BOLD : STORIES ABOUT HAIR LOSS
Tabloid Newspaper publication, ISTD 2019 Entry
This ISTD brief challenged me to think of a topic suitable for the title ‘lost’. Through research and experimenting I eventually decided to base this project on hair loss, a wide topic that allowed me to approach the brief from a cultural, historical and medical perspective. Before starting my design I decided that this publication would be suited to barber shops and available to simply pick up and read. When going for a haircut, I find myself often surrounded by cheap gossip papers and men’s fitness magazines which lead me to think about how this publication might look. Nowadays, the art of barbering is a well respected profession and in a ‘high - end’ barbers, the price of a haircut is often upwards of £20, so why shouldn’t the newspapers and publications have the same level of edge and sophistication?
The title ‘Bold’ is suitable for the topic because a lot of the stories cover bold decisions or actions made by individuals, it also refers to the bold appearance that hair loss creates. The publication is split into six sections each based on an emotion that hair loss represents. Pride, humiliation, fear, hope, honour and anger all cover individual stories relating to hair loss: The U.S. Marine induction cut, French collaborators of ww2, victims of the holocaust, chemotherapy patients, Japanese Samurai and the Skinheads subculture are all covered in the publication.
I thought that it would be interesting to tell these stories of hair loss in such a publication because it is so different to the norm and you would not typically expect to read about history while waiting for a haircut. As stated in the introduction, the publication challenges the audience to think more about a topic that they ordinarily don’t, and perhaps think of their own identity and how much of a privilege hair can be. This publication also aims to appeal to young people and people with an interest in design and would therefore also be available to buy as a ‘one off’ special publication.
Many of the stories told in this publication have dark connotations and strong associations with identity. I tried to reflect this with the design of the newspaper by using dark photography and imagery. The typefaces I have chosen also reflect the main message of the publication that hair loss can be a bold statement about ones character. The bold expressive typography and large scale images really emphasise a topic that is not often reflected on, which is how I wanted to tackle the brief. I used Helvetica, a neutral typeface for the covers within expressive typography to represent how the stories are all part of the same family.
SECTION 1 : PRIDE
The US Marine Induction Cut
SECTION 2 : HUMILIATION
French Collaborators WW2
SECTION 3 : FEAR
Holocaust Victims
As a lot of these themes are very heavy and dark, the overall style for the publication had to reflect this. I researched into bold typefaces suitable for display and became fond of a German graphic designer, Willy Fleckhaus. His very clean, striking design appealed to young people in the 1960s/70s which influenced my style for this publication as it proposes a similar purpose. While I have been influenced by this clean high contrast style, I have also experimented with my own expressive typography including photocopied text of words/ phrases cut, ripped and put back together to create thought-provoking imagery as well as demonstrating hair loss.
SECTION 4 : HOPE
Chemotherapy Patients
SECTION 5 : HONOUR
Ancient Japanese Samurai Warriors
I created the narrative myself and used creative writing to form quotes from the people in the stories. Because these are not actual quotations, I did not feel the need to include speech marks and instead used variants within the typefaces to differentiate between speech and narrative. I enjoyed creating this publication, it gave me freedom to use expressive typography and challenge the norm of informative publications.
SECTION 6 : ANGER
The Skinhead Subculture
Publication In Context
Barbershop Setting
