Week Six: Poster Presentation

Week Six: Final Posters and Rationale

  

Rationale

This poster set aims to raise awareness about the increasing number of New Zealanders that are affected by homelessness, specifically focusing on the large number of people living in cars. The ‘Home Sweet Home’ car-park poster uses contrast, as the poster is primarily black and white but with brightly coloured text. I have chosen to colour the text in this way to make it resemble the yellow road lines. Also the text introduces an element of bright colour that helps to make the poster stand out. This poster has an interesting hierarchy as the first element I wanted the viewer to see is the ‘Home Sweet Home,’ however the bright yellow text created some challenges. I achieved the desired hierarchy by placing the text sideways and making the ‘Home Sweet Home’ quite large. To make this poster I used physical techniques of drawing the car-park outlines and text onto concrete using chalk, this gave the poster a greater sense of texture and feeling, allowing the audience to connect with it on a more visceral level rather than simply using vector lines. For my second poster I have created a parody of the Harcourts For Sale signs. I have employed the colour scheme of the Harcourts posters but altered the blue slightly to ensure that the poster will stand out. As this design is created using the style of For Sale posters, it has a clear visual hierarchy, first the eye is drawn to the image as it is the largest element and then in accordance with a western world view the poster is read left to right top to bottom. This poster is not symmetrical but due to the clear style, elements such as the blue and grey lines that cross the entire page and the image layout it is balanced. This design works off a 2:3 ratio with two thirds of the poster as text and one third as an image.

Week Six: Posters on Poster Wall

Week Five: Rationale Draft

Notes from Lecture
Aim: Elaborate the issue and put it into context.
Concept: Why is this a problem? Importance, relevance and potential outcomes.
Strategy: Method of presentation, detailed description of what you did.

Rationale Draft

This poster set aims to raise awareness about the increasing number of New Zealanders that are homeless, specifically focusing on the large number of people living in cars.

The ‘Home Sweet Home’ carpark poster uses contrast as the poster is primarily black and white but with brightly coloured text. I have chosen to colour the text in this way to make it resemble the yellow road lines. Also the text introduces an element of bright colour that helps to make the poster stand out. This poster has an interesting hierarchy as the first element I wanted the viewer to see is the “Home Sweet Home,” however the fact that the text is bright yellow meant that it was difficult to ensure, however, I achieved this by placing the text sideways. To make this poster I used physical techniques by drawing out the car park out likes and text onto concrete using chalk, this gave the poster a greater sense of feeling allowing the audience to connect with it more rather than simply using vector lines.

For my second poster I have created a (parody, irony or satire?) of the Harcourts for sale signs.  For this poster I have used the colour scheme of the Harcourts posters but altered the blue slightly to ensure that the poster will stand out. As this design is created using the style of for sale posters it has a clear visual hierarchy, first the eye is drawn to the image as it is the largest element and then in accordance with a western world view the poster is read left to right top to bottom. Again due to the design this poster does not incorporate a sense of movement. This poster is not symmetrical but due to the clear style, elements such as the blue and grey lines that cross the entire page and the image layout it is balanced. This design works off a 2:3 ratio with two thirds of the poster as text and one third as an image.

Week Four: Photographs

To improve my car park design I am looking at physically drawing out the parks, I tried this using chalk on concrete and a black board and also by painting. For my real-estate parody poster I would like to consider using photographs rather than the line drawings so I also took some photographs of a car.

Week Four: Concept Development

At the beginning of class week four I showed the first two concepts, the main feedback was that the designs should both be portrait as very few posters are designed in landscape. I then continued the development of my designs and tried some different compositions for the car park one. The last two concepts are the most developed from this selection.

Week Three: Research

To help with my design I have looked at some New Zealand real-estate companies For Sale Signs. I would like to continue my design by creating a parody of one of the signs.

Week Three: Alternative Visual Solutions

Aim: To raise awareness about the increasing number of New Zealanders who are homeless and as a result are living in cars.

Concept: I will communicate my aim by using a saying such as "Home Sweet Home," or having items that are associated with the home in a car.

From these designs I think that the third strategy is the most effective and would like to develop it further by looking at real-estate company signs to make my idea clearer. The third design is currently very basic but I want to try adding some context by adding additional car parks. Both of these designs will also be improved through the use of colour and work on the text.

Week Three: Exploration

 After the critique I decided to look at a new direction for my designs focusing more specifically on homeless people living in cars. To start this I have done a couple of line drawings that I would like to incorporate into my work.

Week Four: Exploring Grid and A2

 This week I began putting my designs into Adobe Indesign using the full size (A2) and ensuring that my designs fitted a grid.

Week Three: Feedback From Interim Presentation

Unclear message in first design as the text says that homelessness is not a black and white issue, when really it is.

Second design does communicate the message but is very boring and an expected approach using houses as part of an infographic.

Third design is the most effective as it has some sense of movement, but is too general andneeds to be more specific.

Fourth design it is not clear enough  that the cardboard is part of a box, again too much text and the house shape is unecessary.

All the designs rely heavily on the text, they should be focused more on the image instead.

To move forward try looking at things that people associate with their homes e.g. house plants, clothing, toothbrushes etc. Choose a more specific topic: Homeless people living in cars.

Week Two: Exploring Type

Week Two: Random Input Task

For the random input task I was given the words dove and net and the saying "a feather in ones cap." To begin the task I explored the meaning of the individual elements a net could suggest being trapped or catching, a dove is commonly known to represent peace or freedom. Through my sketches I explored combining these elements to communicate my chosen issue of homelessness. For the second part of the task I explored the idea that a "feather in ones cap," meant an achievement to be proud of so for my ideas I used irony by showing people begging for a feather, a feather being out of reach or contrasting people with lots of feathers and a person begging for a feather.

Week Two: Association and Representation

In class today we explored the use of images as symbols and how symbols can be used to give meaning.

Image 1: Stairs, cracks, snake,
Image 2: Rook, castle,
Image 3: Crown, royalty, power,
Image 4: Break down of power,
Image 5: Break down of the crown,
Image 6: Break down of communism, or the rise of communism taking over from the crown,
Image 7: The privilege of power held by the crown,
Image 8: The rise of Punk culture,

Week Two: Statistics or Information

64% of homeless people are Maori, Pacific or from other minority ethnicity.
52% of all homes in New Zealand are rented.
1 in 10 homeless people live in a car, on the street or other improvised dwellings.
Homelessness is caused by poverty, domestic violence, physical and sexual abuse, unemployment, lack of affordable housing, addiction etc.

I would like to explore using these statistics to inform my poster concepts and the content on them.

Week One: Research Links

Web Links
Homelessness – the invisible housing problem
http://nzccss.org.nz/work/poverty/the-real-housing-affordability-issues/homelessness-the-invisible-housing-problem/

The young and the homeless: New Zealand’s big human rights fail
https://thespinoff.co.nz/society/18-01-2017/homelessness-new-zealands-big-human-rights-fail/

Homelessness in New Zealand
https://www.parliament.nz/en/pb/research-papers/document/00PLEcoRP14021/homelessness-in-new-zealand

Readings

Indigenous Homelessness: New Zealand Context

https://www.google.co.nz/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0ahUKEwjXqvGZ0rnVAhXCsJQKHWUqBZgQFggnMAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.communityhousing.org.nz%2FDownloads%2FAssets%2FDownload%2F21047%2F1%2FGroot%2520indigenous%2520homelessness.pdf&usg=AFQjCNHM1o84-CTKgH9XONpjoXlL5BIcqg

The production of homelessness: From individual failure to system inadequacies

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02673038908720665

Images from the Streets: Art for Social Change from the Homelessness Photography

http://www.jstor.org/stable/29768374

Responding to Indigenous Homelessness in Aoteroa New Zealand
https://static1.squarespace.com/static/57176f9f20c6478937696378/t/587ee0c746c3c40b372cae33/1484710088391/ProblemDefinition-GrootMace.pdf

Making the invisible visible: A Photovoice exploration of homeless women’s health and lives in central Auckland
http://www.sciencedirect.com.ezproxy.massey.ac.nz/science/article/pii/S0277953610008233?via%3Dihub

Week One: Word Lists

Week Two: Sayings, Facts, Statistics Homework

Possible sayings, facts or statistics for poster:
64% of all homeless people are Maori, Pacific or from other minority groups
52% of all homes in New Zealand are not inhabited by their owner
52% of all homes in New Zealand are rented
1 in 10 homeless people live on the street, in a car or other improvised dwellings
Stop the cycle of homelessness! (Poverty, domestic violence, physical and sexual abuse, unemployment, lack of affordable housing, addiction, etc)
1 in 100 people in New Zealand are homeless
New Zealand has the worst rates of homelessness in the developed world
More than 40,000 people are homeless in New Zealand
More than half of all homeless people in New Zealand are under 25
A safe home is a fundamental right