heal rifts - political art can also be positive not always negative. Maybe the thing we need in the world at the minute is more positivity!
Guerilla Marketing
Having done the reading this week about political design in the design genius book, I thought looking into guerilla marketing would be a good idea. Focussing on period poverty is definitely taking a political stance so this form of campaign may be an appropriate way to go - kind of shocking the public into taking a stance on such an important and current topic. As far as I can see, the positives of conducting a campaign like this are;
Cheaper than traditional marketing - it doesn't involve much paid marketing and can be as simple as a stencil on the street.
Creativity is king, there are very few limits on what you can do with guerilla marketing.
People talk about it and the ideas spread through word of mouth. This is great for a social justice campaign as public support is key.
Unique guerilla marketing campaigns can gain a lot of publicity very quickly.
Some examples of unique guerilla campaigns for inspiration;
Discovery Channel advertised shark week by putting shark bitten surf boards all over beaches. [2]
King Kong movie marketing included giant footprints on the beach which people shared thousands of time on social media. [3]
Christian human rights organisation ACAT used public bus seats to drive home the horrors of torture. [4]
WWF used a paper towel dispenser to show practically how using less paper can help the planet. [5]
Workshop Challenge
This week you will explore potential visual directions for your self-initiated project.
Design five different mood boards to clearly demonstrate how you might research, develop and apply your self-initiated project.
Upload your five mood board visuals to your blog, with accompanying text captions, to clearly outline the points of reference, inspiration, visual direction and design rationale.
Select one preferred mood board and upload it to the Ideas Wall and include a brief design rationale, to gain peer feedback.
Select one direction for your self-initiated project (chosen from one of your five mood boards) and announce your intentions on the Ideas Wall.
Develop five initial rough visuals in response to your self-initiated project brief. Your rough visuals can be a sketch, design mock up or rendering.
Post your five initial visuals onto the Ideas Wall, to gain peer reflection.
Mood Boards
Living in London installations pop up everywhere all of the time. I have always been fascinated with the creativity and thoughtfulness that goes into large scale installations such as Ai Weiwei’s Berlin project (top left) [6] in which he covered the Berlin concert hall in life vests worn by refugees fleeing the middle east for a better life in Europe. The point of the project was to draw attention to the refugee crisis in Europe during a film festival full of Hollywood power houses and the press. I love this installation and think it blurs the line between installation and guerilla marketing. I think this level of shock value alongside meaningful expression is incredibly powerful and something I would love to replicate in my own response to my research project.
Guerilla marketing has always been really interesting to me because of the multitude of different ways you can use this to answer a question with design. For example, the top right bench in Denver [7] which allows enough space for one person to sit on to show you the value of only using what you need I think is a great use of design as an answer or at least a suggestion to a social issue. I decided on this mood board because period poverty is a serious social issue in the UK at the minute and this kind of design could really help push. the issue to gain support and take it to parliament.
I thought looking at existing period poverty campaigns was essential to see what is out there and what attracts attention. As you can see, the colour pallet is almost exclusively red and pink - obviously aimed at women. However, my campaign is designed to get the support of everyone not just women so maybe this is actually an aesthetic I want to stay away from. Clearly nothing has worked and answered the question so far so creativity and a new approach may be needed. I particularly love the campaign on the top left, it appeared in the Meteor (Manchester Independent media) and I think this theme of pointing out something shocking such as what young girls use instead of tampons, is strong and can be used to shock people into action.
Print media has always been a strong way of helping to combat a social issue. Whether it's the war posters encouraging women to work the land (mid left) or more contemporary posters urging people to vote, it has always been a strong way to communicate a message. I love the aesthetic of these posters, especially the satirical cartoons (centre) pointing out social issues. These are all relevant to my period poverty campaign because social action is exactly what is needed. The visual identity is strong and could be interesting to adapt the way it is used and make it about combatting period poverty.
I thought advertising characters would be interesting to look at because it has been very successful, particularly with emotional subject matters such as the Greenpeace Rang-Tan advert (bottom left).[8] This could be a great visual to adopt to show people that periods should be talked about and not a "dirty" subject. Women historically have been the ones concerned with periods but in order to push this campaign forwards, it needs the support of everyone. An emotive character animation could be the way to go with this.
Final Mood Board
I have decided to go for my guerilla marketing mood board because it is directly related to social action and therefore period poverty. I will also be able to use ideas from other mood boards, such as Ai Weiwei’s Berlin project and the idea of characters and incorporate them into guerilla marketing. I can't wait to continue with this project and come up with a guerilla marketing campaign to try to combat period poverty. I think this will be a good project because it is something I care about deeply and ties into feminism and poverty in the modern day. We can keep doing better and better to make the world a better place for everyone and I would love it if this project was the start of something bigger.
Visuals
Characters
I started by following the character route but I think this is not necessarily new and is reminiscent of a lot of the other period poverty campaigns out there. It also seems far too young for my target audience, I want ideally everyone to be the audience but especially people with political sway, power and disposable income as change has to start from the top.
I think visuals like this would be the wrong way to go with this campaign and an entirely different approach is needed.
Models
I decided to make things out of tampons themselves to see what visuals I could come up with. In one hand, I think some quite cool things could be sculpted for example the rocket, could go with the tag line "billionaires can go into space but people can't afford tampons" etc.
Another idea I had is to animate the person made of tampon to show period poverty in a different, new way.
However, I think using tampons to illustrate period poverty is in bad taste - we could just give the tampons used to people who can't afford them. I think a major part of design is being ethical and doing the right thing, especially with a campaign like this and using the exact thing I am highlighting is needed and in short supply doesn't sit right with me.
Installation
My third idea for the visualisation of my campaign against period poverty is an installation. Taking inspiration from Ai Weiwei’s Berlin project, I thought about covering a landmark in London with bloodied cotton wool - illustrating the things that people with periods use instead of tampons.
I really like this idea however I don't think this alone will be enough, I could think about coupling it with prints or another form of social action like sending something directly to MPs. This stunt could get so much publicity and I could also experiment with what to display, it could be different things people use when they can't afford tampons (see below) for example socks, knickers and plastic bags.
I really like this idea and think it has legs to carry forward.
Political Posters
My fourth idea for answering the question of period poverty is to do political posters and put them up all over London, guerilla marketing style. I really like this idea because it is going directly to the source and holding the government accountable.
I think this would be the kind of thing people would take pictures of and share online which would help the cause immensely. I could attach a QR code and a hashtag taking people to the website which will have more info about it
I really like this idea and think it adds a new visual element to the fight against period poverty, I think it is also a unique point of view and is something that does need to be said.
With anti government sentiment rising in the UK since Brexit, this is the idea time to get people on side and encourage social action in the way of bringing up the issue in parliament.
I think this idea has a clear audience and direction and is definitely something I can push further and take forward, possibly combining it with the installation or direct mail to MPs.
Animation
My final visual idea is an animation that will be placed on social media and could even be on TV. The idea is to shock people. At the start of the animation a plastercine model walks onto the screen looking around. Then all of a sudden, a ribbon of red comes from between her legs turning everything on the screen red then the words "fuck period poverty" appear.
I think this is a very direct and clear message which is needed in this arena. Period poverty campaigns I have seen so far have been polite and not visually confrontational but I want to draw as much attention to this as possible.
I like the idea of the animation but I'm not sure it's as clearly targeted as it could be, it seems like the format dictates the message rather than the other way around.
Summary
This week was incredibly interesting and I had a lot of fun looking into my research question. I found it challenging to narrow down my research at first because there is so much out there. However, after I researched guerilla marketing I thought that would be a very interesting way to take my project. I am really pleased with my topic and find period poverty a necessary and interesting topic.
The mood boards were a brilliant way of sorting out my ideas into categories and looking deeper into them. I think the ideas I had for visuals definitely used the research I had done on the mood boards and ran with it, using it to push my initial ideas further. I am definitely leaning more towards the political posters because I think it would be an excellent way of encouraging conversation and engagement with the general public. I know that when I see interesting posters and stickers in the street I will photograph them and share them on social media, that's what I want people to do with mine.
I think coupling my political poster idea with an installation will push my project further and allow people to really see what the point of this campaign is. It would also encourage conversations about period poverty and raise awareness in order to gain support for a campaign to the government to make sure we eradicate period poverty in the UK.
I cannot wait to take this further next week and develop my visuals further into a full campaign.
References
[1] Ambrose, G (2014) ‘Design Genius. The Ways and Workings of Creative Thinkers, London, Bloomsbury.
[2] Unknown. (2017). Cool and Creative Shark Week Surfboard. Available: http://unusual-things.blogspot.com/2009/12/cool-and-creative-shark-week-surfboard.html. Last accessed 5/10/21.
[3] Haar, J. (2017). Massive Beach Footprints. Available: https://www.trendhunter.com/trends/kong-skull-island. Last accessed 5/10/21.
[4]Unknown. (2009). ACAT Back of Seats. Available: https://www.adsoftheworld.com/media/ambient/acat_back_of_seats. Last accessed 5/10/21.
[5] Fehrenbacher, J. (2007). World Wildlife Fund Super Smart Eco Ad Campai. Available: https://inhabitat.com/world-wildlife-federation-super-smart-eco-ad-campaigns/. Last accessed 5/10/21.
[6] Neuendorf, H. (2016). Ai Weiwei Commemorates Drowned Refugees with Public Installation during Berlin Film Festival. Available: https://news.artnet.com/art-world/ai-weiwei-life-jackets-installation-berlin-427247. Last accessed 5/10/21.
[7] Grenoble, R. (2011). Denver Water's 'Use Only What You Need' Campaign Pleasantly Refreshing. Available: https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/denver-waters-use-only-wh_n_886323?ri18n=true. Last accessed 5/10/21.
[8] Greenpeace. (2019). Rang-tan: watch the film. Available: https://www.greenpeace.org.uk/news/watch-rang-tan-film/. Last accessed 5/10/21.
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