charity work-shock advertising

ever since i realized things were unethical, lacked equality or just seemed damn right wrong i found myself extremely interested in working for charity. wether that be the street team or most defiantly on the creative team. i know that most charities use different agencies on different subject but i would like to have input in help out these charity getting noticed for what they’re doing to make the world a better place here there and everywhere but more importantly make visible the devastating issue people are facing all around the world that people cannot see or acknowledge.

it all about shocking the viewer, creating a stir and curiosity with in the public realm with disturbing in your face imagery. this type of advertising has a love it or hate it audience, as people can either be hurt, traumatized or over exposed to things they wish not to acknowledge in their day to day lifes, or you get the people like myself who take notice, want to know more and help out as much as possible. all of this creates a huge amount of publicity, debate and sometime a ban depending on the intensity of the shocking imagery.

 

i was recently looking a Erik Vervroegen work he did for Amnesty International human right in china:

Amnesty international- Human rights

this ad was based on the olympics in china as it was happening at the time, so using the olympic sport to express the torture and truama people face in china, with a caption saying after the olympic games the fight for human rights must go on. Amnesty International to me have a amazing adverting style, so shocking and really catches your eyes wether you feel it good or bad.

Erik also did a great ad for aides:

Aides-aids ad

 

Aides-aids ad

these two ad caused a stir, for one they are a little pornography in the sense of nudity and the acts of pleasure but i feel they get to the point using insect which are poisonous to get the message across. Once again Erik has used shocking yet powerful imagery to open the eyes of the views to express the importance of using a condom. 

 

UNITED COLOUR OF BENETTON

although United Colours of Benetton are a clothing company, they still use shock advertising to help sell product even thought they are not a charity they still touch on important issue that people are subjected to globally. in some ways this is wrong using it to sell products as it does not address the product purpose but grabs the eye of the potential buyer of the produce making discuss and debate the ads with people. killing two bird with one stone. getting people to buy his product yet addressing important issues on equality, sexuality, aids etc:

this ad expresses equality in a awesome way. using hearts to deliver the message that no matter the race we are all made of the same things, we are all human. yes its a little gross and a little shocking for using heart but this is the perfect way to deliver a message.

 

United Colors of Benetton

Sorry to say this image has been taken away from me as it apparently violates the right on photobucket.com but the image has coursed a mass of debate and the world went crazy as a black woman feeding a white baby is shocking, wrong to many people and confusing when you see this it never leaves your mind, is odd and rather outrageous especially for a clothing company.

 

United Color of Benetton-Aids-David Kirby

this image of a man dying of AIDS, surrounded by his family, shows the terryfying sight of a body devasted by the HIV virus. A way to denounce the dangers of AIDS and a means of continuing the battle against this terrible disease after the death. this ad was created in 1992 baring in mind that at this time people associated with aids or HIV where labelled with that of a quarantine idea. people dare go near them. so this image at it time really shocked the world and started to question the ways they used to feel about AID and the stigma attached to it. so for that i am greatful.

 

anmesty International- it not happening here but it happening now.

this ad won a D&AD award last year and you wonder why it a great way to engage the audience in understanding what is happening around the world but also shocking then by putting in to there scenery extreme well thought of by the switzerland creatives. one of best campaigns to date, well for me this blew me away and made me want to work for charity making issue visual to people unaware or put in the faces of those who chose to ignore it. 

 

 

Do charity work is about understanding Diversity:

Diversity means more than race and gender-each individual is different and unique. I realised that diversity is treating people as equal, people are equal in their right to dignify and respect but not in their abilities. there is no doubt that Britain is become diverse, where people  of different cultures, ethnicity’s, abilities, sexual orientations and styles working together and dealing with one another on a day to day basis. Diversity asks us to have an open mind to not just accept differences but to have value and to celebrate out differences.

         Some diverse subjects:

• Culture
• Ethnicity
• Age
• Sexual orientation
• Disability
• Race
• Nationality
• Education
• Gender
• Experience
• Belief

 

As a designer I will produce work for a global market. By valuing diversity and keeping a constant open mind to all. I will be better equipped to meet challenges presented by global competition. Valuing diversity will help me have a better working relationship with colleagues, clients and even in everyday life.

recent reads

recently i have been doing a hell of a lot of reading and have found a few theorist/critics/designers that writtings have inspired my way of thinking and thought process:

Rick Poyner and Ellen Lupton and katherine McCoy, Vignelli, paula scher

but most defernately these few reads:

BOOK1 :No more rules. graphic design and postmodernism Rick Poyer

well Rick Poyner decided to bravely challenge gathering a number of example that where the centre of postmodernism and creating a amazing book on the subject. really idenitfying some key themes in this style of dessign:

Deconstruction, authorship, origins, technology etc 

it an on going read but really help you understand the different substyles in postmodernism and how these labels game about. understand your target audience to what the design should look like.this book also touches on designer as authorship and the opposition.

book2:

katherin McCoy she had written a number of inspiring essays on design and also inspired me with her students work from the 80’s Cranbrook Academy. also her essay in book:

Design Studies: theory and research in graphic design A. Bennett, S. Heller (2006) Princeton Architectual Press

 - graphics desin in a multicultural world k. McCoy

talking about industrial revolution of mass inspiring the modernist ideals of one style fits all. but also talking about tailored messages for a specific audiences. a language, cultural values, needs and preferences that exist in audience centre design, which is what the postmodernist celebrated. Acknowledging the cultural diversity and sub-cultural audiences.

Book3

i have also already wrote about this in my recent blog but also i tell any1 who want a book on great modernist aesthetics  massimo Vignelli downloadable pdf is amazing read to understand his basic structure to design:

Semantics, syntactics, pragmatics, discipline, appropriateness, Ambiguity, design is one, Visual power. intellectual elegance, timelessness, responsibility and equity. 

which i believe are important to understand and know but you do not have to always acknowledge in everything you do, but still make you more aware of the knowledge to understand why you do things a certain way. Also this read give you and intellectual understand of a mondernists way of thinking.

book4:

Paula Scher make it bigger, is an awesome read. the book is about her career but also touching on other people thoughts, styles and style wars, what it like in the business of design, steps to the top etc. but also explain what design was like in her youth and the reason she is a postmodernist enjoying the loud expressive work she has produced. a brilliant read, well on going as it so thick.

 

internet:

Émigré site is an awesome read and the archive is brilliant, the essay by Rudy Vanderlans himself and Mr. keedy etc. great writtings on postmodernism

essays on :

in and around culture: Cultures of design and the design cultures

Graphic design in the postmodern era.

interview with rick poynor.

modernism vs postmodernism

Since i was a young teen i have always been interested in magazine design.i always found youth culture magazines so inspiring. the way they pull you in all loud expressive screaming “HELLO READ ME”. visually powerful and such creative talent. i wanted to know more. i mean i love the way they are design with no structure or singular grid system. splashed with photos, drawings, body copy, loud headings and colour choice. all off the wall styles and no consistency through out. i love the way that each page or spread has a personality depending on the designer and the content but where did this style come from how did this post modernist approach appear…

so for this curiosity i decided to do my dissertation on modernism vs postmodernism  

My aim is to examine typographic styles. Questioning graphic design of certain times and trying to get a better understanding of the ideologies and what affected them. I planned to do this in a number of ways to gain a more intense knowledge of design history. So I can come to acknowledge the deeper messages of their work rather than just visual inspiration. So I really feel the need to study their reasoning in much more detail.

            The reason I have chosen this aspect of design as my subject is, I find that as a young creative growing up in an information technology culture. There is easy access to the job of well taught professionals just a click, search or illegal download away to those who have no real understanding. As a result of this we are drowned with good and bad design and large amount of typeface choices, which we have limited knowledge to what and why we use them. Recently I have felt the need to express the importance that typography and design history is a real crucial part of our development as graphic designers. I find that typography is a large discipline, as there is very little graphics design with out typography other than the likes of semiotics and it should be an intense study. So I want to gain a better understanding of typography through these two eras, which came one after the other and that inspire me intently.

            I want to question the ideologies of a Swiss modernist consisting that of a formalist, rationalist nature to that of a Postmodernist more expressive, subjective and experimental nature through a series of methods but also question how they could work in today’s extremely multicultural society. 

on doing research for my dissertation i found some key point to what really affected graphic design of these time.

i started look at Swiss modernist through the designer Jan Tschishold’s 1920 book New Typography, as it played a big part in modernist theory and became their manifesto. The Bauhaus methods of graphic design, that form follows function also shares the same ideas with designers and typographers such as Herbert Bayer, László Moholy-Nagy and El Lissitzky. Along with Massimo Vignelli- the Vignelli canon.pdf which shares his view of modernism.

in the 80’s was the arrival of the graphic macintosh computer, which changed the entire production process and became the creative tool especially for typography. this is where the digital era began.

post modernism begun with those who really was bored of the modernist ideals, clean and clear design and wanted to experienment more with typography, photography using elements across all creative media to create some mind blowing designs. the era arose mainly through university and colleges:

At Cranbrook academy, under Katherine McCoy students deconstructed the components of graphic design, their visual manifestation was chaotic typography, jumbled page and layouts that rejected conventional placement of headlines.

Also Rudy Vanderlans and co-found/wife Zuzana Licko’s Émigré typo-centric magazine was the main stage for experimental typographic design. Consisting layering, spacing, distorting, interweaving, fragmenting, decentering, bitmapping and so on. The first eight issues were concerned with boundaries, international culture, travel accounts and alienation (as the issues’ titles suggest). without a doubt Emigre the journal of experimental graphic design.

Recently I been reading Design Studies: theory and study in graphic design – graphics design in a multicultural world k. McCoy. Which has made me want to look at the eras through mass cultural communication and multicultural communication theory, as this has affected the design styles massively as far as target audiences go and has helped shaped there ideologies. As modernist designers were born of the industrial revolution of mass and responded to the economies of scale and standardization, especially in typography. Look at Herbert Bayer’s Univers typeface for example it really shares the same idea of one style fits all.

 Where as the post modernist theory really questions this idea and was inspired by how high technology in factories were able to tailor product to individuals breaking up the masses, it influenced graphic design, therefore I feel need to examine the economical changes and communication theories of there times, which will really help me understand what help shape there ideals.

since doing this proposal i find myself still not sure on who’s rules to follow and what works in this 21st century of design but came to decide that i will bare in mind both the the theories and respect them but find my own rules to follow. which will follow or break the designers ideas before me.