Tim Wise Project: Redux

After working on the Tim Wise project, in which we were asked to create images to supplement Wise's text heavy blog, I had a chance to re-work my image a bit with the help of Lace. After the images I'll run through what was changed and why.

The original version

The redone version

As you can see there are some font changes, object movement, and a more detailed "Welfare Queen" with a backdrop. I changed the fonts to differentiate the main text more from the font I used for "TV Star." It makes the message visually different from the two examples I use to illustrate the double standards.

Then there's the "Welfare Queen." It was pointed out to me that this part of the design was lacking when compared to the "TV Star" and it's not hard to see why. In the original the teen mom and her infant are given a context -- the TV -- and have simple bodies while the "Welfare Queen" and her child are disembodied and on an abstract background. To remedy this I added bodies to the faces. That was the easy part. The hard part was figuring out what to put behind the mother and child. From my research I knew that the stereotype of the "Welfare Queen" was invented in Chicago. With that in mind I searched for urban skylines to use as an outline for the silhouette I eventually made. Most skyline photos are cluttered and have too much overlap to make a good silhouette. I wanted to work Chicago in but the only iconic part of their skyline is the Sears Tower, which is much taller than the buildings around it and makes for an unbalanced silhouette unless the photo is from a very particular angle. I was lucky enough to find a photo of Chicago that fit my criteria, but it is still hard to make out the shape of the Sears tower, as it is mostly obscured by the mother's head. Once I had found the photo, all that needed to be done was trace the buildings and choose a color that fit the scheme already established in the design.

What do y'all think? Better? Worse? Both better and worse?

Project #4

I allowed myself to have absolute fun with this fourth project. Instead of creating posters about preventing violent situations I have almost no first-hand experience with, I decided to go with something that resonated a little closer to home: road rage.

I am a commuter student. Four days a week I drive half an hour out to PLU, and usually longer to get back home (due to traffic). That is an hour+ i spend in my car and on the road, each and every school day.

It took me a while to come up with an image to base my campaign off of. Obviously, I couldn't rely on just the green dot. But I knew that I definitely wanted to keep it incorporated. After clicking through pages of google images, I decided to visualize myself in my car, driving to and fro school.

What do I do when I get mad at other drivers? Well I usually begin by muttering comments aloud, instead of using the car horn like any other normal driver would. And if i'm feeling especially sassy, I give them a thumbs up. I find people are either happy to see this, or they are even more angered by the thumb than they are the finger.

And so my campaign was born.

I found a thumbs up graphic online and used it as inspiration, created my logo in illustrator, and then compiled each graphic onto two promotional posters made in indesign.

Available merchandise (only graphically speaking) includes an antenna ball, a key chain, a window decal, right and left thumb horn stickers, and lastly, a bumper sticker. I tried to keep a relative flow throughout the campaign and I made it a point to not overpower any of the items with too much text or extra decor.

I can fully admit, this has been my favorite project so far. Perhaps it was because I felt like I was the most in control of the media and the direction it went than with any of the previous projects. I would absolutely recommend using this project again. Maybe not just with green dot but any other PLU campus based campaign.

Storycorps: Populist Digital Storytellers

Storycorps is an organization that interviews everyday folk from across America and turns their conversations, anecdotes, and lives into digital stories. Not all of the stories are animated -- many remain as just audio files -- but they are all fascinating. Everyone has a story to tell and Storycorps is honoring that.

Oral traditions were said to have died or been dying by critic and philosopher Walter Benjamin nearly a century ago in his essay The Storyteller: Reflections on the Works of Nikolai Leskov. Benjamin wrote extensively about the positive and negative effects of technology on various arts and is worth reading to this day, but I digress. While to him it may have looked like oral storytelling was dying in the 20th century due to newspapers, radio, and television, it seems today as if technology is taking us full circle with storytelling growing again with the help of the internet and new audio technologies that make recording and editing much easier and cheaper.

Back to Storycorps: here's an animated short wherein a WWII vet recalls the Battle of the Bulge.

Obey x Shepard Fairey x Obama?

Shepard Fairey is more than just that guy who created that iconic image for Obama ^ that most definitely aided The President in his election victory. Fairey first came to prominence through the Skateboard scene designing decks and clothing. He then moved from there to his notable Andre the Giant image that read "OBEY". The images asked society to question their surroundings and how their lives were being governed. Fairey had struck street art gold and the image spread throughout the world, causing each different society and culture to react. The image was printed on clothing, stickers, skate decks, you name it the image was there, looming over society, enacting change.
Fairey's next mega success came with the iconic "HOPE" image for President Barack Obama's candidacy. The New Yorker proclaimed that it was the most iconic american image since "Uncle Sam Wants You". Fairey, through his art, changed the American political landscape; an act that most social change artists would die for. Obama had this to say with regards to Fairey: "I would like to thank you for using your talent in support of my campaign. The political messages involved in your work have encouraged Americans to believe they can change the status-quo. Your images have a profound effect on people, whether seen in a gallery or on a stop sign. I am privileged to be a part of your artwork and proud to have your support." – Barack Obama, February 22, 2008.

Social change through art at its finest! Have a fantastic day!
-Nev

Happiness x Understanding = Takashi Murakami

(Insert Japanese "Hello" here)
It's gorgeous today; lets focus on an artist that makes me happy, that changes society through happiness, understanding, and mad business skills. Takashi Murakami has been one of my favorite artists for sometime now. I love his colors and flamboyancy of his work. When I look at them I can't help but be happy! They are so beautiful and are filled with childlike wonderment. He is one of the Art Worlds richest living artists, partly due to his amazing talent but also due to his skills as a business man. Murakami has created and entire consumer culture behind his art. He has made toys, movies, home accessories, watches ect. He has worked with major fashion designers, most notably Louis Vuitton. However, his fine art has deeper meaning, more than just their beautiful appearances may convey. I recently purchased a book of Murakami's show at the palace of Versailles in France; it's simply incredible, and if any of you wish to borrow it let me know! Anywho, the piece titled "Flower Matango" (Flower Monster) depicts a modern day version of an ancient monster that would sprout flowers because of an over-ingestion of mushrooms. In the modern Japanese context, the mushrooms are the two bombs dropped on Japan that ended WWII. Their culture ingested those mushrooms and it was horrific, but now they sprout a new culture, one filled with color and happiness! I almost tear up at the beauty if this piece and what it means to Japanese culture. Social change through awareness, understanding and happiness; this is the way I believe it should be done.

Tim Wise x Project 3

Time to take a voyage back in time to Project x 3! The Tim Wise lecture was grounding. I walked in expecting it to be overtly intense, unenjoyable, and unbearably heavy. I was pleasantly surprised in the reality; it was still intese, yes, very, but it was enjoyable, informative, and even funny! One thing Mr. Wise said that really caught my ear was that a white man holding a High School degree was equivalent in todays workplace to a person of color holding a college degree. I chose to center my third project on this fact.
Unfortunately I didn't get the opportunity to share this project with you all in class. History tells me I tend to be a space case, some might even say worthy of NASA, but still, I apologize for not having it in on time. That being said, I am extremely pleased with the way the work turned out. The poster depicts a white hand (top) and a person of color's hand (bottom) both reaching for diplomas. The white man reaches for a high school diploma, the person of color for a college diploma. Everything in the image looks equal, it isn't until you look further and dive down into the meaning that you notice something is wrong. It isn't equal at all, in fact, it's extremely messed up. How can our society stand for this? The diplomas themselves create a large "=" sign; the subtle X in the background adds both a nice graphical element, and the affirmation that everything is NOT equal.
I really enjoy this work and how it unravels itself, I hope you do too.
Thanks!
-Nev

Writing Life Stories

Thank you, Becky!

Becky loaned me her book, "Writing Life Stories" to help me with my narrative story for youth violence. I am half-way through the second chapter where they have the reader do exercises. The first exercise was to draw your childhood neighborhood. I grew up out in the country and didn't have any neighborhood friends or hangouts, but I drew the ranch. Then you were suppose to write a story that happened in the places you drew. This is the story prompted by my map. I am looking for feedback, so what do you think?

One day, when I was about 13 on the ranch I grew up on, the adults were gone and the mice were going to play. Although I always thought the mice that weren’t my real brothers...the ones that came with my mother’s current husband, were really just playing with my brother. They obviously had no regard for his well being. I don’t know if I can say they were playing with his life. Could he have died from this stunt? I do know he could have been seriously hurt, scarred for life. What am I saying? He probably does have scars from this day. The game they were playing involved a car. An old nondescript grey/beige car with a rounded hood and fenders. Mitch was probably around 13 and his younger brother, Chuckie, was probably 11, same as my brother, Robert. So, too young to be driving, but you don’t need a driver’s license on the ranch, especially when the adults are away. Mitch was driving and Chuckie was riding shotgun. My brother Robert...he was on top of the car, spread eagle, holding on to the car roof through the open driver’s and passenger’s windows. And at 11, he was barely able to reach across. I became aware of the game looking out from an upstairs window.

What kind of male adolescence taunting had they used to get my brother up there?

Mitch was probably driving with his foot to the metal all the way up that mile-long, dusty, gravel road that leads to our house. As the road gets to the house it takes a slight curve to the left and continues up to the barnyard. It was at this curve that they lost him. Robert flew off and hit the gravel. He is very lucky that he didn’t hit something else... like farm equipment parked between the shop and the road. Robert came into the house. I am sure the sight of him made me weak in the stomach. His face and hands were covered with blood, blood and gravel. Dozens of tiny pieces of gravel were imbedded in his face and hands. He was asking me to clean him up before Mom got home. All he was worried about was getting in trouble. So I did. I picked every one of those pieces of road out of his face and hands and cleaned his wounds. I don’t recall Mom ever finding out what happened. I’m sure Robert came up with some excuse for his wounded face...and the excuse was good enough for her.

I’m also sure my two step-brothers thought this was very funny. It wasn’t lost on me, even at 13, that it was Robert on top of that roof instead of either of them. I hope it wasn’t lost on him.