OUGD401 | Production & testing

I decided to print my designs on A3 newsprint. The idea behind this was that the posters would be cheap to produce so the message could easily be spread. Newspapers are also common vehicles for promoting gender stereotypes and inequality so it seemed appropriate to change the message printed on such papers. The paper also has a fragile feel, which I felt represented the fragility of this issue, it often makes people feel uncomfortable so this was shown through the physicality of the paper. Finally, there were small errors and tears in the paper as it was too thin to go through the printer - this further expressed the fragility of the issue as well as the damage it so easily causes, yet this remains ignored. 

Unfortunately, the ink in the printer ran out whilst I was printing the posters meaning one is a slightly faded red compared to the rest. However I do not feel this would affect my campaign as the message is still strong with the image and text on this. The colour simply reinforced the existing message on the posters and aimed to grab more attention. I feel that the images are controversial enough to catch the eye with out this colour filter. 

Final posters - 

As a form of testing my posters I put them up in the studio and left some basic questions with a pen next to them. I actually felt quite uncomfortable putting them up because of how explicit the images actually were, so I hoped the shock factor would be achieved. I sadly received comments from males suggesting they liked the image being up and there was definately more of an interest in them from the male side of the class. This showed me the reality of today's society and how it has become expectable to gaze at women in such a way and make crude comments. But also, seeing how drawn in certain people were I can understand why advertising agencies use it as a technique to grab attention. 

The first question I asked was "How do you respond to the posters? e.g. how do they make you feel?" for this question I wanted some suggestion of questioning advertising, starting a conversation or wanting to take action. However I expected that no one would answer the question in such a way. Funnily enough I recieved feedback such as "awkward" and "horny" from males, whereas women tended to respond with comments such as "uncomfortable" "had to do a double take". 

The second question I asked was "Do you think the message is clear/successful?" as I was unsure if this was the case. It is hard to see if the message is clear if you already know what it is. Thank fully the response was a resounding yes!

Finally I asked "What do you think the posters achieve?". My campaign had fairly broad aims, the main one being to grab attention and begin that conversation, perhaps more biased towards a negative. The response I received was "creates a shock factor", "shows that women are powerful", "women are an object to promote products in a sexual manner". There was a question of "where are the men?" but I am pleased that someone asked as this is all part of the overall discussion! 

In hind sight, I made my booking too late to carry out some more thorough testing as I asked questions from a small, biased sample (my graphic design class).  Part of me felt quite embarrassed to show others the posters simply because of how intense the images are, however next time I would push myself to ask people because the issue is real and by hiding it the message won't be received and society will carry on thinking this inequality is acceptable. 

OUGD401 | Module Evaluation

Context of Practice has been the most challenging module for me, but the most interesting. It was eye opening for me to delve deeper into the meanings behind gender representation and gain a greater understanding overall. The topic itself is very important to me and effects me quite a lot so for that reason it was enjoyable to be able to explore the subject and deepen my understanding.
Essays have never been my strong point so this was perhaps the biggest challenge. It took me some time to understand how to approach the essay; I began by stating my own opinion too much. However, once I cracked the use of academic sources, my words began to fall into place. It was particularly interesting to read John Berger's Ways of Seeing, which gave me a greater understanding of how the media works, in ways I had not considered before.
Referencing has been somewhat a challenge. I had learned Harvard referencing prior to beginning the course but never applied it to an academic essay. I feel that I am still trying to understand how to place references into an essay but I feel that I was reasonably successful this time around. Time management and concentration were the biggest problems for me. As I did not like the idea of writing an essay, I easily put this off and I found concentrating during researching particularly difficult. I found it hard to select the information that was relevant to my work and it took me a long time to sift through large amounts of information which was very time consuming for me. Overall I was pleased with the success of my essay and I exceeding my own personal expectations by writing using academic sources rather than my own thoughts.
I did not feel challenged by the practical work at first, but once I began to explore what I could product I began to feel confused. The workshops we had confused me about the aims of the practical work and I was unsure about how the two should link together. I am still unsure about what I was supposed to achieve now, but I was happy with the outcomes I came up with. I went through several stages of ideas before coming to a conclusion with my work. The main difficulty I experienced was working out what I was trying to achieve with my work. After many hours of exploring ideas I eventually concluded that some form of campaign would be ideal. I felt that my campaign had a strong caption which communicated a strong message, especially combined with my images. I also feel that my design was strong as I received some general feedback in passing that the design appeared professional and was well designed. I am still unsure about my image choices as there is a focus on sex in each, I would have explored more issues related to stereotypes if I had been able to find such well known images.
Overall, CoP was a difficult module for me to understand. I feel that I have a greater understanding now than at the beginning of the year but I am still unsure if my work satisfies the aims of the module. For second year I plan to spend more of my time learning about my topic and breaking down the brief so I can complete it to a higher, more informed standard.

OUGD401 | Final Developments & Image selection

After showing my work in a tutorial, I have found that I am generally on the right track with my images. It was argued that I could use images with just women rather than trying to cover men as well, as this is where the majority of the inequality lies. It was advised that I am careful about my image selection and fully justify my choices and why they are more successful.
As a result of this I am now developing female only ads. This is helpful to me as the message is far stronger using an image of a female. It also solves the difficulty I was having with pairing an image of a man and of a woman together. The production and message will just be more successful.

I carefully selected four images for my final designs. I felt that this gave enough variety and range the keep the campaign interesting, but also it is a small enough number so the campaign is recognisable.

I kept the wonder bra advert as this image is so famous. What is disturbing is that it has won several awards for being an ‘amazing’ advert and causing car crashes as men glared at the photo on the motorway. The fact that the ad has won awards makes it more appropriate for my campaign as it raises more questions as to what our society has deemed an appropriate image to be displayed in public.  

The second image I chose was also a wonder bra advert, so it was equally famous. However it tackles the female stereotype of cooking as it was featured with the caption “I can’t cook, who cares?” . As expected, this advert caused some controversy and disagreement, so I feel it is effective in my posters. As well as the seductive pose and facial expression promoting a sexual feel in adverts.

The Tom Ford adverts are well known for being shockingly sexually explicit. The adverts are not shy when it comes to showing the female body in a suggestive way. The shock factor of the adverts is perfect for my adverts as it immediately catches your eye - whether you want it to or not. There is also a clear connection to advertising as a perfume bottle is on display.

The final image I chose was one of the many highly controversial American Apparel adverts. The adverts have caused much disagreement but unfortunately the adverts are still being produced in a sexually suggestive way. The advert I chose came with the caption “Now Open”. I felt that this was appropriate to tackle gender equality as advert suggests that a woman is there to be used. Even the look on the models face suggests she is unhappy with the situation. Her facial expression and body language also appears innocent and suggests she is easy to take advantage of - the reality faced by many women. 

Once I had selected the famous images, I added my design to each. This was using the same red filter (set to darken, 80 % opacity). I also designed the slogan in a way that I could apply to all the posters. This arrangement put emphasis on the words 'Gender Equality?' which I felt were most important to emphasise the message. The arrangement of type created a neat rectangular silhouette which fit comfortably over any image. I tried to place this caption bang in the middle of the posters, but ensuring the important details of the image could be seen. My slogan in a way acted like a logo, when I applied my logo experimentations to the posters they felt more crowded and distracted from the actual message, so I felt this approach gave the message of my posters more of a voice rather than the campaign. 

I finished my campaign with the online links to social media and a website. I felt that this was important as most news spreads online so an online presence was crucial for my campaign to be successful.

Final Designs -

OUGD401| Experimentation with Campaigns

After deciding to focus my practical work on a campaign I have explored a few options but have not yet generated a solid idea. I have been working on a more general target audience, this being the general public who view advertisements - in particular those who are more likely to view fashion and beauty adverts (As this is where most of the issues lie, and because the images are easier to source). I also consider the adverts to be partially aimed at companies that create these kind of ads as well as advertising companies in a bid to challenge their current way of working.

 Through critiques and tutor help, it has been advised that I explore both the positives and the negatives of advertising, rather than being quick to criticise the adverts. So I am considering creating a campaign that starts a conversation or debate about the issues rather than simply criticising them.

Before focusing my aim of starting a conversation, I had been working on one of my previous ideas #HonestAds. This idea involved taking an existing advert and explaining that the advert will not make you into the ideal representation of men and women in the advertisements but explain the blunt truth about what the product actually does. For example, a men's aftershave will make you smell nice, but it won't give you muscles, success or sexual attractiveness that the figures appear to have in the images. I decided to generate this idea into a social media campaign using the hash tag to encourage conversation online, however this idea tackles the negative aspects of advertising more. 

I tried to have a serious at first tone-of-voice, but followed by a more humorous sentence revealing the truth. Although I was reasonably happy with this concept, I have been struggling to bring the design together. I decided to use Didot, a serif typeface commonly used in fashion and beauty advertising, it seems to blend into the image more which is what I wanted to achieve. My aim was to make the advert appear normal at first, but on closer inspection you realise the truth behind it. 

Despite this aim, I feel that I was unsuccessful. It was difficult to place the text in a balanced way across the image and there seemed to be a disconnection between the two - as if the text had been slapped right on to the photograph. The adverts as a whole were too text heavy. I plan to receive further feedback on this to decide whether the idea is worth developing. 

I then tried to focus my idea some more, considering a particular element of advertising that I wanted to focus on. I began focusing on sexualisation and the concept of the male gaze. I took the well known and hopefully recognised Wonder Bra (hello boys) advert image and began to experiment with placing text on to this. I felt that this was an appropriate image as it is so recognisable and highlights the main issues of sexualisation in advertising. Despite the image being for a lingerie advert, the 'Hello Boys' caption suggests that she is a sexual object for man to use. Her pose and the expression on her face supports that she is willing do to whatever the man may ask of her, immediately placing man above woman. 

 I chose a vivid red as this contrasted against the the greyscale image, making it stand out and catch the eyes of passers by. Red is also an alarming colour, which I feel is appropriate to alarm the public (and advertising agencies) of the issues. I also began by using Futura as this typeface is legible, so the public could read it easy from a distance. The typeface is also modern, which is a sign of how the advertising industry needs to face the modern world and adjust to it. 

I began with a simple question "Why is this nation so obsessed with sex?" but I felt that this did not clearly communicate the campaign would be about advertising and the meaning seemed equally unclear. "Sex sells" was more directed at advertising, but the achievements of using this would be minimal. I don't think anything would change as a result or much conversation would be raised. I then tried to focus more on gender specifically to relate back to the original question of gender representation. I felt that by asking the viewer a question, the advert would be more engaging and more likely to raise debate. So I moved on to captions such as "Do we really believe this is what gender is?" and "Gender is about more than sex" and I eventually came to "Is this what we call gender equality?". I felt that the issue of gender equality is one of the biggest issues in advertising and covers many of the issues that branch of from this, such as sexualisation and stereotypes, so I think focussing on gender equality will achieve the most. Although I do want more of a conversation to be raised, I think it is important that people widely agree that there is a problem, so my questions are more leaned towards the negatives. 

I felt that the open question "Is this what we call gender equality?" was the most successful caption, so I began to develop the designs and consider the aims of the design as a whole and whether it achieved these. I decided to experiment with a red filter on the image for several reasons. Firstly, I think it is more eye catching and visually interesting than black and white because a pop of red is more likely to stand out in public than grey. The mood also feels less serious and sad, but more stimulating - which I feel is important to raise questions. I experimented with filters that gave a softer red and some that gave a harsher more intense red. I am unsure which to use at this moment. I feel that the harsh red makes people feel more inclined to join the debate and be active about their opinions, whereas the softer red is more passive, encouraging the viewer to ask questions. I feel it comes across as less critical. 

I felt that Futura did not stand out enough against the image and the edges were too sharp and harsh. I felt that a softer but equally legible typeface would be better for posing the question rather than appearing as a criticism. I chose Monteserret bold because of its professional feel, as well as ticking the boxes for encouraging debate not criticism. 

I began some basic work on type at the bottom which would explain the meaning of the campaign/advert. I used "The misrepresentation of gender in adverisitng has gone of far too long. It's time we did something about it...Join the conversation #isthisgenderequality" at first. Looking back, I want to encourage conversation not criticism, so perhaps just "Join the conversation" is more appropriate. I placed the hashtag in a similar red, to make it stand out from the rest of the text, so the social media connection is more easily made and so more conversation will happen (hopefully). 

Looking closer at the image, I began to wonder whether it communicated the right messages. I was unsure if it communicated anything about advertising specifically, and whether the connections could be made between the image and how it shows inequality. The original Wonder Bra advert definitely shows inequality, promoting the idea than women are a sexual object for men to use. I am unsure if this is communicated without the caption "Hello Boys". I had planned to create similar posters for men, originally planning to use men in a similar situation with less clothes, but a student suggested I show a man in a suit as this communicates the success, power and dominance that men appear to have in the adverts. I am currently considering whether to have separate adverts for both men and women, or use two images in one. Two images in one communicates the message more clearly, but it is more difficult to execute. Putting the images together in an aesthetically pleasing way is proving difficult. So I plan to explore image placement further. 

Finally, looking back at my research many of the campaigns had logos. I decided to create a logo to see if this would work on my images. I thought I would call the campaign Gender Equality? I felt the question mark symbolises that it is a conversation starter than than a criticism. What what useful was that there is an equal size within a capital E, so highlighting this reinforced the message of equality.

I tried this on some of the adverts I created, but this logo crowded the designs and was inconsistent with the rest of the design. I am unsure if a logo is appropriate or needed, but I feel that my campaign can be successful without one. 

I then began to develop a potential website that could go with my campaign. This would be a reference point for anything related to the campaign such as the aims/meanings for it, any upcoming events, news and how the public can get involved. 

I used the He For She campaign website to help direct my website design 

POSTER MOCK UPS - 

I have also written a brief to help direct my ideas -

BRIEF

Design a campaign which starts a conversation about gender equality in advertising. Your campaign can be for or against advertising, or even in between. 

BACKGROUND/CONSIDERATIONS

Are you aiming to persuade,argue, inform, challenge or otherwise?

What can you create as a part of your campaign e.g. posters, website etc

How will you communicate your message?

What will your message be?

How can you get people involved?

MANDATORY REQUIREMENTS/DELIVERABLES

Minimum of 1 poster (min A4 size)

Critical Journal - Supporting blogposts.