Week 4: Persuasive Posters
Climate Change.
Brainstorm Ideas
I have chosen climate change as my topic for the posters, during brainstorming session, I have developed a few directions that could an effective method to deliver this issue, including showing the actual causes (deforestation, power generation…etc.), the impact (hot temperatures), and also taking action. With the ideas I have, I started illustrating posters ideas that are targeting young adults:
Image 1: Earth Baking
Tools & Techniques: HB Pencil, Rubber
Process: Use pencil to sketch out the layout of first idea.
Reflection: For this design, I’ve chosen to use a humours and sarcastic story as a persuasive method to attract audiences to reflect on the direct impact they’ve caused. This has been done by having a person baking an Earth shaped pastry questioning the other person why the weather has become so hot without realising it’s their own fault. For this idea I use a simple Z rule where the audience’s view will look at the dialogue above, then draw to the centre where they look at the oven and understood the context. Lastly, read the dialogue at the bottom to realise this issue has been ignored.
Image 2: Take Action
Tools & Techniques: HB Pencil, Rubber
Reflection: This idea is more straight forward than the first idea with actions that will help improve climate change: planting trees, renewable energy, & recycling. These messages are portrayed by showing a happy earth with three actions on top. This poster uses V arrangement to guide audiences’ view from the focaliser “Earth” towards the solutions, a more informative method.
Image 3: Stop the Bully
Tools & Techniques: HB Pencil, Rubber
Process: Use pencil to sketch out the layout of third idea.
Reflection: This idea shows some direct causes of climate changes including energy generation and manufacture. Using symbolism as a persuasive medium by showing a scene of living gasoline/pipe characters bullying Earth with a puppet master’s hand above to show they’re being manipulated by human therefore human is behind this issue. I hope to create a sympathetic view through this image for the audiences to take actions, this was enhanced by a pyramid composition where the earth lies hopelessly within a strong triangular bond of other elements.
Image 4: Bad Haircut (coloured pencil)
Process: Use pencil to sketch out the layout of final idea. Using colour pencils to colour and layer different tints & shade to create depth. Scribble technique was used for the ocean area & parallel hatching was used for the vegetation area.
Reflection: After the three ideas being laid out, I continued to further develop ideas as I though the three ideas didn’t meet my expectation of creating a strong effect. As I was drawing thumbnails for lino print, I enjoyed a different idea that I drew, it’s both simple, unique and also catches attention significantly. With the idea being picked, I started create a final version of the poster.
Using the rule of thirds, the poster separated the three elements within: razer (symbolizing human caused deforestation), Earth, & text. The circular composition of earth and strong contrast with the plain white background created a focaliser, gives a sense of earth’s importance and the circular shape with nature colours of blue and green also gives an idea of home and shelter. On top of Earth, there’s a mechanical razor shaving earth’s vegetation, showing that the razor’s superior power damaging Earth. The mechanical object and it’s contrasting gray colour to the Earth shows that this action is inhumane and selfish. Lastly, the colour used for the text with high saturated red contrast with the green helps to guide audiences’ attention back to reading it, “Nobody wants Bad Haircuts”, enlights their empathy.
Image 5: Bad Haircut (Photoshop)
Process: Collect photos of required elements (razor, earth, bush, fallen leaves, bold head), using Photoshop to crop and mask areas needed and create a collage version of the poster. Using the text wrap and distortion tool to create text effect.
Reflection: With the collage poster, I’ve made some changes base on the hand illustrated poster to create stronger persuasive effect. With the elements, I’ve added actual bold human head as a direct link to human to enhance empathy. For composition, I change the circular composition to a diagonal composition as it is known to have a very powerful effect. Differentiate from the previous poster, this image has different focaliser, instead of the whole earth, the focus will be on the the strong contrast of the bold head with earth, which it highlights the damage and violence tends to be a strong persuasive impact. The curled text also leads viewer’s perspective towards this subject. For the background, I tried to use a space photo and a high saturated yellow fill, and the yellow background was found to be more successful contrast with other elements and will attract peoples attention from further distance.
Image Reference:
Beginner’s Guide to Photoshop Collages! (2022). YouTube. Retrieved August 29, 2023, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5j9_ywshuDw.
Dauer , H.-G. (2022). Bold Head. Dating: How Does Baldness Affect Women? Hair&Skin. Retrieved August 2023, from https://hairskin.com/en/blog/dating-how-does-baldness-affect-women/.
Fraczek, W. (n.d.). Earth. If the Earth Stood Still. ESRI. Retrieved August 2023, from https://www.esri.com/news/arcuser/0610/nospin.html.
Green leaves, Green tea Leaf Orange, tea leaves, food, leaf png. (n.d.). PNG egg. Retrieved August 2023, from https://www.pngegg.com/en/png-zsvft.
Pilger, K. (2018). Unsplash. Retrieved August 2023, from https://unsplash.com/photos/Ef6iL87-vOA .
WC5307 Haircutter hair Clipper Clipper (clipper) black & silver ... (n.d.). https://www.biccamera.com.e.lj.hp.transer.com/bc/item/3713960/
