Rationale

My poster concepts is around the argument of social media, taking the negative stance. I have focused specifically on cyber bullying and the fact that people seem to use social media as an excuse for emotional harm.

The design of the poster is based around 'making the familiar unfamiliar' and substitution to create a strong and easy to decipher metaphor centered around the saying "words have power" as well as cyber bullying. The ihi of the poster is prominently sharpness combined with grunge and erosive nature seen through the type and handle, creating an overall sinister ihi. From this I want the viewer to feel a wehi of powerlessness and fear. These two emotions directly correspond to some of the feelings that those bullied over social media experience far too many times. No matter what form it is said in, words still have the potential to cause imminent harm and lead a destructive path. 

Week 6.2: Minor adjustments

The one aspect that was letting my entire poster down was the title and body copy. I generally am not very good at that area of design so I sourced some type inspiration to help me get started.

From these I like the simplicity of the semi-bold san serif fonts using basic heirachy. I also want to look at the bleeding of the page aspect to create a little more dimension to the title. I went through and downloaded various fonts and played around with them on Indesign. Through the process I decided to eliminate the body copy and just have a title and subheading as the extra words to deal with was make things more complicated for myself.

After about ten iteration I finally came up with a concept I was happy with. I decide to stick with simplicity and didn't go too much into the bleeding off the page idea.

Unfortunately, after printing my poster off full size I discovered that the red printed out a lot darker to what it had printed out previously. I did make sure I printed it off earlier to give me enough time to get it reprinted if this exact thing happened, however, I got caught up with my other assignment and ran out of time. All in all, I am happy with how it turned out.
YAY FOR BEING DONE!!

Week 6: Critique

When the A2 copies of my poster were put on the wall, straight away I could see that the grunge lettering was blending in too much with the background and need a lot more contrast. Overall, the comment to the class was the make everything brighter so it stands out from the crowd, a very important aspect when it comes to designing a poster.

I went through and added a bright yellow and red to the three render variations I had and then re-evaluated. After gathering others opinions I settled on going forward with my grunge concept as everyone felt this one worked the best and expressed the more sinister aspect of cyber bullying. The background colour I went for was the sickly yellow and it is very bright and is also one of the first colours you see so definitely would stand out from a distance. This colour initially came from the gold handle but the colour it is now is almost unsettling making the viewer uncomfortable and also getting them to think more to what the poster is really about.

SO MANY PRINTER MARES I CAN"T EVEN EXPLAIN.
Massey server crashed again so couldn't print out what I had developed to look at it bigger so I had to make do with my laptop screen (not the best at all).

I had a lot of trouble deciding on a suitable handle for this as I had a conflicting opinion on what other told me.The feedback I received is that neither the vector handle or the filtered realistic handle matched well with the typography and it was suggested I look at mimicking the grunge effect on the handle as well. Personally, I thought the grunge blended to much into the type making it one image rather than letting the type stand out on its own.  However, I ended up finding a happy medium between grunge and realistic, going completely away from vector.

need to re evaluate title a body copy placement and design

Week 5.2: Onto the Computer

I initially decided to look at quotes and sayings to gather up effective metaphors that are considerably well known but aren't considered a cliche. From there I drew up a few concepts and after yet another discussion with one of the lecturers it was decided that my 'Words have power' sword idea was the strongest and most resolved.

I went on to drawing up variations of the layout with varying amounts of swords etc but I decided that my first idea with just the one sword was the most effective and simplistic. I had fun with exploring different render iterations on the computer gathering three strong concepts:

• Vector based layered type
• Grunge / eroded type
• Colour-in child-like style (hinting more toward the cyber bullying aspect)

I struggled with selecting only two of my developments to show in class as I felt there were at least three strong ones. However I ended up settling on one vector based type with a light background and a grunge with a dark background so there was a bit a contrast between the two.

Week 5: Mid-Life Crisis

After an in-depth discussion with another lecturer it was brought forth that I've over complicated my idea and it needs to be stripped right back. I want to say too many things with my poster which opens up a varying degree of interpretations creating a huge tension  between what I want to say and what is actually being read.

To help me create a concise concept I decided to completely re-think my idea and narrow down on only ONE specific idea to help me focus on simplicity. After a somewhat thorough brainstorm I decided on cyber bullying and how people use social media as an excuse to say horrible and unnecessary things to others.

Week 4.2: Further Research

After a discussion with one of the lecturers about my Adam and Eve concept and where I was headed with it, it was suggested to me to deeply research all the various aspects and metaphors that are within my idea. This will be to ensure I focus my intention and complete decide what exactly I want to say. At this point my ideas are very complicated, it seems as though I'm trying to tell a story rather than share a message with conviction.

On a positive note, my lecturer said that my idea to use a painted, collage type aesthetic with the use of the uncanny will suit the poster well and convey the message appropriately.

I specifically looked at how the metaphors with the apple and snake have been done before and what they actually mean to other people. I also research into the Adam and Eve story to get some background information to help me develop. From this process I discovered that the snake has a lot more connotations behind it than I expected to made an educated decision to remove it from the composition. This means I'll put most of the focus on the apple and the hand leading toward it.

Week 4: Critique

Going into the critique I felt the strongest of my concepts was my Adam and Eve idea. The metaphor and deeper meaning behind this poster was easy enough to decipher and was very powerful.

Through in depth discussions with my peers, I got some really good feedback in how to progress all four of my ideas that I pitched. However, people were split between my Adam and Eve concept as well as my computer screen idea. At this point I decided that my Adam and Eve concept was more resolved and I already had an idea of how I could render it. I took everyone's constructive criticism on board and progressed to develop this concept.

Week 3.2: Analysing Concepts

After discussion with the lecturers, it was apparent that I was not utilising the initial research that I did, to my advantage. I had some good statistics and information that was lost in my idea generation process.

To create a clear and concise message I want to convey in my poster, I went through and did a lot of brainstorming and word lists. I then had a brain surge and connected the idea of people using Facebook and other forms of social media as an excuse for treating people so badly with the book Lord of the Flies. From this I continued to explore different ideas and drew up a few concepts.

Week 3: More Idea Generation Techniques

In class we went through both random word idea generation as well as using De Bono's hats to look at our ideas and concepts in a different light. The random word exercise was interesting and I came up with some designs that were very contrasting to my initial concepts as some incorporated a humorous tone instead of something more serious. I really enjoyed the ones that were a substitution of the Civil Defence 'Get Ready, Get Thru' advertisements playing on the idea that people are so attached to social media (almost addicted) that everything they do revolves around it.

However, in the second session using De Bono's hats was not as successful. I felt that I naturally looked at my ideas in these different lights so it did not bring anything new to the table. It was good to look at this process so I can go back to it if I ever get stuck with idea generation but I probably won't use it as much as the other techniques I've used.

Week Two: Visual Library and Quick Concepts

By going through the process of creating brainstorms, word lists and then leading onto an image library, it set me up well to start creating poster concepts. I found it easy to come up with various different poster ideas that were on specific areas of social media such as communication, identity and cyber bullying. Also by exploring both negative and positive sides of social media I was able to strengthen my argument against social media, that social media is anti-social.

When looking into making the familiar unfamiliar I found that I was doing this process to some extent already. However, since I was sick on the day we went over it in class I had to catch up with what we were doing/had to do for homework through stream and also a fellow class member. It would have been nice to participate in the class exercises but I feel I understand what is needed of me for this week.

Week One: Choosing a Topic and Initial Research

SOCIAL MEDIA IS ANTI-SOCIAL

To begin with, when I saw this statement I automatically disagreed with it as I think social media, when used to the best of its ability, can open up so many opportunities due to its connectivity it has around the globe. However, after some research into statistics and both the pros and cons of social media I began to lean more toward the anti-social side of the argument. Why I changed my mind was mainly due to the horrific on goings with cyber bullying that I never really deeply thought about up until now. I don't understand how people feel that it's ok to say such nasty and horrible things to a person over the internet that they would never dream of saying to someones face. Why does social media create the sense of disconnection between users and allow them to dehumanise each other?