Final Major Project: It Is Time To Cancel Cancel Culture
Institution: Confetti Institute of Creative Technologies
Date: February - June 2022
The Brief: I was required to choose a contemporary social issue for my final major project, which I decided to base on cancel culture. This was because I was interested in the visual representations of cancel culture and wanted to explore it in my work.
Challenge: To find an alternative method to cancel culture, raising awareness about how it can impact a celebrity's mental health and wellbeing, free speech and their career.
Design Process
I started thinking about the visual representations of cancel culture and ripping came to my mind - the idea of not wanting something anymore, like a celebrity. I ended up coming across these pieces of artwork and being drawn to the textures created from the rips.
Inspiration
Designers: Harry Gruyaert & Yves Rulliere (From left to right)
https://tawandamashirifmp.wordpress.com/2015/02/24/decollage-research-developement/
Experimentation
Typography Ripping
The ripping in the artists' work inspired me to investigate ripping text because you would usually rip up and discard something you no longer want anymore, particularly when you are raging about something. I felt this tied into cancel culture, as for example, a canceller may rip up an paper article about celebrity to show they have stopped supporting a celebrity for wrongdoing.
Designers: Liam Hamill & Linder Sterling
As I experimented with ripping the text, I thought about collaging them onto cancelled celebrities’ bodies. This idea particularly referenced Liam’s work because he also juxtaposed text onto a body. Linder Sterling collaged an object onto female body. I explored this idea later on in this project.
Colour psychology
I was thinking about the colour psychology of mental health, to reflect cancel culture damaging celebrities' mental health because they can feel everyone is against them online.
Spray-paint and Celebrity Anonymity Investigation
I thought of spraypainting cancel over my experiments because it gave the impression of standing up against cancel culture as a community. I also wanted to make it clear to my audience that I want to end cancel culture.
Research into James Charles and Chrissy Teigen
I experimented with concealment to reflect a celebrity being crossed out after being cancelled. I decided to go with the last two collages because the celebrities have went through mental health issues, making the audience more likely to trust that cancel culture can damage celebrities' mental health. However, I thought of selecting James Charles with a quote about his mental health for my final design, as he was a young person, which will raise awareness of how it can be more serious for a young person, since they are not being allowed to learn from their mistakes.
Designers: Jamie Reid and Simon Hayes
Jamie Reid's design work for the Sex Pistol's album God Save the Queen and the other illustration tied in well with cancel culture, as the mouth was covered. This was because it linked to the idea of people being afraid to express their views because they may offend someone and get cancelled for it. These works have inspired me to also experiment with censorship. However, I planned on using a clothing rag to make paint marks that could be used as a rough line and made into a cross for covering over a book and megaphones. I also thought of having text that says, "uncancel free speech" in normal text.
Censorship Experimentation
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Christine_Teigen_2012_Shankbone_3.JPG
An Alternative To Cancel Culture
I researched an alternative to cancel culture discovering that they are calling in calling out culture courses that help people talk to a person about their behaviour rather public shame them for something they have done. So, this made me consider including a link to the service on my final poster design once it has been produced.
Research into the Cancel Culture Campaign
I was inspired to consider advertising a webinar panel discussion, but focused on how cancel culture can damage free speech and a celebrity's mental health.
Event Poster for Mental Health Panel Discussion
I initially considered to have this as one poster and free speech as another, but decided to have both of topics together for the panel discussion.
Final Designs
So, my deliverable were a logo and event poster to promote a paneled discussion about the damage of cancel culture on free speech and a celebrity's mental health.
Logo
Event Poster
