Instructions given
"Use photography and type to produce a poster campaign for two of the following awareness lufting campaigns. In corporate the logo (if applicable) and tag line into the design.
My two choces were
The Enviroment Agency.
keyword - pollutin
Tag line - diabolical, dirty and dangerous
All High Street Charity Shops.
Keyword - promote
tag line - Charity Chic - clothes by . . .
For both these themes, I had immediate ideas of what visual image I wanted to create. Stewart told us he would be happy if for each option, we came up with one poster that fulfilled the purpose, and that which could be used as a format for several other posters in the campaign.
For The Environment Agency, the tag line to me seemed very strong, and I wanted that to form an important part of the finished poster - the three words instantly gave me the idea of using a tryptic approach - 3 similar, linked images - in this case, one to accompany each word in the tagline. I also considered what type of pollution to feature, and decided on litter pollution, as that seems to be a growing problem these days. The words in the tag line were applicable - diabolical - yes, in terms of the environmental impact and damage . Dirty - yes, its an absolute eyesore, whether in rural or urban settings and encourages vermin. Dangerous - again, yes, the danger to wild life just from waste plastic like bags or drink can holders is immense.
Its sad that it actually took me very little time to find 3 suitable images - I merely walked around an urban shopping center, and within a very short space of time, I had 3 images that would work, of dumped rubbish. These images by themselves may not have the visual impact that can accompany other types of pollution - say an oil slick or polluted stream - but using them was deliberate on my part, to try and get across the message that no form of pollution is without impact or is ever acceptable. I hoped that by combining the images with the tag line, and using appropriate text, I would get this message across clearly.
I dropped the 'and' from the tag line, as after consulting with Stewart, he agreed it wasn't necesary and detracted from the balance of the poster. I felt it was appropriate to use the logo, but changed the colour to compliment the final image.
The finished poster
My second choice took more research and work, but I really enjoyed doing it. I have always liked the fashion images created by the likes of David Bailey in the 60's - and I thought a similar apporach would emphasise a 'retro' feel that would work well in a campaign of this nature. I also changed the tag line, slightly, to 'Charity Shop Chic' - I felt this left the posters open to be used as a campaign by several different organisations.
I approached a local charity shop, Barnardo's, and need to say a big 'Thank you' to Jeanette, the manageress, who with one phone call obtained permission for me to use the premises for a shoot. She also, very kindly, allowed me to use a selection of the actual clothes in the shop, made changing facilities available, and allowed me to re-arrange and basically take over the place for several hours - she and her staff were incredibly obliging and helpful and made this a really enjoyable project to do .
My model is Emily, a long time friend, who was fantastic - she has little experience at modeling, but she was incredibly cooperative and patient and was great to work with.
I looked at a series of photographs from the 60's, that had the style I was hoping to emulate -
(Above images obtained from Google search for 'David Baileys Fashion shots from the 1960's')
I really enjoyed this shoot, comming up with lots of photographs that I really liked.
As can be seen, I experimented with both black and white, and selective colour - the black and white shots were an attempt to enhance a 'retro' feel, but I felt the selectively coloured ones had more of an impact . I wasn't 100% satisfied with these pictures though, so spoke to Stewart, who suggested that the text was way too intrusive, he said that the text could be a much smaller part of the finished image. I liked the contrast of this, in comparison to what I had done with the Environment agency work - the idea that the image would be strong enough to draw an audience in, and in them looking closer at the image, then the text would deliver the message - so back to the drawing board, and I pulled back the text on several images.
I much preferred the less intrusive text. I liked the poses Emily had used, and I felt that these combined with the angle of several of the shots had come close to getting the feel I wanted for the photographs. Emily had looked at the images I had given her, taken by Bailey, and I felt the expresion she had, in several of the pictures, was absolutely spot on. I really liked the fact that in all but the first very photographs I had taken, Emily was wearing clothes from the actual shop - down to the shoes and the jewellery and accessories, all were items for sale in Bernardo's .
This was my favourite of the photographs I got, and my first attempt at turning it into a poster.
However, I then felt there was 'too much' background, and that the colour of the text was too 'bold', so my final attempt -
I chose this photograph for several reasons - firstly, the outfit was exactly the sort of clothing that I felt would fit the 'chic' part of the tag line - I felt it was 'retro', yet fun and modern. I loved the pose - the movement in her hair as she jumped, and the motion blur of her feet made it interesting. The selective colour made Emily very much the central figure, drawing attention to what she was wearing, but there was enough of the background there to show clearly what the location was. I felt it had a 'fun' feel that would appeal to a lot of younger people, who may be shopping on a budget, so it would appeal also to their pockets - and I also felt that it would appeal to the more environmentally aware modern day customers, who on the whole, feel recycling is a good and necessary objective - it hopefully promotes the message that you can be environmentally responsible - and look good at the same time.
I also created posters using the actual tag line given in the brief - I really felt the 'changed' tag line looked better for the purpose of the poster, BUT, the brief was very specific. if I were presenting this work to a client, I would present the poster with tag line as specified, but I'd also have the other there, and should the opportunity present itself appropriately, I'd offer it as an alternative.
I enjoyed both of these assignements - it was interesting to use two different approaches to the design - text and image playing an equal role in one, and letting the image being the main focus in the other. It was also interesting to find that although I am very happy with both final pieces, the amount of work that went into them varied - despite having very clear idea's on what I wanted for both posters, it took longer and more work to get the Charity shop one 'right' - I guess thats a good lesson for how different assignements can work out in real life !
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