We presented our final pieces of work yesterday, for a module titled 'The Big Idea'. We were given a random word and asked to explore the word or concept visually, offering an interesting interpretation, a reactionary statement, or whatever.
There was a really interesting range of work, a real testament to the diversity of interests and working methods of students on the course. I want to post a few other people's projects up over the weekend, but I'm having issues with my camera, which means that I'm not able to do justice to their work right now.
My own work has suffered too, but I'm really proud of the actual work so I want to share it here regardless of my inability to take good indoor shots with the Nikon Coolpix S6.
My word was 'Authority'.
We had to write a short rationale to accompany our work, so here's mine:
"Within this project I have aimed to explore the relationship between the visual and verbal languages of authority, and their development over the last 150 years. The question of the origins of authority were also important to my outcome: How is the right to dictate authoratively earned? How is credibility given to the signs I have studied?
"Showing modern signage in a historical context, words that seem familiar are made to appear more austere and commanding. But there is a humour in the juxtaposition of the subject and its display. Thus, the work encourages viewers to question their attitudes to the authority that imposes itself into their every day lives: Is it to be welcomed, for bringing a sense of safety and order to our environments, or is there a more sinister aspect that should be challenged?"
Here are the posters a little larger (again, apologies for image quality. Workman and tools, etc.)
You might recognise the layout style of the middle poster from a blog post a week or two ago about an Ink Posters playbill. Their mix of humour and typography was a definite influence for me when working out how I would convey my idea.
I did a fair bit of typographic and stylistic research to work from, to make the posters appear as authentic to the late 19th century as possible. I also did quite a bit of work on the crest in the 'dog control' one, which was really interesting. Studying engraving, letterpress (although I didn't get to actually do any) and language really made this project stand out for me and I'm really proud of my outcomes, even though they're not much like any of my other work to date.
