Week 6 Monday 21/08/2017

Today I got some final feedback on my posters. My strongest two are the silhouette and the Barbie advert one. I have been doing some iterations on how I can combine type the ith image more cohesively as they look a bit awkward at the moment. 

Week 5 Monday 14/0/2017

Today we had our second interim presentation. These are the posters I presented and the feedback I got. Most of my feedback was positive which means my idea, concept and strategies are clear. The only criticism I got was to remove some of my body copy as it is too long. Some more constructive feedback on how I can improve my compositions would have been helpful.

I am still undecided which 2 posters I am going to refine because I also like the Barbie box idea.

Week 4 Thursday 10/08/2017

After receiving some feed back from my latest strategies my strongest 3 are the silhouette, mirror and box. I realise I need some sort of call to action that inspires the viewer to want to help domestic violence. I think the headline it's time to stop playing pretend" works well to clearly define the issue that domestic violence needs to stop as well as tying in the Barbie metaphor well. In my body copy, I need to add a strong statistic to back up my point as well as some sort of statement about supporting women's refuge or are you ok. These are some developments of my 3 possible strategies.

Critique of Interim Posters

I have analysed my interim posters and looked at the strengths and weaknesses of each. This will hopefully help me decide which concept to take further and develop more.

Strengths:

The Barbie box appeals emotionally to people because a well-known icon is abused.  Using pastiche to imitate the Barbie box creates a juxtaposition with the distressed Barbie inside. The hand over her mouth symbolises the man controlling her and keeping her quiet about the abusive relationship. This also juxtaposes with the fact that her mouth is covered but suggests women have a voice too and should speak up about domestic violence.

Weaknesses:

There is no direct reference to domestic violence. A quote or statistic could be used to really clarify the issue. The Barbie box is also just floating in space, it could be on a coloured background or in a setting. 

Strengths:

Barbie and ken are good symbolism for that “perfect” lifestyle. The “Dream house” suggests the idea that everyone wants a lifestyle like them but this then juxtaposes with the abused Barbie and the words in the speech bubbles. The bright pink background is attention grabbing. Using pastiche to imitate a Barbie advertisement but replacing the words with contrasting sayings is powerful in sending the message.

Weaknesses:

It looks a little messy and overcrowded. I could possibly put them into a box or as TV advertisement. Simplifying it down would also help the aesthetics. 

Strengths:

Using pastiche to rip off the dress meme adds some humour and acts as a metaphor to represent domestic violence. The words work well to tie in the context. It grabs the attention of the younger audience and resonates well with a younger audience.

Weaknesses:

This one is very age specific. People over 30 may not understand this concept because it was a meme on Facebook. If I were to use this idea I could add a statistic about young people and domestic violence to add some context to it and relate specifically to young people. I'm not sure how this concept could be used in a second poster.

Strengths:

Similar to the Barbie one, it is taking the perfect life metaphor and contrasting that with the abused face. The mugshot background acts as a symbol for being trapped/imprisoned in a violent relationship. The juxtaposition between the fairy tale façade and the reality of violence is very effective. Seeing sleeping beauty out of the fairy tale context is effective in making the audience feel uncomfortable.

Weaknesses:

I think Barbie and Princesses act as the same metaphor so I need to choose one or the other. Some statistics could help give the audience some validity because it could seem quite subjective.

Week 3 Monday 31/07/2017

Today we had the interim critique. These were the concepts I presented. From my feedback, the strongest 3 ideas were the Barbie box, the Barbie and Ken and the blue and black dress. My central issue was very clear and easy to identify. The juxtaposition between Barbie,/princess and the violence works very well to produce a powerful poster. I didn't get any negative feedback which means my ideas are clear but I also am unsure what I need to work on. The images need to be refined and I am still unsure how to create a good relationship between text and image. My favourite ones are the Barbie and the blue/black dress. To decide between the two concepts I need to do some more thumb nailing and see which one works best.

Precedents:

Week 1 Monday 17/07/2017

Understand: 

Today we went through the brief so that we are clear on the requirements of this project. We then did a group exercise that involved identifying the Ihi and Wehi components of a set of images. This was very helpful to gain a deeper understanding of the two concepts Ihi and Wehi. It was helpful to determine how the designer has used rhetoric and other characteristics to create feelings and emotional responses in the viewer. Looking at these images will be helpful when I create my own posters as I can see which techniques were successful. 


Below are the answers my group thought of. 

For homework, I have been researching artist models and posters about inequality. I have also done a brainstorm of all the inequalities in New Zealand. I am still undecided which path I want to take at this stage. 
                             
I have also included my 3 image observations of Ihi and Wehi that I did for homework using the exercise template we did in class.

I also did the recommended reading by Maz Rashbrooke, The Inequality Debate: an Introduction. And I have written down some key comments he made in his book that could be useful for this assignment. 

•       Rising income inequality in many developed nations is a source of growing international concern. Large income disparities pose serious economic, political and social risks, and raise acute ethical challenges.
• ·         The diverse range of contributors reflects the complex shape of income inequality in New Zealand, spanning education, housing, crime, welfare, work, international contexts and the experiences of Māori and Pacific peoples.
• ·         ‘Behind the statistics are real people who are to varying degrees experiencing the stressful and demoralising exclusion from ordinary life that financial strictures and moral hardship bring.’
• ·         how income inequality affects people across the country; and what the consequences might be if this divergence persists. Woven into this story are many kinds of inequality: of opportunity, of status, of rights, of participation.
• ·         ‘we have to raise poverty, to understand that poverty has direct impacts on society, not simply because we pay for it but because we will keep paying for it over time. Deep poverty is not a temporary event.’ 10 This deep poverty has long been a crisis for New Zealand,
• ·         Continuing structural discrimination in public services means Māori are less likely to be treated for similar health conditions even when they have the same need as Pākehā.
• ·         Income inequality is also apparent when comparing the incomes of women and men in New Zealand. Over the second half of the twentieth century, the average income for all women (including those not in paid work) as a percentage of men’s increased from around 20 per cent in 1951 to around 60 per cent in 1991 – but has stalled at that level ever since. 29 There are complex reasons for this disparity. While the number of women in paid work has increased, the care of children and other family responsibilities take women (more often than men) out of the paid workforce for long periods. This affects women’s incomes in a number of ways over time. Women also do significantly larger amounts of unpaid domestic work than men, as Marilyn Waring set out so plainly in Counting for Nothing.
• ·         Because of the constraints of childcare and interruptions to their career, many women are forced to accept part-time, low-paid or low-status work.
• ·         Low-decile schools report many children coming to school without being properly fed, or without adequate clothes – again, because their parents, even when working, don’t earn enough to pay for these basic necessities.
• ·         The argument for reducing differences (in this case, for reducing income inequality) has strong ethical foundations, grounded in the idea that all human beings ‘are equal in some fundamental respect’, as Jonathan Boston outlines in his contribution to Inequality . People’s ability ‘to participate fully in their society and enjoy a sense of belonging’ is especially important. While people have a responsibility to contribute to society, they also have a right to share in the rewards of the society that they have helped create.
• ·         Social mobility does not reduce the number of people in poverty if pay rates remain low: as people move ‘up the ladder’, others will simply take their places in poorly paid jobs.
• ·         Focusing only on equality of opportunities also overlooks the fact that we cannot separate opportunity from income. When people have hugely different incomes, they have different opportunities – and these differences can persist through generations. Children from high-income families typically go to better-equipped schools than children from low-income families. 70 Geographic differences can define opportunities since communities with concentrated disadvantage often lack good healthcare facilities, access to affordable and healthy food, and well-supported schools.
• ·         If people’s incomes were a fair reflection of their worth (however measured) and the result of decisions they had made, income gaps could be seen as simply right and natural.
• ·         While it could be argued that some income gaps are justified on the basis of extra hard work, there is little evidence that people on lower incomes work less hard than those at higher levels.
• ·         And to take a very different social constraint, much of the work mentioned in this book is undervalued simply because it has traditionally been carried out by women.
• ·         A growing body of evidence demonstrates that unequal societies are less functional, less cohesive and less economically sound than their more equal counterparts – and that these weaknesses are felt widely.
• ·         more equal societies are likely to have more social cohesion – people feel they have more in common with each other, and are more trusting.
• ·         $76,000. 1 Anyone earning above that is richer than 90 per cent of the country.
• ·         A single person household disposable income in this group of $12,000 a year in 1984 has risen to just $14,000 a year in 2013. And if housing costs are deducted from those figures, these households actually have less money to spend than they did in the mid 1980s.
• ·         The word ‘fairness’ has many inflections, and it is telling that a key phrase in New Zealand’s history has not been ‘a fair society’, which might imply something about equality of incomes, but a ‘fair go’, which hints at being given a chance – and then being left to get on with it.
• ·         Rather than reduce income gaps directly, the current government appears to be focused on equalising opportunities