"Pet" Project Brochure
The "Pet" Project was not about taking pictures of your dog or cat, but rather to adopt an inanimate object and photograph it over a series of several weeks in a variety of stages and states of array... and as you will see, disarray. I selected the Post-it Note as my pet because it's a place for writing down ideas and represents free-thinking.
Selecting the best photographs, we then paired the images with an article of our choosing and created a 16-page, full-color brochure. I selected a wonderful article from the June 4, 2016 edition of The Economist entitled "Free Speech Under Attack." For the cover, I chose an eye-catching image of a skinning knife piercing a post-it.
START WITH THE THEMES.
My first step was to divide the article across the spread. While the attack on free speech was the overall theme, there were several subtopics that made breaking up the article easier: Government control; censorship by assassination; imprisoning people; protest as an expression of free-speech, and censorship. I then paired the text with images that supported the message.
For example, in the image below, the article is talking about the assassination of journalists. To reinforce that message, I wrote the word "Change" on a Post-it to represent the motivation behind why journalists risk their lives--for social change. I then shot bullet holes in it with both a .22 and .45 caliber handgun. Opposite it, I added a vector image of a target of a person and positioned the heading as a blindfold.
Another spread talks about offense and protest. I cropped post-its and layered the text on top. I supplemented the imagery with stock illustrations of protestors.
Below are the images and themes for the full-spread.
Back and Front Covers: Skinning knife piercing a Post-it; one of the most personal ways a person can be physically attacked--at knife point.
Inside Cover and Page 1: Different colors of Post-its represent the contrast of ideas; fire--danger and the curbing of ideas.
Pages 2 and 3: State-controlled television; promoting fear and hatred between groups of people; the role of the media.
Pages 4 and 5: Assasination of journalists trying to bring about awareness and change conditions.
Page 6 and 7: Protest as a form of free-speech; people being offended; speaking out.
Pages 8 and 9: Imprisonment for speaking out.
Pages 10 and 11: Just like laws, tools can be used to either build or destroy.
Page 12 and Inside Back Cover: The neat rows of Post-its represent intellectual thought and "answering objectionable speech with more speech."
