Brief:

Create two images which convey ‘Politician‘. The first image should convey the word directly. The second image must have one addition to change the feeling or the meaning of the first image. Export into a GIF.

Process:

When I think of a politician the first image I see is a man in a suit behind a podium. It is quickly accompanied by the impression of greed, deception and power. Image is considered everything and so is public perception. This makes many political environments very controlled and staged. I wanted to create something which would pull back the curtain and reveal what people really want to know. We always watch these press conferences and wonder what is not being said, or very much wish they would just say what we are all thinking or know to be true.

My first image is of a political scene as they are often portrayed. My second image has defaced the first with a message we would rather was being shared or admitted.

I was going to create a generic man to represent the ‘politician’, but my classmates suggested a well known figure would make the piece more personable and therefore more impactful, as it relates to this brief. Therefore I chose an image of Boris Johnson at one of the latest COVID news conferences. At first I had thought to deface this image through imposing a monkey over his face, or some other image to suggest foolishness often associated with politicians. However I found this to be too gimmicky and not quite message I was wanting the image to create.

Instead I went for the crude sort of style we often see in text books and on posters. I like how it so effortlessly defaces the controlled and sophisticated front trying to be conveyed by the politicians and brings an element of chaos to the scene. I chose to desaturate the image to further the contrast between their staged presentation and our desire for all the information, however shocking.

To create this loop I first created each image in Illustrator and exported them to Photoshop. In Photoshop I was able to make each layer a 0.5 second clip to play on repeat. From here I could export it as a GIF.

Reflections:

I like how it is as if the message breaking through the mask here is that the podium is saying what Boris isn’t. The simplicity of the design puts the point across clean and clear and I am pleased with how well this has fulfilled the brief. I also learnt how to make a GIF on Photoshop, a function I didn’t know about before.

Within the theme of pain I wanted to demonstrate the difference between mental and physical pain. To do this I illustrated a scene of two friends sat drinking. One is wearing a sling on his arm to represent physical pain. For the other man I drew a brain that is beaten up/ bandaged and bloody, my intentions with this was to create a metaphor for mental illness as it cannot be seen in the same way as physical illness but can often be just as painful. To represent the invisibility of mental pain I used animation so that the brain appears on and off to show how we can always see physical pain like broken bones but cannot always see mental pain.

Creating impactful images with Sara was probably one of my favourite activities so far. Creating work with deeper meaning has always been something I felt passionate about, and the activity allowed me to practice my illustration skills.  As part of the brief, I was asked to create two images based on the theme of religion. Based on my own knowledge, I was aware of the current issues in China regarding the Uighurs, an ethnic minority found mostly in east Asia. the idea was based on a photograph I saw of Uighur protests, I have used it as a reference for my idea. I decided to produce my ideas using Procreate and Illustrator, as these are two illustrating software I’m most familiar with.
The first image presents a girl in a hijab (wearing blue, a symbolic colour for Uighur people)  holding two flags: on the left, the flag of China and on the right, the flag of  East Turkestan. I chose to use a young girl for this image for two specific reasons: to portray the innocence of Uighur people and to make a statement on the sexist standards that are still part of the Chinese culture

I think that some of this was communicated through my image, although I could have made the flags more clear and visible so that It is obvious what my work is about. Personally, I have struggled with creating the flags. Due to their weird form and the physics involved, I had no idea how to go about making the flags look realistic but still readable.

In the second image, I was aiming to make the flag seem like its strangling the girl, who’s hanging down from it, showing China’s oppression on the Uighurs. I have also removed the Uighur flag from the image, to create more of downward motion. To add to this, I chose to add a darker filter, to further emphasise the disturbing and menacing theme of the image.

I was given the stimuli of Politician, from this my immediate thoughts went to the politcal unrest happening in America right now. Here I have created two contrasting images, the first shows Trump as he would like the world to view him; proud, patriotic and powerful. The second image however displays the truth, here you see the things people are having to fight for due to his lack of leadership. To create these images I used an app on my iPad and combined a proganda image with different protest signs I’ve seen over the past few months.

My addition to the first image is a troll which demonstrates the obstacles that disadvantaged students face. The troll does not contrast the initial image very effectively, which makes the meaning less clear.

 

 

 

My word to focus on was Money. My design made up one piece in total, but had two very contrasting sides to it. One where those with lots of money are happy and busy being greedy. I drew inside the laundrette Donald Trump, Jeff Bezos, cleaning their money, a play on the term money laundering. Also it has a beauty parlour on the very left, containing only beautiful, slim women, that promise ‘beauty’.

On the other side we start to see HSBC bank in the middle, a bank known for some very corrupt deals, including money laundering in Mexico, taking money from drug lords who were destroying the community and many families lives. (As seen the programme ‘Dirty Money’, I also make a reference to the Volkswagen on the far right with their factories polluting the air and sky above, followed by hundreds of black crows, a symbol of death or tragedy).

The centre of my piece shows a single mother and her children, standing outside a bank ready to take out a loan. Banks often pay out loans, that people will never be able to pay back, and are set back for years by interest that they can’t afford, all of which keeps rolling the ball of capitalism. Putting people like the mum and her children, in a very vulnerable spot. In the UK there is approximately 1.8 million single parents, and 90% of them are mums. And there isn’t much help or support for those struggling to keep the balance, of work, childcare and money.

On the very right is a homeless man, the whole street starts to slowly decade as you look down it, representing the poverty chain. Money is now how we measure success, and is what runs our high street, our banks, laundrettes, and everything basically.