Illustration Friday - Dusty

This week's Illustration Friday theme was 'Dusty'. I drew this image in Photoshop, trying to get a slightly watercolour-like effect with the colouring. 

Illustration Friday - Chicken

This was my entry for this week's Illustration Friday with the theme "Chicken". I showed this to my Graphic Design class at college, and they said to:
+ Add colour, though some people liked it in black and white.
+ Remove the double hyphen next to 'This Time It's Personal'
+ Clean up the lines to make them smoother and better joined.

The next theme is "Dusty", I'm excited to see what I can come up with next!

Greenwash - A Simpler Explanation

Greenwash (in brief) is when companies mislead the public in advertising, by making the product sound more ‘green’ than it really is. For example, claiming that a large, gas-guzzling car is extremely efficient, when in fact, it is still a huge, gas-guzzling car, and is probably only a tiny bit more efficient than it’s competitors in the field.

The term ‘greenwash’ is a play on the more used term ‘whitewash’, which is the process used to hide information that you don’t want others to see.

Greenwashing comes in many forms:

 It could be a company advertising an efficient product, though the product itself is made in a factory which creates a lot of pollution. 

Energy saving light bulbs - still made in a polluting factory

It could be ridiculously misleading advertisements that show things such as flowers blooming around a car’s exhaust or a factory next to a clean river.

Honda advertise their engine - surrounded by flowers and rainbows

It could be companies using over-complicated jargon to make a point, so that only scientists and the extremely pedantic among us could check or comprehend the lies.

Kenco make recycling harder by switching from glass to plastic

The Kenco case is what really grinds my gears about greenwashing, as it is a glaring example. Kenco's genius marketing team has decided to switch to a plastic pouch because it apparently takes less energy to make, despite the fact that glass is a much easier material to recycle. This is both an example of making something not-so-eco-friendly sound greener AND an example of using stupid jargon (97% less packaging weight) to make the product sound greener.

The problem with greenwashing is that people stop trusting the greenwashing claims made by companies and in turn, they stop buying products that claim to be green. With no revenue coming in from green products, companies would eventually stop producing greener products, and eventually there would be no incentive to become more environmentally friendly.

In conclusion, greenwashing is an example of companies trying far too hard to make an impression on the public, with potentially disastrous consequences. Greenwashing will hopefully not last much longer, once the consumer clicks onto the crazy techniques the companies are using (although based on the sheer amount of 'green-based' complaints made to ASA in the latest few years).

Overall, I can't say I ever really agree with lying and cheating for money, but at least greenwashing is slightly aimed for a good cause.

Recycling Posters - Reviewed

 Introduction

As I will be designing and making my own recycling poster after Christmas, I decided to review some existing posters to help me decide on a design and to give me some ideas about what does and doesn't work when designing something that should influence people.
I found these posters on Google Images and decided to talk about them, as they are all images that grabbed my attention.

Poster One - Bottled Water

This is a poster from the USA which addresses the issue of recycling plastic water bottles. The poster opens with a list of facts about the vast amount of water that is consumed globally. After giving you such basic facts about water, the poster talks about the small number of bottles that are recycled. These facts are interesting enough to keep someone interested while looking at the poster, which is long enough to get the message across and urge the viewer to recycle.
From a design point of view, the poster is well designed using blue, black and white as a simple colour scheme. The images create a simplified explanation of the facts written in text, to make it easier to understand.
The poster involves the viewer with the tag line "It's Up To You to Change the World" which puts responsibility on the viewer to take action in a way that suggests "We've told you what impact your wastefullness has, now go and think about what you've done". As much as I tend to dislike posters that try to guilt people into taking action, I find that this one works very well.
The tag line is definitely something I would consider utilising in my own design, as it is very thought provoking and tag lines are a valuable tool in advertising. I'm not 100% sure I'd use a line like "It's Up To You To Change The World", but I'd certainly like to try and use an inspiring line for viewers of my poster to take away when they stop looking at my poster.

Poster Two - Recycling Saves Energy

Another poster that feeds you plenty of facts, this poster shows the effect recycling can have on saving energy. It's laid out in a more informative way than a traditional poster, and much like the previous poster, it uses images to explain the concepts expressed in the text.

Just like the last poster, the colour scheme is very basic and fairly easy on the eyes. The fonts are easily read and clearly stand out on the paper. My only issue with the type  is the handwritten-style font on the right hand side (under the big orange type). This text is slightly hard to read and doesn't really fit with the basic style of the rest of the type at all.

The layout is basic and leads your eyes across the page in the style it should be read, which avoids confusion, but the landscape style of the poster is off-putting as most posters are portrait and at first this different orientation can be uneasy on the eye.

In terms of what I would use from this in my own work, I would probably like to use a simple colour scheme like this poster (though I don't know if I would personally use orange, green and blues), because I like the uniform feel a set colour scheme gives.

 Poster Three - Cans and Televisions

This poster is much more basic in its design than the previous two. It invokes a less cheery mood, the harshness of the black background immediately grabbing attention, and it is much more minimalistic with only one fact on display.

The recycle logo, with the cans within it, is really eyecatching. The folds of the logo (where the arrow folds to make a right angle) are still apparent with a change in the colour and pattern of the cans.

The text on this poster is very simplistic - no special fonts or colours. The text is easy to read and could potentially be viewed from a distance without much involvement from the viewer unlike the previous posters which would require the viewer to get much closer to the poster. 

The fact on this poster - "Recycling a single can saves enough energy to power a television for three hours" - is a simple fact that immediately provokes a reaction in the viewer. This poster could potentially be placed in a cafe or a shop and the viewer may well have a can in their hand as they read it. The fact makes the simple statement that it doesn't take much effort to make a difference when it comes to recycling.

I would take inspiration from the recycle logo in this poster. I have toyed with the idea of doing something inventive with the recycle logo, and the use of the cans here is exactly the kind of thing I had in mind.

Poster Four - Recycled Poster

I like clever posters, and this last poster fits that criteria nicely. Still in a very simple style, it delivers just enough information to make a point. The fundamental message of the poster is to encourage people to recycle paper, and it displays this by telling you what the poster 'used to be'. The likelihood that every one of these posters was originally advertising a frisbee game is unlikely, but this design allows a lot of room for different versions. So many things are printed on paper: there is potential for a whole range of these posters ("This piece of paper used to be a restaurant napkin", "This piece of paper used to be a business document", etc).

The colour scheme is basic and the font is easy to read, and the hints of blue indicate the presence of blue bins all around you where you can recycle paper. This makes a statement that you may not have noticed the bins before, much like you may not have particularly thought the blue text was particularly remarkable.

In terms of the layout, I like how the text is shaped like one of the arrows on the recycle logo. At first glance, I didn't notice this and was very confused by the placement of the text, but the clever way it was arranged seems to further get the message across once you notice it. The style of the poster is clever and the eye is naturally drawn down to the recycle logo and the 'look for the blue bins near you' line.

My only real irritation with this poster is the indication that it used to be an ad for a frisbee game, when the folded up corner (indicating the poster's supposed past) clearly shows it used to advertise 'Soccer Practice'. A small slip up like that is slightly grating, and may make readers of the poster less likely to believe and act upon the message the poster portrays.

I would like to make use of the positioning of text in my work, because I find the formation of the text into the recycle arrow really inventive and clever.

Conclusion

I have learned a lot from these reviews. I already had several ideas for what I would like to do in my own work, but my reviews definitely gave me more feedback on what I should and shouldn't do to make my poster effective and interesting to look at. The reviews have helped me pinpoint aspects of design that grab attention and leave an impact on the people who view them, and this will help me create a poster which is informative, persuasive and interesting to look at.

My next step in the design process will be to draw some sketches and concepts for the design of my poster. I will begin to focus on the elements of design I intend to use. I will also start my sketches of small electrical goods which I will later work from to create my poster.

Design Proposal - Recycling Poster

This is a proposal for an upcoming project after Christmas, based around recycling. Many people know to recycle paper, plastic and other regular household rubbish, but may not realise the extent to which many other household items can be recycled. This poster should be focused on the recycling of small electrical goods, which many people do not realise they can recycle, and instead take them to landfill which is not good for the environment.

In the first week of my project, I plan to research artists whose work focuses on the environment. I will use artists that make use of rubbish to make their art (John Dahlsen, Steve Oatway), as well as artists who draw, paint and use other more traditional forms (Michael West).

I will also make studies of damaged electrical goods using traditional media (pencil, charcoal, etc). These goods will be the goods the poster is asking people to recycle, and will form the basis of work I will do in the future.

Absolut Dahlsen by John Dahlsen - http://www.eco-artware.com/newsletter/newsletter_09_05.php

John Dahlsen is an Australian artist who makes sculptures based on flotsam found on the coastline in Australia. He has made work with plastic bags and recycled flip flops. I find his work particularly interesting because it transforms one item used for a particular purpose into a completely new item with a new purpose.

Human/Nature by Michael West - http://www.michaelwestart.com/page7.htm

Michael West makes paintings, sculptures and drawings based on the state of humans in the environment. He also makes a lot of recycled artwork, similar to John Dahlsen.

King Triffid by Steve Oatway - http://f00.inventorspot.com/images/King%20Triffid.jpg

Steve Oatway makes sculptures from waste metal, in a similar way to John Dahlsen. He is an Australian 'junk artist' (much like John Dahlsen) who's motto is "Other people's trash is my treasure".

In the next week I will focus my research on artists who design posters, and look at the ways posters are designed to inspire a response and attract attention. I will also draw some layouts and sketches of possible designs for my own poster.

Once all of my research is done, I will focus my attention on putting together my poster. I will try out different techniques and use the sketches I made to create different images I can later use on a poster. I really like the idea of using the damaged goods to form a different image that will carry my message (e.g. putting together a collection of old mobile phones to form a recycling symbol when viewed from above).

My final poster will be made using the images I have created, in a layout that I have either chosen myself or found from another artist.

Dan Mumford's Incredible Drawings

Back when I took my Art GCSE, I found Dan Mumford. His work is stunning, full of detail and colour and strong lines. He is a huge inspiration to me and I have always wanted to draw to the same standard as he does.

Dan Mumford's work has been found all over the alternative scene. His work has featured in Atticus Clothing and DCMA Clothing, and he has done work for bands such as Protest the Hero, Funeral for a Friend and The Black Dahlia Murder.

Just looking at the incredible attention to detail in his work makes me burn with envy. It can take Dan months to perfect a piece, but each piece is of the same incredible quality as the next.
Dan describes himself as an Illustrator/Designer/Screen Printer, but I can only think of one word that truly sums him up: Genius.

Fitvibe Health - More Than Just A Poster, It's a Workout

If you ask a vast majority of people, they're probably not getting as much exercise as they need, and many ads for gym memberships these days are drab and boring. Shock tactics and scaremongery about obesity and heart diease seem to be conditioned into us and we're so used to seeing ads like that, so many of us just don't care.

So when I stumbled upon this gem of advertising for Fitvibe Health, I laughed and then smiled with pride knowing that surely someone got a gym membership based on this ad:

Just try and read it. Go on. Left to right, read it. And see if you're not at least smiling when you finish it.

Fitvibe's "Free Workout" ad finishes with 'How is this for a start?' in that way that suggests it's basically saying "You see how easy it is to exercise? Come on, you can do it, we gave you a head start." and that's a refreshing thing to hear. So many people think it's hard to fit exercise into their lives, but here Fitvibe has just given you a little workout of your own and you barely even noticed you were doing it.

I'd love to see more genius adverts like this one, that are not only effective but also very entertaining. Sure, this ad isn't designed with perfectly crafted fonts or interesting colours, but it does the job and makes you smile along the way. What more could you really ask for in an ad?