In Class Exercises
Fixing up the first poster
Rereading the article and pulling out a subheading from it to back up the main statement/title.
I'm not really happy with any of these updates but we had to move on in class.
Brainstorms
Our group brainstormed racial inequality within New Zealand.
Iterations
From these brainstorms we were asked to pick a specific topic to focus on while we were given two works for the quick fire iteration exercise. I picked gender inequality and from this, sanitary products. My two words were 'dog' and 'door'.
Daily Exercise
From the article, Why diversity matters (and no one should need to write this headline in 2020) by Leonie Hayden for Spinoff, I used what the author said about diversity not being a box to tick. Specifically, "It’s not a box ticking exercise. Being an active Treaty partner or an inclusive organisation takes time – years even."
I used a font I downloaded that reminded me of handwriting/pencil lines, as well as a quick sketch of a pencil that I did. I began with yellow because I think it's a strong colour that catches the eye. I was trying to imagine myself walking down the street and wondering which colour on a poster would best get my attention. Also I was planning on making the call for action a sentence saying 'run for your local MP position' or something along those lines. Because of this I didn't want the background to be red or blue because that represents labour and national in a political setting. Although yellow is the colour of the ACT party, I don't think most people will see the connotations between the two.
Research
The price of period products in New Zealand
This stuff article was my starting place for research. It briefly talked about how in April 2018, Pharmac rejected a funding bid for sanitary items and https://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/well-good/teach-me/91775660/counting-up-the-cost-of-your-sanitary-items
The first stuff article linked me to the one all about Pharmac and how they chose to reject the funding bid based on the grounds that menstruation is a normal bodily function. They did state though that for some people who have things like endometriosis, they may look at funding sanitary items for them in the future. https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/91695342/pharmac-rejects-funding-bid-for-sanitary-items-on-grounds?rm=m
I found an organisation's website called Dignity who are all about fighting period poverty in New Zealand. They run a buy-one-we-donate-one scheme so they can provide people in need with period products when they otherwise would have gone without. https://www.dignitynz.com/period-poverty
I found an article from Consumer about comparing the price of period products between supermarkets and other retailers around the country. It also debunked some myths around items such as period cups, and organic tampons all to do with TSS (Toxic Shock Syndrome). https://www.consumer.org.nz/articles/tampon-prices
This article was celebrating Countdown supermarkets because in July 2018, they reduced the prices of their own brand period products by up to 50%. They decided to do this because of the risks of period poverty in the country, and they didn't want to wait for the government to pass a law, they felt it was a really immediate, necessary action to take. This move is predicted to save New Zealand women around $750,000 a year which is an insane amount of money! https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/new-zealand-supermarket-sanitary-products/
From Dignity's website, I discovered some other organisations that tackle period poverty such as Go With The Flow and I really felt like they put into words something that is really important and shows the unfairness of the situation.
"We understand that whilst we’re reaching our target market, and offering an interim, temporary solution, we need to do and make more substantial changes to stop this issue being carried forward into future generations. We’re talking Government Funding and legislation changes. We want every person that has to endure a period, that is of menstruating age to have free access to clean, sterile, hygienic sanitary solutions – yup, we want to pull out the big guns. We figure, if there is free access to condoms for protection against sexual health related illnesses, for an elective, un-obligatory action (sexual intercourse), that supplies for your period, a non-optional issue, is a given right." https://letsgowiththeflowsite.wordpress.com/about/
The Wa Collective reduces the price of their period cups for students like us whenever someone buys one. They are working towards social change https://wacollective.org.nz/
Word List
Sanitary Equality
Period Poverty
Equity
Hygiene
Relief
Change
Pain, discomfort, inconvenience
Not medically necessary
Normal bodily function
Non-optional, obligatory, compulsory, mandatory, unavoidable, necessary
Safe menstrual hygiene
Toxic shock syndrome
Tampons, pads, liners, period cups, period underwear
Toilet paper, tissues, newspaper, socks, rags
Bleeding through, missing school, choosing between feeding your family or buying period items
Governmental legislation
Luxury
15% GST tax
Advocates
Social change
There should be no shame involved with periods
Pharmac
Funding
Unaffordable
Critical issue, health issue, social issue
Existing VCD Precedents on Period Poverty
Scott Knowles. 'Stomp Out Period Poverty'. Scott Knowles Design, https://scottknowles.co/stomp-out-period-poverty.
What rhetorical devices has the designer used?
I believe the designer has used dynamism, shown through the foot which looks like it is in the middle of a movement. The designer may have also used juxtaposition to create a new message. The slogan of the campaign is Stomp Out Period Poverty which is something I hadn't heard before researching it, and I found that because it was a new way to say the same idea, it was more interesting for me. Also, a foot is not something you would expect to see on a poster advocating for free period products.
How have they used fundamental design principles?
The designer has used scale to emphasis the message, as well as to bring attention to the foot. I think the posters contrast nicely between the background colour and the greyscale foot, and on top of all of this, the white text contrasts too. The repetition across all three posters works really well. The only changes are the colours, and the photograph of the foot. The placement and message stay the same which for me shows that the message isn't going to change.
What are the themes/content/tensions?
The poster shows a foot coming down in a stomp; it looks like it will stomp on the words. The spiral behind could be a bullseye to symbolise that this is what the aim is, or just an illustration to add to the movement of the piece. The feeling of the poster is quite light, probably because of the colour choices, even though the message is more serious. Perhaps because of the lightheartedness of the pastel-ish colours, it could mean people dismiss the posters as not important or not serious enough for them to care about. If an issue doesn't directly affect you, it can often take a lot to make you care about it.
Thinx2020. 'Campaign For Menstrual Equity'. Thinx / Thinx (BTWN) / Speax, https://www/shethinx.com/pages/thinx-thinx2020.
What rhetorical devices has the designer used?
I'm unsure as to what rhetorical devices the designer has used here. The posters are very plain and simple with text and no images. Perhaps they have used dynamism as there is a certain flow from top to bottom that draws the eye down through the text, which is achieved by varying the font. The 'There will be blood' poster is almost satire too.
How have they used fundamental design principles?
They have used scale to highlight the message, as this is the most important part of the poster. They have also used repetition across all the posters of the campaign, where they have taken the same colours and the same little scribbles and just changed the message. They have used alignment, wherein all the posters are centre aligned. This doesn't create a dynamic feeling but it makes it feel more stable.
What are the themes/content/tensions?
The theme across them all is getting rid of period poverty, they have just said it in a number of different ways which vary in interest.
I don't think these posters are very successful as I find them boring too look at, and the font of choice really doesn't work. I don't like how they have changed the font on each separate line. They should have just changed it for the bold, black words and left the rest the same. This would have created much more contrast between the text, and seeing as all they have is text I think this is really important. It also might have been nice to see the text at different alignments on the page instead of centre aligned as this feels a bit stale.
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