Taken: A series of plays
TransMedia Campaign Design
This project was a partnered project with another classmate Briar Clifford. Our objective was to develop an explicit understanding of how visual rhetoric can evolve across the multiple platforms of a transmedia campaign. We were tasked to design a poster, website and some form of animation for any digital platform of our choice for a season of plays based on songs that were given to us by our lecturers.
The concept for our project was looking at the environmental consequences of the ‘nature of man’ - we wanted to look at the relationship between nature and industrialisation and the destruction and deforestation which is the unfortunate reality we face. To illustrate this we choose our character, a deer, which we used as a semiotic device to represent innocence, gentleness and the beauty of nature. We juxtaposed this in our motion graphic with our red destructive scene which saw the deer’s idyllic, pure environment stripped and pillaged of its beauty, replaced by a concrete jungle. Tree’s are pulled down, buildings shoot up and around the deer, suffocated by pollution, we set a claustrophobic scene to contrast the beautiful idyllic nature scene which preceded it. We used an inviting calm blue/green colour scheme for our website and posters to draw in the public with its vibrancy and life - the ideal environment - along with the title of our season ‘Taken’ the public will wonder, what is ‘Taken’ (?) from this utopian scene and will want to find out more. We chose ‘Taken’ as the name of our season after listening to Warren’s songs ‘Nature of Man’ and ‘Peaceful Man’ which references Parihaka, and the 1881 invasion which saw the settlement pillaged, land was taken, freedom was taken and ultimately their peace was taken. Our typeface “Outback Brush Italic” we found juxtaposed the quiet, peaceful scene on our posters and gave an urban street style which gives a preview of the destruction which is to come to the environment as seen in our motion graphic.
