~ Secret 7 - tame impala ~

This is one of the 7 songs that initially I had the most ideas for but the execution of which had been unsure. But I realised after engaging with the competition last year and seeing the winners the more illustrative designs tended to win. My illustration skills are limited but I am able to experiment with digital illustration using Illustrator and Photoshop.

I re-watched the video and noticed the focus on facial expression and general expression of emotion between the two characters that gave me a better idea of the songs concept. I decided to illustrate two eyes one male and one female. The concept is that 'the eyes are the windows the the soul' its the best way of expressing emotion (love and lust).

These are the initial eye designs, I wanted the female to be less expressive as in the video she plays the more distant and dismissive role which is something I wanted to continue onto my cover design. 

The eyes on their own possibly look to plain, especially considering the bands overall feel and aesthetic is really colorful and eyecatching. This is an experiment I did combining the raw file of the song and the eye illustrations. Unfortunately I feel the eyes loose their detail and definition.

This is another experimentation combining more subtle influxes of bright colour within the image without distracting from the detail of the illustration. I wanted to show the combination of two colours both for aesthetic and to represent the coming together of two people (two souls). 

These are some further experimentations using repetitions of the two eyes for a much more hallucinogenic feel to the image which is something definitely apparent in the music and video making it informed directly and engaging. 

I think the use of multiple eyes is really effective as no-matter what angle you view it from you feel like you are being looked at back. This is the final design I have decided to submit for this song. It demonstrates a conceptual view of lust and obsession that surrounds teen love depicted in the music video. The warped look and overall hypnotic feel is very relevant to the style of music and overall 'psychedelic' aesthetic Tame Impala usually go for with their work. This is my final submission for this song. 

~ Product range distribution - gender questions ~

So I created a small survey (https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/BQZVJWX) in order to help me understand the issues behind my area of research and direct me into creating the most effective and informed solution possible.



1. I identify best with they pronouns as they feel the least connected to any idea of gender.

2. There wasn't necessarily an age that I realised as I'd never identified as my assigned birth gender, it was only around the age of 12 when I started verbally refusing to identify 
with gender until I finally stumbled on the label "non-binary" and have used that on/off with "genderqueer" and "genderfluid" for about 6 years.

3. I don't have a big dramatic coming out story, sadly. Around the same time as I was refusing to identify with gender was about the same time as I started telling my friends/family/teachers I use they pronouns - of which most of them to the this day still forget, trip up or decide not to use them as it "has been a while" (had this said to me only a few weeks back).

4. No and no. I remember trying a few times to bring it into conversation, using third person and first person examples, during secondary school but was either ignored or told I was wrong.

5. For primary school, it would have been nice to have light explanations of it, not necessarily in detail, of other genders/lack of gender and an overall larger disdain from categorising everything as "for boys" or "for girls".

6. A lot of situations could have improved my education: discussion of gender; explanation of the gender spectrum; realisations that people on a gender spectrum that do not identify as "one or the other" (Bull****) actually exist. Sadly none of this ever took place in my secondary school and I still doubt any of this happens in most if not all secondary schools still today.

7. Honestly, the younger the better. People are socially conditioned from a young age that there are only "boys" or "girls". This misinformation generally gets so far drilled into their tiny, developing brains that it can prove very difficult for many people to ever rebel the mentality and question or accept or respect that anything other exists - I believe this is one of the leading causes for hate and discrimination against trans* and intersex people.

8. Anything and everything. There's more than enough resources already out there it's just a matter of getting the education system to use them.

9. Support groups are good. An overall teaching of accepting each other at in education is a must to help combat ignorance.



MOST CHILDREN KNOW THEY ARE TRANSGENDER BY THE AGE OF 6. Stop branding the way your children identify.

~ Product range distribution - design research and initial ideas ~

Now i've produced my logo design I need to consider the different platforms the campaign should consider and deliverables to create. My initial thoughts are...
- Website
- Social media platforms
- Posters
- Stickers/badges
- T-shirts and other merchandise
- Manifesto publication/booklet to introduce schools/institutions to the campaign

Due to the campaign being partly informed by the work of Stonewall their poster designs seem an appropriate place for initial research. Their whole campaign is purely typographic to avoid any confusion; it's a confusing topic as is so clear and bold explanation and statements are successful.

Once again this design is successful due to its simplicity and typographic treatment. It shows that the wording I choose to use within my campaign will be the upmost important. The letterpress treatment is appealing in terms of my campaign as it will be very "do it yourself" so traditional print methods will be considered.

One of the biggest issues for transgender and gender non conforming individuals is which toilet to use in public. This example of a sign in Bristol university toilets is a brilliant way of tackling the issue; rather than building new toilets, encouraging people to choose which they feel most comfortable using. This gives me the idea of creating alternative toilet signs for schools, example - Girls* *non binary welcome in comfort.

http://www.ranker.com/list/list-of-famous-transgender-people/famous-gay-and-lesbian?page=3&var=5    (example of famous trans people for inspiration)

These are some initial design experiments I did in terms of an online campaign /web persona/ support system. I decided to go for a sleek and minimal layout with simple boxes clearly sectioning each article and element. For something informative it needs to be easy to navigate. 

This is an example of an initial poster design sticking with the same minimal and straight to the point approach. 

Pro's of a simple and serious design 

- easy to navigate and understand

- shows the seriousness of the topic

- looks professional and a trustworthy source

- can be effectively spread out across all forms of media

Con's 

- not aimed at a young audience or an older one who may not be tech savvi

- illustrative elements could make it more light hearted and friendly

- could risk looking overly serious and almost medical

~ Product range distribution - crit ~

We began our exploration of this brief and it's possibilities by starting creating a mind map around "social change". It allowed us to explore all of the possible avenues that could be researched into and we could effect with a design campaign and treatment.

From the initial mindmap we created a more direct one around 'inequality' as this is the area I find most interesting and appealing for the outcome of the brief. We began to loosely outline some possible solutions to the issues surrounding inequality within society.

For this crit I displayed these images and a brief explanation of my concept and design experiments so for for 'fluid'. I also included some questions for people to answer about my outcomes so far.

1. What areas of this issue should be discussed in schools?

A. There has been a lot of development around the idea of identity and the labels that are attached. Whether pronoun use or the introduction of terms such as cis male/cis female (rather than biological).

B. Conversations that raise awareness of the transgender community from a young age

C. How it's okay to feel confused. Awareness from a young age will help a lot of people!

D. The mental side of things - how a lot of people feel out of place in their body. Ru pauls drag race?

2. What deliverables would be helpful/appropriate?

A. Maybe a 'how to' guide? Or maybe there isn't a set way?

B. An online campaign

C. Print, series of posters

D. Leaflets to leave around schools/colleges

3. Do you think the aesthetic so far is appropriate?

A. Looks a bit like a health campaign, maybe make it more fun but still informative? Illustrations better than photos

B. Like the logo. Wondering if the supporting imagery could be even more direct. 

C. Maybe if your forgetting a younger audience you could make it more friendly?

4. What questions do you personally have about the issue?

A. How do people actually change gender?

B. Id be keep to see people discussing the issues surrounding this in terms of trans people and their increased chance to be abused or even murdered.

5. Other comments

A. Maybe pick a target audience? Kids, young adults, older people? Maybe a collection of outcomes for different target audiences? Kids may want to know different things to adults etc.

B. Lena Dunham's women of the hour podcast touches nicely on some of the areas surrounding gender and identity. 

Notes for myself after this feedback

- Maybe the approach could have some serious outcomes that are informational? But also some more fun and laid back outcomes

- Make a zine/publication with illustrations, this could target a younger audience and engage with the audience on another level

- It's clear before further development I need to do more research into the topic to fully understand the issues in order to create solutions

- Consider multiple target audiences and the different outcomes for each

~ Product range distribution - development ~

“...one’s self identified gender is necessarily more legitimate than the one that is rather naively assigned to them by others.”

-Julia Serano, Whipping Girl, (2009)

Even when searching for clear pro-nouns on Google theres a lot of complication and no real explanation; it's unlikely most people will of heard of most of them unless they're directly effected by gender binary.

As i'm aware transgender is being born the opposite gender; male in a females body or the opposite. You can also be gender non-binary so you fit neither female or male but somewhere else on the spectrum; this is where things get very complicated as you can be completely non-binary but still label yourself and have specific pro-nouns you wish to be referred to using. Cis is being satisfied and happy identifying as the gender you were assigned at birth.

The most important thing I took from this research is that when meeting new people you should ask their preferable pro-noun, non-binary genders are not recognised in most circumstances but its important to recognise them. It also makes it very clear the lack of information and support out their for people who may be confused and questioning their gender.

I came across the concept of producing stickers that people could write their pronouns on like the first day of school when you write your name, this could be included too. The concept is strong as it would completely break down any barriers about gender straight away before it could become an issue; maybe an ice-breaker session that celebrates LGBT differences within schools would be massively helpful for teens.

The only thing I managed to find on young transgender children is this book called I am Jazz about an MTF child. It seems the issue of transgender children is something very new that parents are very afraid of. Possibly this means my campaign should focus on teens to offer them support as they discover themselves.

http://www.stonewall.org.uk/

For my campaign i'd like to propose that in theory its something that could be pitched to Stonewall and actually produced and used within schools. Their current poster campaign is effective but doesnt offer a lot of obvious support for young teens that are un-aware of where to look for advice and help.

Although the campaign would run alongside Stonewall as a collective body as a campaign I want an individual and recognisable name. After looking through research and key words to do with the subject I came up with 'fluid'; fluidity is something at the heart of all gender discussion as it enforces the idea gender is not a two sided thing but a spectrum. I want 'fluid' to become a platform (digital/app) for advice and inspiration for teenagers; I also want to create physical media that could be sent to schools to encourage open discussion about gender.

Branding for fluid initial ideas

- a fluid shape

- water effect? liquid?

- flag (symbolic of equality and pride?)

- type based logo

- negative space logo

- wavy lines to suggest movement

- colour - my initial idea is to use the colour identity used by Stonewall so if the idea was pitched to them professionally it could work collaboratively with their current aesthetic 

This is my logo design for the campaign. I took the idea of a circle being confiding and constricting and  warped it into something more 'fluid' and out of the boundaries. I decided to use lower case Futura as the font as I see its clean geometrical construction to appear as friendly and approachable which are important for a campaign of this nature. I've used the same red as the Stonewall branding; this concept is something i'd like to pitch to the charity as a branch off campaign from/funded by them.

~ Responsive - collaborative practice - fortune favours the brave - packaging design ~

At this point were still unsure of a format for our packaging as each decision we make will effect the contents, price, producibility of the finished package. Above shows the simplest possible design we could go for in terms of time, cost and production. 

These designs show an idea we came up with to produce four small boxes that could each house a different set of materials within the package. The layout allows for a hole in the middle of the set that could hold something or just stay open for aesthetic purposes. Both me and Jazz sat and created the nets for each completely bespoke box format for this design so it can be a possibility for the final design. Using a bespoke size of box is informed well by the brief as its different and brave; but it would effect what we put inside each one and could be difficult to produce (especially conceptually on a mass level).

From the list previously decided Jazz illustrated a selection of icons to be used as the pattern for the packaging and overall brand identity. 

I vectored selected illustrations from the selection to become part of the pattern design that will appear across the packaging. I also created some simple (smooth style) illustrations to overlay Jazz's. The illustrations will be split into two colours that will then be screen printed on top of each other; the screen print process and ink allows for illustrations to overlay each other so both can be seen simultaneously. 

For the purpose of ensuring the entire box is printed with the icons I created a large surface pattern. This can then be screen printed directly onto the boxes. 

For this i've separated the files into two separations that can be matched up using registration marks during the print process. 

I created these mock ups of how the pattern could be applied on different variations of packaging solutions and deliverables. 

Continuing with the overlay theme i've designed a simple welcome letter for people newly subscribing to BRAVE that explains the idea behind it and the ethos.

~ OUGD505 - license to print money - research ~

The descision of who or what will appear on my bank notes is a large consideration.

Characters featured on current notes
£5 - Elizabeth Fry
The images on the back of the note are related to the life and work of this social reformer.  The main illustration shows Elizabeth Fry reading to prisoners at Newgate.  In recognition of her work she was awarded the key to the prison and this is used in the design of the banknote.
£10 - Charles Darwin
As a young man Darwin was employed as the naturalist on board the ship HMS Beagle an illustration of which is depicted on the back of the note.  Also pictured is an illustration of Darwin's own magnifying lens and the flora and fauna that he may have come across on his travels.
£20 - Adam Smith
Smith is one of the fathers of economics.  In one of his great works, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Smith famously used the example of workers in a pin factory to describe the benefits created by the division of labour, and, as explained on the note, "the great increase in the quantity of work that results".
£50 - Matthew Boulton and James Watt
Boulton and Watt entered a partnership to develop and market steam engines.  Initially these were for use in the mining and textile industries before they extended the innovation to benefit a wider range of industries in the UK and worldwide.
The Bank has featured historic figures on banknotes since 1970.  The characters depicted on previous notes have been:

• Charles Dickens (writer)

• Sir Edward Elgar (composer)

• Michael Faraday (scientist)

• Sir John Houblon (first Governor of the Bank of England)

• Sir Isaac Newton (scientist)

• Florence Nightingale (nursing)

• William Shakespeare (poet/playwright)

• George Stephenson (engineer)

• 1st Duke of Wellington (general/statesman)

• Sir Christopher Wren (architect)

My ideas so far include

~ writers

~ artists

~ activists

~ buildings

~ animals

~ plants

~ abstract shapes