The aim of this project was to create a series of posters depicting different fears and to convey just how common these fears are. I think that all of these designs work well as a series because of the common layout and type. By trying out a range of techniques earlier on inn the project, I was able to narrow down the ones that would be most appropriate for each poster, allowing me more time to spend on creating the designs. This led me to create posters that didn't necessarily have the same style imagery but work cohesively together. However, if I were to redo this project I think that I would design all of the posters in the same style as the 'zoophobia' one. Visually this is the strongest design and looks the most comprehensive out of all of the designs.
I do believe that I answered the brief that I created, talking about common phobias and showing just how common they are. I did initially want the images to be a lot scarier however they still show the fears in a way that shows a non-sufferer what they are afraid of.
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The final poster that I will make for this project is based on Zoophobia. The reason for me choosing this phobia was because it encompasses all fears of animals and will therefore have a much larger target audience than if I was to choose a specific phobia. For this design I made two different versions which are shown below. I chose which animals to use by looking at which ones people were the most feared, these included spiders, snakes, mice and dogs, along with many others.
Despite having to alter the colour of the background for both of these images, I wanted to keep it blue as this is associated with the sky and sea so is the most appropriate colour choice for this poster.
Whilst researching for this project I came across a poster series by Sara Christensen. In these posters she uses the idea of fears to raise awareness of homophobia. This is done by using imagery and information about the fears to draw the attention of the viewer and then adding in information about homophobia. I think this concept works well because people are more likely to read an informational poster if they can relate to it and it illustrates that even though homophobia has 'phobia' in the name it is not one. I also like the unity that these posters have. They all have the same layout with the only thing changing being the information and colour. The minimalistic approach that she has taken within this poster series further draws attention and allows you to easily identify the subject of each design. The pale colours used for the backgrounds enable the text to be seen clearly which is something that I feel is important for both the discussion point of this series and impact of the posters themselves.
In terms of my poster series I defiantly think that this approach is one which would be effective in allowing me to get the information across in a way that is not too overbearing. It will also be important that my designs are not too information heavy as this could prevent people from wanting to interact with them. I needed to decide on what style of illustration / image making I was going to take this project in. To do this I looked at 5 different ways of creating an image and tried to recreate the image of a spider within them, showing at least one aspect of the fear.
After trying out these techniques I think that using after effects to create the image is the best way for me to approach this task. Once I had decided that I wanted to create a few versions of the spider with varying outputs for the hair effect values. Below are the results. I wanted to show how unpredictable spiders were within this poster so I animated the legs and fangs to move and made the spider look like it was jumping towards the camera. I think this animation shows the main characteristics of a spider that people don't like (the eyes, the hair and the fact that they are unpredictable).
Usually within my designs my colour palette is geared more towards a younger audience, using bright and bold colours. This would not be appropriate for the topic of this poster series.
After trying out some different poster layouts I wanted to see what it would look like if i used a brighter colour scheme. After receiving some feedback on my work I have decided to take forward the poster on the bottom left. This is the strongest in terms of layout and typography. However I wanted to see what it would look like if I included the moving image within this poster instead of a still image. I have down this with two versions of the animation, one with hair and one without. The hair on the spider did not really fit well within the composition and style of the poster. However, without it the spider was not as scary as I wanted it to be (especially because it is one of the main factors that people don't like about spiders) so I decided to leave it in.
The reason I chose to use blue for the background was because it is associated with calmness. Despite this being the opposite of what someone with this fear would feel. I wanted to use it as a way of showing that there are ways of coping with phobias.
Exaggeration is used a lot in design to emphasise and reinforce a point. For example in fast food adverts the food is often photoshopped / edited to be an exaggerated / better version of itself. This is to make it seem more appealing to the viewers. Another way companies to this is to exaggerate how good a product is. For example the below advert for Windex. It features a fish wearing a helmet, implying that the glass is so clean that the fish keeps swimming into it. I want to implement this idea into my project as I think it will enable me to make a more effective campaign. To do this I will make the object of focus seem more scary than it actually is by altering its features slightly and changing the scale of it. I hope that by doing this it will help to reinforce the message behind the images I create.
Olly Moss A Graphic Artist that has worked on reinventing movie posters, usually using screen printing to create his work. I particularly like his work because of the importance placed on the imagery used. In the majority of his designs there is a large image, to catch the attention of the viewer and the text, which becomes secondary, which gives more information about the film / subject matter. This is a method which could work well for my own designs. Allowing me to use the fear and image to engage with people. Franciszek Starowieyski A Polish Artist that creates posters using various analogue methods. His work is eye-catching and uncomfortable. Working in black and white works well for this type of design as it implies a darkness behind the imagery. Making images that make the viewer uncomfortable would be a good route to take my poster designs in because it would help people to empathise with those that have the phobias. Wiesław Wałkuski Many of the designs by Wiesław Wałkuski feature faces and hands, both of which are easily recognisable and give immediate context to the design. Another common theme throughout his work is the use of minimal colours. Like the examples shown below, a lot of his work is in black and white with one or two colours used to draw attention to the most important parts of the poster. This could be significant in terms of my project because it is these features, along with the attention to detail, that make his work striking and powerful. Jacqueline Casey
The simplistic style that Casey adopts within her designs is something that makes her designs unique. She is still able to get the point across whilst using colour to illustrate the message she is trying to portray. Her designs are particularly interesting because even though there is not much detail, each one shows the theme in an aesthetically pleasing way. It will be interesting to see if I could potentially use this approach within my designs. Part of this project, although not the main goal, is to help people to empathise with the sufferer. One way in which I could do this would be to explore perspective, showing how the object or concept can be scary and by exaggerating the image that depicts the fear.
In terms of the fears that I will be exploring I looked at what the most common features / aspects of those things people didn't like. For spiders many people don't like the eyes, the fact that they are hairy and the way they scurry along the floor quickly. And for Darkness the fear of the unknown (you can't see what's around you so are more vulnerable) The reason I have chosen to focus on these two fears is that they are both on the top 10 list of fears that I found to be the most common from my research. They also both provide the opportunity to make someone who is looking at the poster empathise with someone who suffers from them. I am approaching this project as a way to raise awareness to these phobias and reassure the sufferers that they are more common than they might think. To help me progress with this I needed to look into existing awareness campaigns and the success of them. WWF The WWF have run numerous ad campaigns to encourage people to do their bit for climate change and educating people as to how certain animals are seen and used for our benefit. Most of their campaigns use striking imagery and bold colours as a way to shock people into taking notice of them. This works well and along with the juxtapositions is a great way to grab peoples attention. In 2015 they ran an ad campaign in order to raise money to help endangered animals. This was a different style of campaign and was called 'Endangered Emoji'. The idea behind this was that for every one of their emojis that you tweeted 10p would be donated to WWF. I think this campaign worked really well because it uses something that people do everyday (tweeting) and enables them to feel good when using these emojis. Child Health Foundation This organisation helps to save the lives of children all around the world and aims to improve health policies and practices as well as funding research into new cost-effective healthcare technologies and educating children and families. Like the WWF they use shocking imagery that makes you think about what you are doing / could change. A lot of their campaigns use black / dark backgrounds which keeps the focus on the image that conveys the message. It also makes the poster more eye-catching. Another common theme within these adverts is the one sentence phrase / slogan. This helps to reinforce the image that is being portrayed and helps to tie them all together (common feature). This is something that I think will work well within my designs. RSPCA Many of the campaigns by the RSPCA are of the shocking nature that has been a common theme in the other campaigns I have looked at. These also use a one sentence statement alongside a striking image to make the viewer empathise with the animals in question. This approach works within this setting because people are more likely to donate if the poster / advert makes them feel something. The RSPCA also has a series of posters that are less graphic, using images of young animals alongside facts about them in order to make you relate the animal to humans. An example of this is the piglet ad that I have put below. This shows you that pigs are as smart at toddlers and makes you consider how they are treated. In these images the animals appear to be looking at you, this also makes you connect to them more. MQ & Pablo London
The 'dare to swear' campaign is in aid of raising money for research into mental health. The aim of this campaign is to encourage people to do a dare (either one suggested on their website or one you have created) in order to fundraise. The posters used within this campaign are in black and white except for a yellow scribble where the swear word is supposed to be, and the logo. This draws attention to the theme of the campaign and brings attention to the organisation that created it. This campaign also uses images of celebrities that are backing the campaign. I think this is a good idea because if you see the people you look up to / inspire you backing a campaign it will make you more likely to get involved, especially because they make it instantly recognisable. Because the main aim of this poster is to convey fears as something that everyone has, I needed to do some research into the statistics behind how many people suffer with each one. I looked at three different statistic websites for this, Statistic Brain, YouGov and PushDoctor. Each of these websites gave different percentages ranging from 18% to 42%. To work out which figure I would use on my poster I calculated the mean (30.16%). By doing this I am able to give more accurate information than if I was just looking at one source. The second fear that I will be representing in this poster series is Acrophobia (the fear of heights). I decided to look at the same websites so that the information I was receiving was consistent throughout. The percentages that I received were 23%, 10% and 4%, with the average being 12.34%. This is the equivalent of just over 1 in 10 people.
The final phobia that I will be representing is the fear of animals. Although this fear was number 10 on my list of fears, this is because I measured each individual animal as a separate percentage rather than collecting them as a whole. These percentages were 13%, 21% and 30.5% (taken from the highest ranking animal on each site). Making the average 21.5%. The next step in my research was to look into artists that have done work surrounding this topic. I think this is important because it allows me to see the various approaches and styles of working that they have used and look at which style I feel is the most appropriate for my project (do I want to use photography, analogue or digital methods).
All of these artists and designers have shown common fears and phobias in a way that makes you empathise with the people who suffer form them or to make you aware of the fears that you might not have known existed. There are two main approaches taken by these artists. The first is to depict them as scary and graphic, allowing you to see the effects that these phobias have on people. The second is to show them in a less frightening and less realistic way. This approach shows that although these fears can be scary, many people have them. With regards to my project I want to raise awareness of this topic whilst still reassuring people that they are not the only ones that have these phobias.
I wanted to get an accurate sense of what the most common fears and phobias were. To do this I decided to look at websites that compiled lists based on the results of questionnaires / studies conducted. I gathered the lists from 9 different websites and worked out which phobias appeared on the most lists. The most common ones were:
I wanted to see what fears and phobias some of my friends and family have to see how they compared to the list that I had compiled, I also asked them what they think the most common fear is. Below are some of the responses: Most of the responses that I received were featured on the lists that I looked at earlier, however there were a few responses that I had not heard before. These included crawling and fish. From this condensed list I will be able to select which phobias I want to illustrate within this project.
I wanted to use the personal voice project to raise awareness of fears and phobias that are suffered by people in everyday life. My primary focus is the sufferer and conveying to them that thousands of people have the same phobias as them and they are more common than they might think, as well as showing what the fear is, helping people to empathise with them. To do this I will create a series of posters, each of which showing a different fear. For this project I will focus on some of the most common fears.
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