Week 2.2

Rhetorical Analysis of Posters

This poster uses juxtaposition as it is a women pulling a finger on the front cover of the magazine. And then you notice that it's not actually the middle finger. I think there's an element of satire here too. The fundamental design principles used are scale, symmetry and contrast.

This poster is definitely satire, and probably parody to some sort of war or army poster. The FDPs used are contrast, asymmetry and movement. The style has played a role in catching out the viewer, as when I first saw this I thought it was going to say something along the lines of "we want you", but then it says penis in huge letters. This made me stop, laugh, and then read the rest of it.

This is satire again, to make Trump look like Hitler. The FDPs used are white space, symmetry, scale and contrast. The tone of this poster is quite somber, it's ironic in a dark way. It makes me feel quite worried for the future, which I'm sure was the intent of the designer.

This is juxtaposition. It has paired a quick sketch of a fish with an image of dry, cracked ground that could be a desert. The FDPs used are contrast and white space. The tone of the image is sad, as it talks about the problems with the earth, especially due to global warming.

Research

I like the poster because it showcases the amount of tampons that people use during their lifetimes. I could use this idea with my stat "The average person uses approximately 11,000 tampons during their reproductive years." 

‘What Is the Tampon Tax?’ Lunette New Zealand, https://lunette.co.nz/blogs/news/what-is-the-tampon-tax. Accessed 29 July 2020.

Emma Evelyn Speight, for Every Month Manchester
https://www.themeteor.org/2018/07/17/the-hidden-shame-of-period-poverty/

I find this poster important because in my research I have discovered that these items are all things that people who cannot afford to buy period products will use instead of. I also like that the poster has no text on it describing what the issue is. I could take just one of these items and blow it up to make it the focal point of the poster.

Illustration by Jeannie Phan

https://medium.com/@alolikaspeaks/understanding-period-poverty-are-we-doing-enough-2db1c6a26b36

I really love this idea of period items being a luxury. I think it's a really smart way of showing this idea although I don't think this particular illustration would work on a poster as it is too detailed and would not be easily deciphered when someone is far away.

Illustration by Daisy Bernard via babe.net

https://www.verveup.com/shesaid/period-poverty-why-were-getting-our-bloody-brunch-on-my-bloody-galentine-2019

This illustration is in the same style as the previous one and it is showing the same idea too.

Copyright: © Louiewarner 

This is a completely different graphic style, but one that I want to explore. I like the idea of using typography as image, and I think it can be really strong and eye catching, especially since lots of posters use images. It therefore contrasts, and makes it more memorable.

Philippe Apeloig. "Crossing The Line." Fiaf Fall Festival, 2010, https://collection.cooperhewitt.org/objects/35460847/

This is another example I like of typography as image.

https://www.pinterest.nz/pin/470415123575210259/
Unfortunately this was an image I found on pinterest, and I can't find the source or the artist of this poster. I like how they have put a block of black on top of the words, it almost looks like it has been rephotographed with the black rectangle on top.

Iterations and Thought Processes

Playing with the 11,000 tampons stat idea. Could colour in half of them to show that 1 in 2 women have found it difficult to access sanitary items due to cost.

For this one I was thinking I could discuss how period products are treated like luxury items, whereas condoms are often given out for free even though sex is a non-obligatory, optional activity. A period is non-optional.

For this poster I was thinking of going down the lines of using typography as an image, and riffing off the purple sunflowers poster I referenced previously. I was going to have it saying "PERIOD POVERTY' repeatedly but Donald said that something more subtle like 'ABSENT' would be more influential and interesting.

 Trying different colours, along with a ripped piece of paper that I put filters on top of to seem more graphic. I also used a halftone in the background to give it some more dimension and depth.

Playing with greyscale here.

Taking down the graphic filters a notch on the paper, adding a logo and the rest of the text.

Deciding on new colours with the gradient scale. Blue and yellow doesn't really fit the vibe, I tried purple and pinks too but this wasn't right either.

Red and blue looks good.

Playing with the different placements of the paper and sizes of the text.

Ripped paper at the bottom.

Reverting back to the original placement.

This is the poster that I handed in.

Week 2: Lab

 In today's lab we looked at halftones, as well as exporting as tifs.

Week 2.1

In Class Exercises

Iterations with proverbs

Bite off more than you can chew

Cleanliness is next to godliness

Daily Exercise

Using the statistic from the KidsCan survey:
33% of kiwi women have had to choose food over sanitary items and the proverb I was given in class 'Bite off more than you can chew'.

This iteration works well for these two ideas I want to combine.

Sourcing images from Unsplash:

Photo by Mae Mu on Unsplash

This will be the first image I try my idea on, but if it doesn't work I have sourced another image of a burger to fall back on.

Photo by Daniel Ore on Unsplash

Photo by Erol Ahmed on Unsplash
This is a photo I didn't save to use for anything in particular, but one that I found striking and potentially interesting for my topic. I like the idea of a popsicle melting looks like a tampon.

Photo by Gabrielle Rocha Rios on Unsplash
This is another photo I found while searching through the list, I'm not planning on using it but I saved it for inspiration. I think the idea of writing on a pad in real life and photographing that, instead of writing on it later in photoshop is really cool.

To begin with, I cut the sandwich in half in photoshop and then brought the two halves onto an A1 page also in photoshop. There I began to play with the idea of a pad being in the sandwich instead of a slice of meat or something similar.

I could have continued with the pad theme and tried to draw it better but I thought I might have a play with replacing a pad with tampons. I did this because it might be more obvious what it was because tampons have strings and it's pretty easy to tell what they are supposed to be, compared to a floppy looking thing.

Here was what it looked like with tampons inside, I much preferred this for the above reasons. My next step was to bring it into InDesign where I could begin to put text on the poster.

Here I was mainly figuring out what I wanted to say, as well as having a look at a few different fonts.

I got rid of the words 'period poverty' because I wanted the metaphor to speak for itself, and readers to find out more in the small text underneath.

Changing fonts because I felt like the first was a little too 'silly' or 'not serious' for the topic. Also utilising scale more and making the sandwich bigger to take up the whole page. This grabs the attention more.

Trying out red because we are talking about blood.

Deciding against the red title because I didn't think it stood out enough, the white does that well. I put the smaller text in red because it hides it a bit more so the eye doesn't get drawn there first. I also wanted to keep some of the text red to draw on those period associations.

Now I had all the elements and colours I wanted, the last step was to figure out exactly where on the page I wanted everything.

This was the one I decided on.

I tried having the layout completely different because sometimes the things I think won't look good are actually the best ideas. In this case though I think the previous iteration was stronger because the burger gets lost down the bottom and the title is the first thing to catch the eye. I think it's important the image is the focal point because then it catches you out, it makes you stop and think why is there a tampon sandwich? What is the point of this?

So far out of the 3 posters we have done, this is definitely my strongest. I didn't really know how to use metaphor to say something and the first two posters were really literal compared to this. This is a technique I really want to develop further because I think it is so strong, and immediately takes a poster from one level to the next.

Research

Article written by university lecturers, has statistics and facts.

Associate Professor Terryann Clark School of Nursing, University of Auckland says 19% of Maori youth have experienced period poverty and 16% have missed school because they couldn't afford menstrual products. This research is from the Youth19 survey, which aims to collect data on a range of issues affecting New Zealand youth.

https://www.schoolnews.co.nz/2020/03/period-poverty-contributing-to-inequity-in-nz/

Kidscan survey with hard facts and statistics. Other blogs and articles often reference this.

Almost a quarter of New Zealand women (more than 5000 surveyed) have missed school or work because they have been unable to afford sanitary items.

51.3% said they had found it difficult to access sanitary items due to cost at some point

1 in 2 kiwi women have found it difficult to access sanitary items due to cost

1 in 5 kiwi women have missed school or work due to a lack of sanitary items

More than 33% of kiwi women have had to choose food over sanitary items

One in three respondents said they had had to prioritise buying other items, like food, over sanitary items. When they couldn’t afford them, most (53.8%) resorted to toilet paper, but 7.7% had used rags, 3% old cloths and many mentioned using disposable or cloth nappies.
29% of under 17 year olds have missed school or work due to not having access to sanitary items

Some of the respondents comments:
“Too expensive and often babies nappies and formula came first. Have used a disposable nappy more than once at night.”
“We had to use a pad for an entire day to make them last and not go out for fear of leakage.”
“Single mama. Bills to pay food to buy. Can only afford to buy when they are on special.”
“I have to sacrifice a day or two of food to be able to afford what many call ‘a female luxury’”
“It’s a luxury item for us, and our kids come first... I’ll just fold a length of loo paper”
“Condoms are given out like confetti but why not menstrual items?”
“When my daughter got her period I made sure she got pads and I had no money left when it was my turn.”

https://www.kidscan.org.nz/news/kidscan-survey-exposes-extent-of-period-poverty-in-new-zealand?gclid=CjwKCAjw0_T4BRBlEiwAwoEiAb9xHHnrqMxqzbZ7QCPdHsAd6uTpPr2STeQcsmF6gB9MKbAMJIh3HhoCtPsQAvD_BwE

Artist Model

I looked at a book by designer Tony Arefin. I will include some photos I took from the book of his work that I particularly love.

For the magic box series, I love the use of type and the font over top of the image.

This is such a nice composition and contrast of colours.

I love the diptych/series look with these ones. And especially the scribbly scrawl of yellow handwriting over top of the flower image.

The repeating type is so nice here, although I actually almost want more colour.