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 -