Defining the brief - Study Task 03

Thinking of a research topic that I will enjoy researching and writing about.

• Protest Posters
• Themes- Society/Politics/Culture - Public Awareness/ Print making.
• What is there to study? - Many different past protest that uses posters on paper and material, leaflets and online.
• E.g Miners Strike, Student Protests, Suffragette Strikes.
• Look at the differences between types of protests and who they are aimed at with design choices. If there is on screen design.

Defining the design problem

• I can pick a current event and design protest posters  to help there campaign
• Current Events - Brexit, NHS Nurses etc.
• Mandatory requirements, Must be easy to reproduce, must include catchy slogan/tag line, must portray strong message that is easy to understand.
• Large Target Audience. (Media,Politicians)

I can look at 

• Protest Graphics in the 21st century (website)
• Visual Impact by Liz McQuiston
• Graphic Agitation by  Liz McQuiston
• In Loving memory of work

Jameson and Hutcheon - Pastiche - Study Task 02

Fredrick Jameson
Idiosyncratic - Unusual or individual
Stupendous Proliferation - Amazing Increase
What is it about ?
Pastiche- 'Pastiche is like a parody, the imitation of a peculiar unique, idiosyncratic style, the wearing of a linguistic mask, speech in a dead language.'
Parody - ' Ulterior motives' Comedic viewpoint
He like to challenge
Extracting signs from their originated place in time... and ultimately their meaning
Example - Postmodern architecture

Linda Hutcheon
'It takes the form of self-conscious, self contradictory, self undermining statement.''
'Ironic re-readigng of the past'
Parody-Repetition with critical difference
Parody + Pastiche are the same

My Opinion
I agree with Linda Hutcheon on that Pastiche and Parody is important and does look at the past. I disagree that Jameson rejects it and says that it is wrong.

Fredrick Jameson has a strong opinion on parody and pastiche stating that 'Pastiche is like a parody, the imitation of a peculiar unique, idiosyncratic style, the wearing of a linguistic mask, speech in a dead language.'(Jameson) he likes to challenge capitalists with his views. a good example of pastiche resonantly is the Netflix show stranger things that became very popular due to its title sequence which brought a sense of nostalgia from the 1980s. Contradicting Jameson is Linda Hutcheon who thinks that he is narrow-minded for thinking that pastiche is a bad thing on the past. She says that parody and pastiche are the same and thinks that parody is positive as it is a 'Ironic re-reading of the past' (Hutcheon) a good example of this is stranger and stranger product designers which take influence from victorian culture and let us see what packaging and production was like from the past.

Triangulating Texts - Study Task 01

Reading 3 Texts I made these notes.

Primary Text
L Mulvey Women as Image, man as bearer of the look
Mulvey is a feminist film theorist

• Males are Active, females are Passive
• A women preforms within a narrative, the gaze of a spectator.
• focuses on heterosexual desire
• Women don't have a penis, This makes them seem like less of a person
• 'The Male Gaze' 

J Storey Cine Psychoanalysis

Storey is a author and academic. He has a neutral opinion on Mulveys opinion.

• He simplifies what Mulvey says and helps highlight information
• He talks about how Mulvey invites Scopophilia and promotes Narcissism.
• Popular cinema is structured around moments: Moments of narrative and moments of spectator
•  Both sexes play to the male desire 

R Dyer Stars and Spectators

Dyer is an author and academic who disagrees with Mulvey

• Mulvey does not take into account that people who watch are not just heterosexual men 
• Men can also be objectified

Laura Mulvey writes about the Male Gaze talking about the focus on Heterosexual desire in cinema. She states that 'A women preforms within a narrative, the gaze of the spectator and that of the male characters in the film are neatly combined without breaking narrative verisimilitude.'(Mulvey) John Storey helps highlight Mulvey's idea that cinema invites Scopophilia and promotes Narcissism. 'Popular cinema is structured around two moments: Moments of narrative and moments of spectator'(Storey) In cinema Mulvey talks about the audience being heterosexual males however Richard Dyer argues her claims stating that Mulvey does not take into account all the audience and men to can also be objectified. 'Richard Dyer explores a similar disavowed of the look by highlighting how male pinups appear in the image to be looking in ways which suggest they are not erotic object.'(Dyer) 

OUGD401 Evaluation

This module has helped me to understand graphic design at a deeper level and gain knowledge on how it has effected past political and social events. I really enjoy looking into the history of design especially WW2 which has always been an interest of mine. A weak point of mine has always been writing essay's critically however this module has made writing an essay a more easy task through study tasks. I found the Cop lectures in this module both interesting and important to my development in this module and my others. I really enjoyed the practical aspect of this module because I could use my research and essay to help inform my design decisions which I believe made my outcome better than what it would have been prior to writing the essay. I also was able to screen print my outcome which worked better than digital print and I found this was also good for mass production. Next year for cop I will explore more to do with my interests in publication design.

Final Outcome and Evaluation

Overall I think that my final outcome is strong as a piece of propaganda, I used influences for WW2 propaganda to make a modern day design be strong and powerful. I picked a topic that has been a focus in the media and a subject that is controversial as my subject as I wanted to focus or a current affair and make a poster that can help people be safe. My choice of image stands out and represents that true person who is behind the culture and religion. I experimented with colour until I found the blues that represented the message I wanted to put across. I put my statements in the font Avenir Next Bold as I wanted it to stand out and be easy to read from afar. I also wanted my statements to be straight to the point and not take much attention away from my image along with the use of white space. The production method of screen printing also means my poster can be reproduced in mass at a lower cost on any paper or material. Overall my modern day propaganda poster turned out as planned and I would work well in modern urban environments.

How my Poster links to WW2 Propaganda

There are many links in my propaganda poster to the propaganda used in WW2 England and Germany. Something that I found in my essay that I found important to include in my own propaganda was a memorable slogan, propaganda's purpose is to put across a strong message. The statements tell you what is expected and what you must follow and never seem like an opinion. Thats why I made my states 'Syrian Refugees Welcome' and 'Everyone deserves a home' as if they are true facts, when it is known that everyone in the UK does not believe in this or want them in the UK.  WW2 Propaganda could also be controversial in its purpose, this was something I targeted when showing the Niqab and the girl behind it. This meant that my poster was not just showing immigration but about the UK's problem with muslim headwear.
Something else that stood out in WW2 propaganda was the use of people on the posters usually of leaders, soldiers or more interestingly Aryan Children. I decided to use the image of a muslim to mirror how Germans used the image of a perfect Aryan child. This is how I used my essay and research into WW2 propaganda to inform my design choices on a modern day propaganda poster for a modern day cause.

Screen Printing My Posters

I made my design into two layers for the two shades of blue and printed them as Key Black ready to expose onto my screen.

I mixed my inks to make a light and dark blue. I thought it best to print the light blue layer first as I did not want to print over my dark blue text. It was my first time print screening and I did come across some problems of printing the niqab first so when I lined up and printed the second layer the text would not fit on the paper, However some of the posters did turn out as planned. I choose quick thick white stock and printed around A3 as I wanted to create bigger prints. I could also print in other sizes if I need to.